UNSPENT funds from the P4-billion budget allocation for the “Bayanihan to Recover as One” Act (Bayanihan 2) is being eyed by Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara as low-interest loans for the Small Business Corp. (SBCorp) in a bid to jumpstart the tourism industry from nearly two years of hibernation.
Angara, author of the Bayanihan 2 bill in Congress, asked SBCorp and the Department of Tourism (DOT) to tap unspent funding provided under Republic Act 11494 to aid affected tourism industry stakeholders restart business after nearly two years of hibernation. RA 11494 was billed as the government’s second massive pandemic response program to help small businesses, workers and medical frontliners wrestling with the economic impact of lockdown measures.
The senator recalled that significant funding was allocated by Bayanihan 2 for aiding the recovery of the tourism industry, being one of the hardest hit sectors since the Duterte administration imposed lockdowns versus the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Citing SBCorp data, Angara added that a total of P4 billion was allocated under Bayanihan 2 for the provision of low-interest loans to the tourism sector. He earlier reminded that SBCorp reported only P278-million worth of loans to the tourism sector were approved as of February 28, 2022 while another P524-million are “in the pipeline for processing.”
According to Angara, “a lot of the tourism industry players were hesitant to avail of loans.
“And this was understandable because many did not want to resume operations while quarantine classifications were constantly changing,” the solon said.
Angara asserted, however, that by now, with more people already vaccinated and the number of Covid-19 cases going down, the country already opened its doors to both foreign and domestic tourism.
The senator, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, suggested that “the barely utilized loan facility would help jumpstart the operations of the tourism players in anticipation of the influx of arrivals.”
At the same time, Angara noted that the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases had eased its rules regarding foreign tourist arrivals by allowing fully-vaccinated individuals to enter the country.
He added that in the case of unvaccinated tourists, “the country will now allow their entry as long as they can present a negative Covid test, including a laboratory-based antigen test taken within 24 hours before their departure from their country of origin.”
Recalling the Bayanihan 2 Law, which expired last June 30, 2021, P10 billion was provided to SBCorp in capital infusion for the provision of low-interest loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the tourism sector.
Moreover, the senator reminded that unlike most of the other funds under Bayanihan 2 that were no longer available for use after the law’s expiration, the unutilized amounts provided to SBCorp are still available since they now form part of the capital of the Department of Trade and Industry-supervised firm.
Angara added that out of the P10 billion fund allocated by Congress to the SBCorp under Bayanihan 2, only P8.08 billion was released by the Department of Budget and Management. Of that amount, P7.93 billion was for lending to MSMEs and the tourism sector.
Noting SBCorp had stated that the entire P3.93 billion for loans to MSMEs has already been utilized, he projects that the revival of the tourism sector after a 2-year slump will “go a long way in uplifting the lives of its workers, restoring the revenue streams of the local government units and reviving the economy as a whole.”
The Senator said he would encourage the SBCorp and the DOT to “reach out to the operators who need assistance and to streamline the process in accepting and approving loans so that they can resume normal operations at the soonest possible time.”