There's no need for the government to release a "one-time, big-time" cash assistance or "ayuda" of P10,000 to each Filipono family should it raise enough funds for it.
Thus, said former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, who noted Thursday, March 24 that government could initially release P5,000 and then hold on the rest of the money as standby funds for the next administration.
"With P250 billion, you have two options. One option is to give out a one-time payment of P10,000 to every family. The second option is to give P5,000 to each household, and set aside the remaining P150 billion for the next administration, just in case they need it for a fresh Covid wave, or if gas prices shoot up again, if the Ukraine-Russia conflict drags on, there are funds we can use," he said in Filipino.
Cayetano, who is seeking a Senate comeback in the May 9 polls, had earlier floated imposing a mandatory five percent savings in all government agencies in order for the state to generate P250 billion.
He made this suggestion amid the crippling impact of soaring fuel prices on the ordinary Filipino consumer.
"It’s not true that we’re helpless. Finding funds is difficult, but it can be done. President Rodrigo Duterte should impose five-percent savings. With a five-percent mandatory savings rate, not only can you better help more people now, you will also enable whoever will lead the next administration," said the Taguig-Pateros 1st district congressman.
The veteran lawmaker said if President Duterte orders all government agencies to set aside five percent of their 2022 budget, the government can fund P10,000 in direct aid to at least 20 million Filipino families.
"All you need to give P10,000 to every Filipino family up to the middle class is between P180 billion and P200 billion," he stressed.
Cayetano’s five-percent savings proposal is based on efforts made in the mid-1990s by then-President Fidel V. Ramos to reduce the budget deficit. Ramos mandated government agencies to defund non-essential services and streamline their budgets, levying a 10-percent cut on agencies that did not submit the required budget reports.
The move enabled the government to reverse years of deficit spending and turn a budget surplus in spite of the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and 1998.
Cayetano said because a number of government functions have yet to return to normal, government agencies can still review their budgets and find items that they can skip and convert into savings.
"At five percent, the government can save P250 billion. Since it’s only March or just a fourth of the year, there is still a huge chunk of our P5 trillion national budget," he said.