Vice President Leni Robredo can only wonder what she could have done if she had access to the P18.4-billion unspent funds under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2), which expired on June 30.
The unused portion of the fund, which Malacañang said amounted to P9 billion and not P18.4 billion, is set to be returned to the National Treasury.
“Noong nabasa ko, hinayang na hinayang ako. Sobrang sayang. Iniisip ko lang ilan na kaya ‘yung nasilbihan namin na bakuna kung binigay sa amin (When I read about it, I felt really regretful. I was thinking how many we could have served with the vaccine if it was given to us),” Robredo, who for the last five years worked with meager resources, said over dzXL on Sunday, July 4.
Congress, she added, appropriated the funds for the government’s COVID-19 response programs. Many of these allocations are critical to the sector that they wish to target.
“Kaya para sa akin, sobrang sayang kasi ito ‘yung time na kailangan talaga natin ng pondo, di ba? Parating sinasabi ng Pangulo na wala tayong pera pero nandiyan ‘yung pera. Andiyan ‘yung pera, hindi nagastos (That’s why for me, it’s really regretful because this is the time when we really need the funds, right? The President is always saying that we don’t have the money but the money is there. The money is there, but we didn’t spend it),” Robredo said.
READ: Senior lawmakers: Unspent P18.4 Bayanihan fund, proof of failed COVID-19 response program
Unless a Bayanihan 3 Act is passed by Congress, this money cannot be spent on COVID-19 response programs. The law states that Congress cannot disburse the money beyond June 30 even if the funds have already been obligated.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said only P9 billion were actually unspent, contrary to the earlier computation by lawmakers of P18.4 billion. This pushed Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate to suspect that the government may have rushed to spend the funds, and called for a probe into it.
Robredo said that farmers, ordinary workers, health workers, and health institutions themselves would have benefited from the Bayanihan 2 funds.
“At a time like this, napakahirap naman yata ng ganoon. Nagpasa iyong Congress para magkaroon ng pondo para sa mga ganitong gastusin tapos hindi magagamit (it’s really hard. Congress passed a law so we can have funds for these expenses but we did not use it.),” she noted.
READ: Benefits for medical frontliners to continue despite Bayanihan 2 expiration – Angara
Of the P18.4 unused allocation, P6.6 billion was earmarked for testing and hiring of health workers, P4.6 billion for digital learning resources and student subsidies, P4.6 billion for service contracts for public transport workers, P873 million for contract tracers, P1.2 billion for the affected farmers and agricultural workers, and P560 million for those who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Robredo said that if she had access to the P6.6 billion to augment the country’s testing capacity, she would have boosted the testing rate in different parts of the country.
The vice president’s Swab Cab program, the free mobile antigen testing project, has been successful in doing surveillance testing in areas with high transmission rates. However, this was only made possible in partnership with private partners.
READ: Robredo’s Swab Cab rolls out in Marikina
Robredo, who is an opposition leader, said that the government needs to “focus” on the pandemic response.
“It’s difficult if you don’t focus on it. It’s not going to work that departments are working on their own. Then, there are others who are doing business as usual. Business as usual cannot work because we’re in a pandemic,” she stressed in Filipino.