The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has so far released P505.17 billion to fund the government’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Based on DBM’s latest summary of Covid-19 releases as of December 29 last year, the amount already included a combined total of P3.28 billion in “Post-Bayanihan 2” allotments issued to the Department of Health (DOH) and Department of National Defense (DND)’s Office of Civil Defense (OCD) after the law expired on December 19.
This was on top of the P109.16 billion in allotment releases issued under Bayanihan 2, P6.589 billion under Post-Bayanihan 1 and P386.14 billion in Bayanihan 1.
Allotments are authorizations issued by the DBM to an agency, which allows them to incur obligation for specific amounts contained in a legislative appropriation.
Post-Bayanihan 2 releases to DOH included those charged from loan proceeds from foreign-assisted projects under the 2020 national budget:
P1.49 billion for the advance payment for Covid-19 vaccine procurement charged against the Philippines Covid-19 Emergency Response Project (ERP) under a foreign loan assistance from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
P1.27 billion for the advance payment for Covid-19 vaccine procurement charged against the Health Systems Enhancement to Address and Limit (HEAL) Covid-19 under a foreign loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank
P388.15 million for the additional first year funding requirements for the Philippines Covid-19 Emergency Response Project (ERP) under a foreign loan assistance from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Apart from this, P129.87 million was released to DND-OCD to cover the additional funding requirements for the Quick Response Fund. This came from existing items under the 2020 national budget.
To recall, President Duterte on December 29 signed the law extending the validity of budget allocation for programs, projects, and activities of government agencies, as well as fund releases for local government units (LGU) and Government Financial Institutions (GFIs) for programs, projects, and activities under Bayanihan 2 until June 30, 2021.
The extension period also covers the standby fund provided by Bayanihan 2.
The new law, however, noted the extension will not apply for fund releases to the LGUs and GFIs sourced from savings in the 2020 national budget.
It also stressed that the authority of the President to reprogram, reallocate, and realign from savings and other items in the appropriations of the Executive department in 2020 national budget already lapsed.
The Bayanihan 2 originally earmarked P140 billion in regular appropriations and a standby fund of P25 billion to cushion the effects of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, 60 percent or P306.7 billion of overall Covid-19 releases was sourced from discontinued programs, activities, and projects of the government under the 2019 and 2020 national budgets.
The rest of the funds came from special purpose fund under the 2020 national budget (P112.58 billion), collections beyond targets under the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing, as certified by the Bureau of the Treasury (P63.478 billion) and from regular agency budget under the 2019 and 2020 national budgets (P22.42 billion).