President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has ordered government agencies to utilize their funds promptly and efficiently to reach the intended beneficiaries.

In a sectoral meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 15, Marcos told government agencies, particularly the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to maximize the use of their funds and improve their utilization rate.

According to Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, Marcos asked them to present their "catch up plans"  to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of social services to serve the most vulnerable Filipinos.

On the part of the DOLE, Laguesma said they are currently catching up with their utilization rate for the second quarter of the year.

He said DOLE was among those agencies that posted a low utilization rate in the first quarter which was due to the ongoing profiling of the intended beneficiaries of the department's big ticket programs such as the Tulong Pangkabuhayan Para po sa mga Disadvantaged at Displaced workers (TUPAD).

"At naipaliwanag namin bukod doon sa pagpapakita ng aming catch-up plans na kinakailangan namin na magkaroon ng masusing profiling ng mga intended na beneficiaries upang matiyak na iyong mga pondo na nakalaan sa programa ay mapupunta at maipagkakaloob doon po sa ating mga kababayan na eligible under the program and then kailangan din na matiyak namin na ang mga tamang documentation na laging hinahanap po ng COA (We were able to explain that aside from presenting the catch up plans, we need to have an intensive profiling of the intended beneficiaries to ensure that the fund allocated for the program will go to eligible Filipinos and make sure that we have the right documents required by the Commission on Audit)," Laguesma said in Palace briefing.

The DSWD is also in the same situation. Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian noted that they have "minimal delay" on the disbursment of assistance through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) due to the revalidation of Listahanan III.

Gatchalian explained that there are more or less 700,000 families initially tagged as no longer poor before the Covid-19 lockdown but went back to being poor after the lockdown. He added these families reached out to the DSWD and requested for reassessment.

There were also 700,000 families that were not assessed due to pandemic restrictions.

"So ongoing iyong reassessment ngayon at matatapos iyan ng September para talagang masigurado natin na masala natin nang mabuti iyong dapat kasama sa 4Ps program (The reassessment is ongoing and it will be completed by September in order to ensure that only those eligible will be included in the 4Ps Program)," Gatchalian said during a Palace briefing.

Both secretaries said they are confident that they can catch up and be able to implement their programs properly based on the semestral payouts.

"Ang takeaway ko sa meeting namin ng Pangulo: bagamat bibilisan ang paggamit ng pondo kailangan din balansehin namin na makarating dun sa tama niyang intensyon (My takeaway from the meeting with the President was while we need to immediately use the funds, we also need to balance it by ensuring that it will go to the intended beneficiaries)," Gatchalian said.

During the sectoral meeting, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman reported on addressing underspending in the national budget and measures to improve the budget utilization of national government agencies.  

She presented an update on the status of national government underspending for the first semester from 2015-2023, noting that spending momentum started to improve in 2017 and that there has been a significant decline in underspending in 2022.