‘Ayuda, too’

As promised, the 18th Congress have delivered the passage and approval of the Bayanihan We Recover as One, or Bayanihan-2 for short. The bicameral conference committee approved last week the final draft of this legislative measure extending the Bayanihan We Heal As One, or Bayanihan-1 that lapsed last June 25 this year.

The two chambers of Congress have agreed to extend the “special emergency powers” granted to President Rodrigo Duterte to address the continuing rise and impact to the Philippines by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The Senate unanimously ratified the consolidated version of the Bayanihan-2 last Thursday while the ratification by House of Representatives followed last Monday.

Among other “special emergency powers” under Bayanihan-2, the President is authorized anew to re-align the Congress-approved 2020 budget. Once signed into law, a total of P165 billion funding authorization will be available under Bayanihan-2, P25 billion of which is reserved as standby-fund. The Bayanihan-2 funding is less than half though of the P230-billion provided under Bayanihan-1.

Again, the Bayanihan-2 will implement another round of cash subsidy to the “poorest of the poor” allocated under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP). Now popularly called as “ayuda,” the Bayanihan-2 will again distribute SAP cash subsidy of P5,000 to P8,000 to affected low income households in areas placed under enhanced community quarantine ECQ, or hard lockdown as well as to households with recently returned overseas Filipino workers.

The Bayanihan-2 expanded the concept of “ayuda” to include other sectors that are seriously impacted by the ensuing lockdowns in containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from workers who lost their jobs and healthcare workers and other frontliners, Bayanihan-2 now included operators of medium-small-micro-enterprises (MSMEs) and tourism establishments that are on verge of collapse, teachers and students, among others deserving financial assistance from the government.

Crossing partylines, both chambers of the 18th Congress have joined ranks to provide the government enough resources and improved capability to also implement anti-COVID-19 measures to save as many Filipinos from this pandemic scourge. Unfortunately, the latest tally by the Department of Health (DOH) showed the Philippines is nearing to hit the 200,000-mark of cases with confirmed COVID-19 infection. On a sad note, the country’s death toll breached already the 3,000 level as of last Monday.

This reminded me of the dire predictions made by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda that our country may even hit as many as 500,000 cases of COVID-19 by the end of December this year. Salceda revealed the epidemiological forecast of the COVID-19 cases in Philippines could go as high as 500,000 to 1.2 million by year end during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay Webinar last July 1. This forecast was based, Salceda clarified, if the government will not spend more to ramp up its COVID testing, isolation and treatment measures while there is no vaccine yet.

Salceda cited there other pending economic stimulus bills that could help the government ramp up its ongoing anti-COVID campaign, namely: the proposed Acceleration, Recovery and Investment Stimulus of the Economy Act (ARISE), and, the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE); and, the proposed COVID-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (CURES) bill that seeks to include its funding in the allocations of P140 billion Bayanihan-2.

As the chairman of House committee on ways and means, Salceda noted they have already finished the other economic stimulus bills. Salceda enumerated the following House-approved bills that are all stuck at the Senate legislative pipelines: the proposed Financial Institutional Strategic Transfer Act (FIST); the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE); the Public Services Act; the Retail Liberalization Act; the revised Foreign Investments Act; the National Valuation Services Act; and, the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA).

As of yesterday, Malacanang is waiting for the printed enrolled bill of the Bayanihan-2 for the President’s signing it into law. Once approved into law, the Bayanihan-2, the lawmakers did not require any implementing rules and regulations (IRR) to speed up delivery of aids and other assistance needed by the people to cope with COVID-19 pandemic.

President Duterte reaffirmed yesterday only the discovery of vaccine could free us from the calibrated community quarantines ranging from hard lockdowns to less stringent quarantine guidelines for almost six months now. In anticipation of the possible development of anti-COVID vaccine, the Bayanihan-2 already set aside P10 billion out of its standby fund for its procurement.

The Bayanihan-2 will remain in effect until Dec.19 this year when the 18th Congress adjourns for its Christmas break.

But the biggest economic stimulus is the annual budget that the 18th Congress that was submitted yesterday by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) three days ahead of deadline. The DBM has until tomorrow to submit the proposed P4.506 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2021. Under the country’s Constitution, the GAB must be submitted not later than one month after the joint opening sessions of both chambers of Congress. This was last July 27 when President Duterte delivered his penultimate state of the nation address at the Batasan Pambansa.

President Duterte admitted anew the government does not have all the money for the “ayuda” taken out of realigned 2020 budget and savings and has resorted to borrowing loans to us tide over.

Our national survival is at stake. The “ayuda” also from Bayanihan-2 can give only so much relief. We echo the appeal of President Duterte for all of us to pull together the ship of State. Let us get out of “ayuda” mode and return to productive and economic growth track.