House approves P1.5 trillion package on job creation, economic stimulus
Published Jun 5, 2020 12:00 am
By Ben Rosario
The House of Representatives approved on final reading today the COVID 19 Unemployment Reduction and Economic Stimulus (CURES) bill authorizing government to appropriate P1.5 trillion to finance the program that will be implemented within a period of three fiscal years.
House of the Representatives (ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN / FILE PHOTO)
With 210 House members voting in the affirmative and seven in the negative, the legislative chamber passed House Bill 6920 on third and final reading before closing the curtains for the first session of the 18th Congress.
To be known as the CURES Act of 2020, HB 6920 contains the Lower House’s prescription aimed at addressing the massive unemployment problem caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
Principal authors are Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano; Deputy Speakers Paolo Duterte (HNP, Davao City) and Loren Legarda (NPC, Antique); Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Lakas-CMD, Leyte); and Reps. Eric Go Yap (ACT CIS Partylist): Laarni Cayetano (NP, Taguig-Pateros) and Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan Partyilist)
HB 6920 seeks to finance various infrastructure projects for a three year period to jump-start the economy and create jobs that will be filled up by those displaced by the pandemic.
Government will be authorized to allocate P500 billion per year within a three year period starting the year following its enactment into law as proposed by ACT CIS Partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations.
The bill proposes the implementation of infrastructure projects under the following priority areas: health, education, agriculture, local roads and livelihood.
A CURES Fund Executive Cluster Committee will be created to screen and determine the worthiness of the proposed projects. This body will be headed by the Secretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and projects.
Authors of the bill underscored the urgency of passing the measure, saying that this will help curb the detrimental effects of the COVID 19 outbreak on the Philippine economy.
They said the long period of suspension of economic and business activity resulting from the enhanced community quarantine is expected to cause the “contraction of the national economy at zero to 1.5 growth rate for 2020.”
As a result of the anticipated economic downturn, many workers will be displaced even as “a continuous stream of repatriated overseas Filipino workers’ is expected.
“Under the COVID 19 Unemployment Recuciton Economic Stimulus (CURES) ACT of 2020, the government infrastructure spending shall be primarily geared towards maximizing the creation and sustaining of jobs particularly in the Philippine rural countryside,” the authors said in the bill’s explanatory note.
The plan also includes the impelmentation of the huge infrastructure projects in conjunction with the “Balik Probinsya Program” of the government.
House of the Representatives (ALVIN KASIBAN / MANILA BULLETIN / FILE PHOTO)
With 210 House members voting in the affirmative and seven in the negative, the legislative chamber passed House Bill 6920 on third and final reading before closing the curtains for the first session of the 18th Congress.
To be known as the CURES Act of 2020, HB 6920 contains the Lower House’s prescription aimed at addressing the massive unemployment problem caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.
Principal authors are Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano; Deputy Speakers Paolo Duterte (HNP, Davao City) and Loren Legarda (NPC, Antique); Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Lakas-CMD, Leyte); and Reps. Eric Go Yap (ACT CIS Partylist): Laarni Cayetano (NP, Taguig-Pateros) and Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan Partyilist)
HB 6920 seeks to finance various infrastructure projects for a three year period to jump-start the economy and create jobs that will be filled up by those displaced by the pandemic.
Government will be authorized to allocate P500 billion per year within a three year period starting the year following its enactment into law as proposed by ACT CIS Partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations.
The bill proposes the implementation of infrastructure projects under the following priority areas: health, education, agriculture, local roads and livelihood.
A CURES Fund Executive Cluster Committee will be created to screen and determine the worthiness of the proposed projects. This body will be headed by the Secretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Flagship Programs and projects.
Authors of the bill underscored the urgency of passing the measure, saying that this will help curb the detrimental effects of the COVID 19 outbreak on the Philippine economy.
They said the long period of suspension of economic and business activity resulting from the enhanced community quarantine is expected to cause the “contraction of the national economy at zero to 1.5 growth rate for 2020.”
As a result of the anticipated economic downturn, many workers will be displaced even as “a continuous stream of repatriated overseas Filipino workers’ is expected.
“Under the COVID 19 Unemployment Recuciton Economic Stimulus (CURES) ACT of 2020, the government infrastructure spending shall be primarily geared towards maximizing the creation and sustaining of jobs particularly in the Philippine rural countryside,” the authors said in the bill’s explanatory note.
The plan also includes the impelmentation of the huge infrastructure projects in conjunction with the “Balik Probinsya Program” of the government.