The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) on Thursday, March 11, appealed to the Senate to expedite the passage of the bill seeking to provide financial support to enterprises negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEDA Assistant Secretary Carlo Abad Santos urged the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies, to fast-track Senate Bill No. 1646 or the proposed Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery or GUIDE bill, which is among the 12 priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) for approval before the end of 2021.

“We hope for its swift passage before June this year. Along with other members of the economic team, we are here to express our full support for GUIDE and to request the Senate to facilitate its speedy approval,” Santos said during the virtual hearing led by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

The House of Representatives has approved its own version of the measure, House Bill No. 7749, on third and final reading last February.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno echoed NEDA’s call saying the GUIDE bill will likely boost the capacity of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) to support the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to gain more access to lending activities.

“This bill will supplement the financial assistance to MSMEs that this Congress provided through the Bayanihan laws,” Diokno stressed.

Gatchalian, the banks’ subcommittee chair, agreed with state economic managers and assured that the panel will do its best to expedite approval of the measure as senators also agree on the need to “inject some more liquidity” into the country’s MSMEs.

“So the eventual goal of this bill, the GUIDE bill, is to give government additional firepower to lend to our MSMEs and to also eventually save jobs that can be lost because of the onslaught of the pandemic,” Gatchalian said.

Senator Imelda “Imee” Marcos, for her part, asked the Senate to consider her version of the bill which seeks to ensure that banks would still be bound by the prudential loan standards, which is not found in other bills.

Marcos said that under SBN 1646, funding would be made through a trust fund instead of a direct capital infusion allowing government financial institutions (GFIs) to grant loans to MSMEs without endangering the funds of depositors.

She also pointed out that her bill also removed the need to establish a special holding company to provide equity infusion.

“These are some of the differences, but as we all know at the end of the day, it will be for the Senate, the banks, and the administration to determine exactly who the strategically important companies are that need to be rescued in the face of this crisis given scarce resources and many conflicting requirements," Marcos said.