DAVAO City Third District Congressman Isidro Ungab slammed the defunding of foreign-assisted projects (FAPs) or Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets and urged the Appropriations Committee to ensure that FAPs are never relegated to unprogrammed funds.
Ungab, in a statement posted on his Facebook account, described these national budgets as some of the most “distorted and compromised financial plans ever passed by Congress.” He said that while the government negotiated loans and signed agreements under the authority of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and even paid commitment fees, billions in project funding mysteriously disappeared from the programmed appropriations and were dumped into the unprogrammed budget once the appropriations bill was signed into law.
What is ODA or FAP
ODAs, by nature, are foreign grants and loans provided by a government or official agencies to developing countries to promote their economic and welfare development; this is why the congressman is so concerned about how to face the Philippines’ creditors with this development.
“How do we face the World Bank, ADB, and JICA, and other foreign creditors after this? How do we ask for new support when we cannot even honor projects that we begged them for? The whole budget process turned the Philippines into a laughingstock,” he said during the plenary deliberations on the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC).
The lawmaker stressed that ODAs or FAPs carry sovereign guarantees, such as government pledges to pay, backed by the full faith and credit of the Republic of the Philippines. He also cited some of the threats that may result from this development, saying that Congress has not only risked higher deficits and wasted taxpayer money on unused loan commitments, but also threatened the nation with possible credit rating downgrades, delays in flagship infrastructure projects, and rising commitment fees.
Ungab’s call
Ungab called for change and urged the plenary to demand a full explanation from the economic team on how they will justify “this mess to the lenders.” He also asked for confirmation on whether the issue was raised during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meetings, and called for a clear commitment from the Appropriations Committee to never again relegate FAPs to unprogrammed funds.
Ungab also demanded an explanation from the Bicameral Conference Committee as to how this situation was allowed to happen. He said it was either “gross negligence or deliberate sabotage” of the country’s development agenda — emphasizing that either scenario is unacceptable. He emphasized that someone must be held accountable for the “monumental blunder,” and that the Filipino people should not have to pay the price for such “incompetence.”
“This betrayal of our national interest must be corrected, perpetrators must be held accountable, and systemic reforms must be put in place. Otherwise, we will continue to lose billions, damage our international reputation, and deprive our people of the development they desperately need,” he said.
Budget blunder
He revealed that in 2024, a total of P246 billion was requested by President Marcos for FAPs, but Congress authorized only P4 billion — meaning 98.4 percent of critical projects were “killed outright in one stroke.”
Meanwhile, in 2025, the request for ₱215.6 billion was once again gutted, with ₱150 billion left unfunded and pushed to unprogrammed.
Ungab said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Education (DepEd), and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) received nothing for their international development projects in 2024.
“These are not luxuries. These are railways to decongest our cities, flood control systems to protect communities, and agricultural programs to feed our people. What kind of Congress celebrates signed loan agreements with JICA, ADB, or the World Bank — then turns around and tells them, ‘Sorry, we moved it to unprogrammed. This is fiscal recklessness of the highest order,” he said. RGP