House Economic Affairs panel chair and AAMBIS-OWA partylist Rep. Sharon Garin expressed hope Sunday that the Senate will be “receptive” to the House of Representatives’ P162-billion Bayanihan 2 bill as the 301-man House is expected to pass the measure on third and final reading this week.
The House leader said both houses of Congress will definitely make appropriate and necessary adjustments as far as the proposed "Bayanihan: We Recover as One" bill is concerned, given that the House version proposed a P162-billion COVID-19 response fund, which is bigger than the Senate’s proposed P140-billion.
"I think magaadjust naman yan both sides (I think both sides will make adjustments), kasi nung pinasa ng Senado ‘yan (when Senate passed it) halos pareho kami (we have the same version),” she told DZBB in an interview.
She explained that since Senate passed its version of the Bayanihan 2 much earlier, it was not able to consider the pronouncement made by President Duterte in his State- of- the -Nation Address (SONA), and the Chief Executive’s decision to revert the National Capital Region (NCR), and neighboring areas, including Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite, and Rizal to a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) from Aug. 4 to 18, 2020, following the continued rise in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“We are now in ECQ, so inadjust natin ang budget (we adjusted the budget), naging P162 billion siya (it was increased to P162 billion). I think Senate will be receptive na din kasi halos pareho lang (because we have almost same version) pero (but) adjusted with the SONA pronouncement of the President and also because we are now in ECQ right now,” Garin said, noting that the House’s version of the Bayanihan 2 provides P12 -billion assistance to the MECQ areas.
She said the P162-billion funding proposed by the House under Bayanihan 2 is “little” compared to the estimated P2-trillion economic losses incurred by the Philippines due to coronavirus pandemic.
"Kung kailangan natin ng isang trillion para makarecover (If we need P1- trillion to recover) at bumalik tayo sa dati (and return back to normal) before COVID, we can do it in phases, 'yun ang ginagawa ng gobyerno (that is what the government is doing), by phases, may (there’s) Bayanihan 1, may (there’s) Bayanihan 2. That does not stop us from having Bayanihan 3, or 4 kung kailangan ng additional budget (if we need additional budget),” the House leader said.
She noted that the Bayanihan 2 measure, which was passed on second reading last Wednesday by the House of Representatives, "covers all the sectors critically impacted” by COVID-19 pandemic.
Garin said the measure will be approved "next week on third reading, hopefully.”
In a statement, House Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ramund “LRay” Villafuerte said the House is committed to pass the bill on third and final reading this week.
HB No. 6953 or the proposed Bayanihan 2 Act “will give continued special powers to the President to beat the pandemic, which, according to the WHO (World Health Organization), has reached a ‘dangerous’ stage of accelerated spread as governments across the world start relaxing mobility restrictions and reopening their economies,” he said.
Villafuerte, the main proponent of the measure, said once the House approves the bill, he hopes that the bicameral conference committee will be immediately convened to iron out a consolidated version of Bayanihan 2 "for submission to President Duterte, hopefully by September or earlier.”
“In reality, P162 billion is not enough. In fact, the Senate passed P140 billion … This body feels the national government can afford P162 billion — that’s why we’re passing it,” he said.
He was the lead author of Republic Act (RA) No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which first gave special powers to the Chief Executive in March to strengthen his government's COVID-19 response.
Villafuerte said the House’s Bayanihan 2 seeks P162- billion funding for the government’s COVID-19 response measures, including some P10.5 billion to enable the hiring of additional healthcare workers, and provide additional allowances and benefits to medical frontliners.
He noted that the bill also provides P10-billion subsidy for the National Health Insurance Program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to cover the COVID-19 expanding test program and to fund the confinement of infected patients.
"HB 6953 provides, too, for life insurance; compensation benefit of P100,000 to healthcare workers infected with COVID-19; and compensation of P1 million to the family of each frontliner who dies from the illness,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said the measure also provides additional funding for the purchase of protective personal equipment (PPEs) and construction of quarantine and isolation facilities.
The P162-billion Bayanihan 2 provides P10 billion for COVID-19 expanded testing and treatment of patients; P10.5 billion for the Department Health for additional personnel and benefits and fund augmentation to hospitals; P3 billion for face masks and other personal protective equipment items; P4 billion for temporary isolation and quarantine facilities; and P20 billion for cash-for-work for displaced workers; and P51 billion to help micro, small, and medium businesses.
Also part of the Bayanihan measure are the P20 billion for cash or interest subsidies for farmers; P10 billion for the transportation industry; P10 billion for the tourism sector; P3 billion for state universities and colleges; P600 million for subsidies and allowances to qualified students of public and private tertiary schools; P300 million as subsidies to affected teaching and non-teaching personnel of public and private schools; P12 billion for the Department of Social Welfare and Development, P4 billion for the Department of Education; P1.5 billion for local government units; and P820 million for the repatriation of overseas Filipino workers.