The Basic Educational Facilities Fund (BEFF) is among one of the national government’s programs that has been cut in its appropriation for fiscal year 2019. In recent years, the BEFF has been rising; it peaked to a P118.782 billion budget in 2017, before it dipped to P105.461 billion in 2018. In the proposed budget for 2019, the budget for the BEFF was further reduced to P34.742 billion.

The reason behind the reduced budget of the BEFF for 2019 is the Duterte administration’s policy of reducing and eventually eliminating underspending. The 2019 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing took into account the absorptive capacities of the agencies by allocating funds for programs, activities, and projects that are implementation ready.

Looking at the data over the recent years of the fund’s existence, there lies significant differences between appropriations, obligations, and disbursements.

For fiscal year 2015, of the P53.875 billion appropriated to the fund only P 39.296 billion have been obligated while only P6.684 billion have been disbursed, or a disbursement to appropriation ratio of 12.4%. In 2016, P82.262 billion were appropriated, of which P59.078 billion were obligated and only P16.375 billion have been disbursed or a disbursement to appropriation ratio of 19.9%. In 2017, P118.782 billion were appropriated to the fund but only P113.647 billion were obligated, and only P7.393 billion were disbursed, or a disbursement to appropriation ratio of 6.2%.

From 2015 to 2017, the disbursement rate of the BEFF was a low weighted average of 12.8%.