Should she win in the 2022 presidential race, Vice President Leni Robredo is targeting to earmark P216 billion worth of assistance to families badly hit by the pandemic during her first 100 days in office.
Robredo, who is running as independent, plans to source the “ayuda” funds for affected families from the national budget.
“In our first 100 days, we will focus on addressing our most urgent problem—controlling the pandemic and mitigating its impact on our people’s lives,” she said during the presidentiables’ forum organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI).
The presidential candidate noted the P216-billion assistance funds will “protect families from hunger and provide them with their basic needs without being forced to go to work.”
Robredo laid down her administration’s priorities focusing on addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Among these are increasing support for the country’s healthcare workers, improving hospital capacity, and making coronavirus testing more accessible to more Filipinos.
Under her COVID-19 response plan, Robredo said they would also ensure vaccines for all and increase the capacity of Local Health Units to allow them to dispense vaccines on their own.
“We will not stop at vaccines: We will start stockpiling different COVID treatment medicines and deploy them to areas where there are shortages,” she stated.
The Vice President participated in the forum along with other presidential bets Manila Mayor Francisco 'Isko Moreno' Domagoso; and Senators Christoper 'Bong' Go, Emmanuel 'Manny' Pacquiao, and Panfilo Lacson. It was only former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who was absent.
Apart from the ayuda funds, Robredo wants to step up the implementation of the Universal Health Care law by “concentrating on enrolling every Filipino in the UHC system” within three months.
“While people are signing up, we will start partnering with local health service providers to deliver health services,” Robredo said.
“All of these can be done only if we rebuild trust in our institutions—and that’s exactly what we are going to do. We will put our house in order and restore confidence in the Philippine government,” she added.