A measure meant to permanently fund one of the government's most-used cash assistance programs stalled in the closing hours of the June special session — held up, according to a Senate committee chairman, by House members balking at a provision that would bar politicians from personally distributing the aid.
The bill to institutionalize the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program is among the Marcos administration's priority measures, and its failure to be ratified before adjournment is a pointed illustration of how an anti-corruption safeguard — the so-called "anti-epal" rule against officials taking credit for public funds — can become the very thing that sinks a popular welfare bill. The dispute pits the Senate, which pushed the provision, against House members who wanted more time to study it.
The special session "may have seen a number of bills passed on second and third reading," but the AICS measure "was stuck in a 'deadlock' over congressmen's opposition to an 'anti-epal' provision," Sen. Erwin Tulfo said, according to The Philippine STAR. The session was supposed to adjourn early Wednesday night, but the Senate waited for the House to confirm its agreement to ratify the bicameral report. The Senate waited "to no avail," prompting Tulfo — who chairs the Senate committee on social justice, welfare and rural development — to take the floor and air his disappointment.
"They refuse to sign and want — they are requesting to thoroughly study certain provisions of the proposed bill, particularly Section 17, which states that politicians are prohibited from distributing financial assistance, especially from the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). They said they want to study that part," Tulfo said, as quoted by The Philippine STAR. He apologized to his Senate colleagues, who had waited during session for a House contingent that never delivered its assent.
Tulfo framed the bill as a structural fix that would widen and stabilize the aid. "The goal of this law is to provide aid to all Filipinos, not just the poorest of the poor. Even employed individuals facing a crisis can receive assistance here. That is why we are pushing to institutionalize this, so that funding is continuous and implementation is more efficient," he said. Had the bicam report been approved and ratified during the special session, the bill would have been forwarded for the President's signature.
The House's explanation
House leaders rejected the characterization that they were protecting their ability to use aid for political gain. Davao Oriental Rep. Cheeno Miguel Almario, chairman of the House committee on social services, said the delay was due to "a technical effort to ensure precise, enforceable wording" and not a rejection of the anti-epal provision.
The committee "did not block the inclusion of the anti-epal provisions in the AICS institutionalization bill nor do the House members intend to use the program as a political tool," Almario said. "AICS and all other forms of government aid should never be used for the personal promotion, endorsement, or political advantage of any public official. Our mandate is to ensure a fair, transparent, accountable, and non-partisan distribution of aid to those who need it most."
Almario added that the safeguards in question reinforce rules already in force, citing Section 19 of the 2026 General Appropriations Act, which he said "explicitly bars elected officials, candidates, and political parties from participating in or influencing the release of financial assistance." He said he expected the bicameral conference committee to "settle the final language transparently and swiftly," calling AICS a "vital safety net for vulnerable Filipinos."
Context and what is at stake
AICS is a long-running DSWD program that provides medical, burial, transportation, educational and other emergency cash aid, and it has become one of the most politically sensitive line items in the budget precisely because of how visibly politicians attach their names to its releases. The "epal" label — Filipino slang for officials who claim credit for government-funded projects and dole-outs — captures the practice the disputed Section 17 is designed to curb. The two chambers' accounts cannot both be fully complete: Tulfo says the House refused to sign over the anti-epal clause, while Almario says the issue is wording, not substance. The unresolved bicameral report means the institutionalization of AICS — and the binding force of its anti-epal safeguard — now waits for the regular session, leaving the program to run, for now, under the same appropriations-law rules whose adequacy is itself part of the dispute.
Sources
- Marc Jayson Cayabyab and Delon Porcalla, "'AICS bill stuck over anti-epal provision'," Philstar.com, June 19, 2026 — https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/06/19/2536235/aics-bill-stuck-over-anti-epal-provision