WITH the remaining days before their sine adjournment and still no compromise agreement between Congress and the Executive, the leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday asked the Senate and the Executive Department to “fully partner” with the lower chamber for the smooth passage of the P405.6-billion Bayanihan 3.
Speaker Lord Allan Velasco made the appeal as the House Committee on Economic Affairs and House Committee on Social Services on Monday endorsed for plenary approval the Bayanihan to Arise as One Act or Bayanihan 3.
At the joint hearing, Velasco cited the urgency of passing Bayanihan 3, which he said includes emergency lifeline measures to address the vulnerabilities of the country by providing lifesaving socioeconomic assistance to the hardest hit sectors.
“I urge our partners in the Senate and the Executive to fully partner with us on this mission. We need your help,” Velasco said.
“We will push to legislate Bayanihan 3, because the Filipinos deserve this lifeline intervention—urgently and immediately,” he added.
The 18th Congress has five remaining session days until its sine die adjournment on June 2.
“We have heard this many times over, but let me reiterate that the worst public health crisis of our generation is not just an issue about health. It is about life and the real value of living. It is about crashing economies, food insecurity, job loss, crushed dreams, and lost hope. Our people are desperate. The pandemic has battered the livelihood of our fellow Filipinos, especially the poorest of the poor who are living on a daily wage basis. It has cast a looming shadow on the economy, and it has disrupted the social spectrum of the Filipino nation,” the Speaker added.
In a news conference, House Committee on Economic Affairs Chairman Sharon Garin of AAMBIS-OWA admitted that the legislative and executives are “still in talks” on where the total funding for the third Bayanihan law will come from.
“Both sides haven’t closed the doors yet because we haven’t arrived at a number. But they haven’t rejected our proposal but they find it quite difficult to come up with the total amount. The main concentration here is the first tranche [of the Bayanihan 3],” Garin said.
However, Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo said the economic team of the President and lawmakers are in agreement that the country really needs to address hunger.
“If there is really a pressing issue that is food security. They are really looking for money. They, economic managers, are committed to find money,” she added.
Negros Occidental Rep. Francisco Benitez headed the Technical Working Group (TWG) that consolidated seven House bills and one resolution on Bayanihan 3.
The P405.6-billion bill, which the TWG endorsed, is divided into three phases. Phase 1 amounts to P167 billion; Phase 2, P196 billion; and Phase 3, P42.6 billion.
Funding for Phases 2 and 3 will remain as standby funds, depending on the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) certification of availability of funds.
According to Garin, the House will wait for the certification of the availability of fund from the BTr, “then we will put that in the bill and the rest that is not covered we will put as standby fund.”
For his part, House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman and Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, one of the principal authors, referred the Bayanihan 3 as a “lifeline package” and not a stimulus package.
“I just would like to put that in the right words, that many people are relying on this just to get by after almost 16 months of vastly reduced income, higher hunger, and unemployment. It introduced a new concept in social development, which is called universal basic income which is ‘ayuda for all,’” Salceda said.
The bill’s “Ayuda to all Filipinos” has a total P216-billion allocation. Every Filipino, regardless of status, would receive P2,000 to be given in two tranches under Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Salceda stressed that Bayanihan 3 meets the constitutional requirement that the proposal be supported by funds to be raised by revenues proposed in the same bill.
Section 34 of the bill allows provisional advances by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to the national government not exceeding 10 percent of the average income of the national government for FYs 2018 to 2020.
Also, Section 35 allows the Secretary of Finance to increase by 25 percent the minimum required dividend remittances from government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) from the current 50 percent set by Republic Act 7656; while Section 36 allows the President to authorize the withdrawal of capital from overcapitalized GOCCs, subject to conditions of continued viability.
Meanwhile, Garin is expected to sponsor the passage of the Bayanihan 3 in the plenary immediately.
“This bill has been the product of so many TWG meetings and there are so many bills that have been included in this [substitue bill]. This reflect the needs of the constituents,” said Garin.
According to Garin, the Bayanihan 3 also assured that implementation-ready programs, activities, and projects, (PAP) including programs, activities, and projects that have not yet undergone the procurement process, whether for comprehensive release (FCR) or for later release (FLR), shall not be discontinued.
Garin said these PAPs with the highest multiplier effect and that promote countryside development, including infrastructure projects, shall be prioritized in the release of appropriations.
Senators await House transmittal
Meanwhile, senators await the House transmittal of their Bayanihan 3 version, with a view to passing a measure that balances both the need to sustain the Covid-19 response to rev up the economy and help impacted sectors, while ensuring fiscal balance given the huge P405.6-billion tab that it entails.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, said senators have actually started work on pending measures in their chamber for the third Covid-19 response package, but will await the formal transmittal of the House version, this being an appropriations bill.
Asked if there had been “prior coordination” with him and House sponsors of the Bayanihan 3, Angara replied in a radio interview: “There’s a bill that was filed that’s pending in our committee, the Senate Committee on Finance. I think another bill is pending with the Committee on Economic Affairs led by Sen. Imee Marcos.”
Angara indicated what is likely to happen is the senators may opt to wait for the House to pass its version of Bayanihan 3, and “once it is passed, we can then tackle the bill at the committee level of the Senate.”
Asked if there will be coordination with Malacañang, following the process in Bayanihans 1 and 2 to have it certified as an urgent bill—to allow for approval on second and third reading in one sitting, as was done in the previous Bayanihan 1 and 2.
Angara replied, partly in Filipino: “Yes, definitely, we will coordinate. What is important here is where the money will come from. We all acknowledge there’s need to give funds to different impacted sectors.
The ayuda, maybe another round of help for small businesses—those will be priority when we have Bayanihan 3, and it is really important to discuss the sources of funding. Because, if you’re giving away a thousand pesos but you’ll be borrowing that thousand, it’s like, you’re making the people pay for the ayuda you gave, is it not?”