A TOTAL of P6.182 trillion of this year’s national budget has been released in the first seven months of the year as the government tries to pick up the pace in spending and improve budget execution.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disbursed 91 percent of this year’s P6.793-trillion budget as of end-July, according to its Status of Fiscal Year 2026 Budget report.
The release rate was slower than the 93.8 percent recorded in the same period last year, although the amount released was higher than the P5.936 trillion made available through July 2025.
Under the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the DBM allocated P3.356 trillion, or 91.4 percent, of the P3.671-trillion allotment for line departments, including agencies in the Executive branch, Congress, the Judiciary and other constitutional offices.
About P497.668 billion, or 69.2 percent, of the P719.074-billion program was also distributed as special purpose funds (SPFs), which are budgetary allocations for specific socioeconomic purposes.
These include the Contingent Fund, Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, Pension and Gratuity Fund, as well as budgetary support to state-run corporations and allocation to local government units.
Meanwhile, a total of P2.158 trillion, or 89.9 percent, of the P2.402 trillion allotted for automatic appropriations had been released as of end-July.
The DBM has fully released the P1.190 trillion in National Tax Allotment, P93.982 billion in block grants, P480,000 in pensions for former presidents or their widows, P42.229 billion for the Special Account in the General Fund and P14.5 billion for the Tax Expenditures Fund.
An additional P186.554 million was also issued in July to augment the P82.194 billion originally allotted for retirement and life insurance premiums of government employees, bringing total releases for the item to P83.108 billion.
Another P21.525 billion was released for net lending, while P712.5 billion was made available for interest payments.
Beyond the 2026 GAA, the DBM released P49.898 billion to line departments and SPFs under continuing appropriations from the 2025 budget.
Some P2.063 billion was also released in July for unprogrammed appropriations-particularly P23.787 million for the Department of Health, P654.760 million for the Department of Public Works and Highways and P1.384 billion for the Department of Transportation.
The additional allotments brought total releases to P87.716 billion. Unprogrammed appropriations are standby appropriations that authorize additional agency expenditures for priority programs and projects when revenue collections exceed the resource targets or when additional grants or foreign funds become available.
Meanwhile, P32.515 billion was disbursed for other automatic appropriations, which include grants, special accounts in the general fund, the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s Modernization Program and the tax expenditures fund.
For 2027, the government has proposed a P7.2-trillion national budget, 6 percent higher than this year’s allocation and equivalent to 21.7 percent of gross domestic product.
The DBM separately submitted the 2027 National Expenditure Program to the House of Representatives and the Senate last week, beginning congressional review and deliberations on the proposed budget.