Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said the Duterte government should take swift and decisive actions in the remaining months of the year to revive the economy, which has fallen into a recession in the second quarter of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drilon said the pandemic-induced recession “is a grim reality” that should serve as an eye-opener for the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and state economic managers.

“Nobody expected it to be this severe. This is the result of the ‘shotgun’ approach in handling COVID-19. This shows the grim reality: gutom ang tao – walang trabaho, walang pera at ubos na ang ipon (the people are hungry—with no jobs, no money and no more savings),” Drilon said in a statement on Thursday.

The minority leader noted that the 16.5 percent drop in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is worse than what the government expected it to be, recalling how Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno merely projected around 5.7 to 6.7 percent decline in the second quarter.

The senator said this means that the Philippines is now in recession following two consecutive declines in GDP. The GDP declined further to 16.5 percent in the second quarter from 0.7 percent in the first quarter.

“We need to do a second round of social amelioration program (SAP). We should expand it but we must retain those families who received the first tranche because they are the ones who are badly hit by the pandemic,” Drilon said.

He said it makes no sense that those included in the first tranche of the SAP were delisted in the second tranche.

“Their lives did not become better after receiving the first tranche. They are the ones who continue to experience hunger every day. The government should provide for them until the pandemic is over,” the senator added.

He also said the government should consider increasing the stimulus fund under the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or Bayanihan 2. The House of Representatives passed the measure on second reading yesterday containing a P162 billion-stimulus fund.

“The key is to revive demand but that will only happen when the people feel safe to go out. People will feel confident when they see that the government is doing the right thing, effective measures are in place and the healthcare system is not collapsing,” Drilon emphasized.

He said the government should take a look at strategies on how to arrest the increasing COVID-19 cases, as the state’s inability to stop the number of positive cases from increasing is shattering people’s confidence.

“The people’s confidence is shattered and the corruption and incompetence issues against government officials playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic make things even worse,” he said.

“Thus, it all boils down to our ability to control the pandemic,” he stressed.