AS the 18th Congress is set to resume its session on Monday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor also said he is willing to endorse the proposed economic stimulus bill.
Governor Benjamin Diokno said he is ready to endorse the proposed Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE) if the lower chamber will convert it as multi-year fiscal plan.
“I think the ARISE bill should be seen as multiyear fiscal plan to address the pandemic…if you will do it in a multiyear fiscal plan then I will endorse it,” said Diokno when asked by Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo on why the proposed ARISE is not included in the priority bills of the Central Bank.
Quimbo is one of the principal authors of the ARISE bill.
“If you put and pass it that way [multiyear plan], I think that would be very helpful. Once that is passed, the Executive Department is obliged to allocate fund [for the stimulus] and then it will reflect on the budget,” he said.
Last June 4, the House endorsed for Senate approval the proposed P1.3-trillion ARISE. But the economic managers said the spending plan under ARISE or House Bill 6815 bill was “not fundable.”
With this, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda has said both houses of Congress and the economic managers are reaching a compromise to roll out the much-needed additional stimulus package in three tranches with the last tranche to be inserted under the 2021 national budget.
Salceda said the House will adopt the Senate’s P140-billion counterpart bill to the House’s ARISE. If ever, this version will be the second stimulus package as Congress deemed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act as the first stimulus package.
This second stimulus is expected to be implemented up to September of this year.
Meanwhile, the House leadership is now considering the Executive Department’s “openness” to a third tranche of economic stimulus by July, according to Salceda. He said this recovery measure can include around P280 billion. The target implementation of this third stimulus is the fourth quarter. Salceda said they also recommended the inclusion of around P280 billion in the 2021 national budget.
Meanwhile, Diokno also asked Congress to prioritize the passage of several priority bills of the BSP.
These include amendment to RA 1405 and 6426, which laws pertaining to secrecy of bank deposits, amendment to RA 9510 or the Credit Information System Act, amendment to RA 10000 or the Agri-Agra Law, Financial Consumer Protection Bill, Financial Institution Strategic Transfer Bill and Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) bill.