By Hannah L. Torregoza Even without the Bayanihan law, President Duterte can still exercise his power to realign the Executive department’s budget to augment funds for its COVID-19 response activities, Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said. Senator Franklin Drilon
(Senate of the Philippines / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) Drilon made this assurance on Friday following the expiration of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Republic Act 11469 upon the end of the first regular session of Congress. Congress also failed to pass the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which is supposed to address the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the country’s economy on Thursday night, due to Malacanang’s non-certification of the bill as an urgent measure. Drilon said the Constitution, the laws and the ruling of the Supreme Court on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) in the case of Araullo v. Aquino in 2014, have provided enough flexibility for the President to realign the budget, augment funding and act on a crisis and emergency situation with a magnitude like the COVID-19 pandemic. The minority leader stressed there are specific provisions in the Constitution and various laws to declare savings and realign funds in order for the government to respond to COVID-19. “The President is authorized to suspend the expenditure of appropriations, declare savings and realign the same under the Article 6, Section 25 of the Constitution, Section 38 and 39 of the Revised Administrative Code, and Section 66 of the 2020 General Appropriations Act,” Drilon said. “He can exercise all these powers in order to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he pointed out. Drilon also said that consistent with Article VI, Sec. 25 (5) of the Constitution and the High Court’s ruling, the President may realign savings within the Executive branch to other items of existing appropriations or items in the 2020 national budget 2020 to fund COVID-19 response activities. Under the 2020 GAA, specifically Section 66 of the General Provisions, Drilon said that the President—as well as the Senate President, the Speaker House of Representatives and the Chief Justice, among others—are authorized “to declare and use savings in their respective appropriations to augment actual deficiencies incurred for the current year in any item of their respective appropriations.” Drilon said he finds it “unfortunate” that the Congress was unable to pass the new Bayanihan law, and urged the government to continuously provide for the welfare and wellbeing of Filipinos heavily affected by the pandemic. “The non-passage of the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act should not prevent the President from continuing to implement programs, projects and activities in Bayanihan to Heal as One Act that have corresponding appropriations in the General Appropriations Act,” Drilon stressed. Still, the senator reiterated, the President can augment the funding for the cash-for-work program or the TUPAD or Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers; the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) program of the DSWD; and the Department of Health (DOH) using these provisions. Likewise, the President can further augment the funding for the operational budget of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), National Disaster Risk Reduction Fund and Calamity Fund, Livelihood Seeding Program and Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay of DTI and quick response fund (QRF) of DOH, Departments of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Trade and Industry (DTI), and Transportation (DOTr). “While the President is no longer mandated to provide emergency subsidy to around 18 million low income households in the amount of P5,000 to P8,000, as provided under Section 3(c) of RA No 11469, the President should and can still continue to provide the necessary relief,” he said.