House OKs consolidated bill for struggling MSMEs

MANILA, Philippines — A committee of the House of Representatives approved yesterday a consolidated measure that included a bill expanding the government’s lending programs to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) recover from the adverse effects of the two-year pandemic.

The committee on banks and financial intermediaries of Rep. Irwin Tieng of Manila gave its imprimatur to the bill that will increase the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)’s capital stock from P35 billion to P100 billion, along with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

“As a matter of procedure, we have to submit our approved committee report to the House appropriations committee (of Rep. Zaldy Co) for funding and, of course, for ways and means for tax provision,” Tieng told members of his committee.

House Bill 1 (HB 1) is authored by Speaker Martin Romualdez, his wife Yedda Marie, her Tingog party-list colleague Jude Acidre and the couple’s nephew, Rep. Sandro Marcos of Ilocos Norte, son of President Marcos.

Tieng said the measure will also be referred to the House committee on ways and means headed by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda for funding purposes as well as tax provision requirements.

Other authors of the consolidated measure include Reps. Salceda, Paolo Duterte (Davao City) and Eric Go Yap (Benguet), among others.

HB 1, entitled An Act providing for government financial institutions unified initiatives to distressed enterprises for economic recovery (GUIDE), allocates P7.5 billion to LBP and P2.5 billion to DBP or a total of P10 billion to carry out their mandates.

“To this end, the government financial institutions are mandated to expand their credit programs in order to assist MSMEs to meet their liquidity needs. In particular, the LBP and DBP are mandated to expand their credit and rediscounting facilities to affected MSMEs in the agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and service industries,” the bill stated.

Under the measure, the term MSME “refers to any business activity or enterprise engaged in industry, agribusiness and/or services, whether single proprietorship, cooperative, partnership or corporation whose total assets, inclusive of those arising from loans but exclusive of the land on which the particular business entity’s office, plant and equipment are situated, must have value falling under the following categories: micro, not more than P3 million; small, P3 million to P15 million; and medium, P15 million to P100 million.”