House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said Wednesday the House leadership had secured sufficient funding for coronavirus disease vaccination and social amelioration programs under the 2021 national government budget.
In the Senate, President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto filed Senate Bill 1953 or “Bayanihan to Rebuild as One Act” or Bayanihan 3, which followed Bayanihan 1 or “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” and Bayanihan 2 or “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act.”
In the measure, Recto asked for P485 billion in funds for Bayanihan 3, wherein P55 billion will be used to purchase COVID-19 vaccines.
Romualdez, chairman of the House Committee on Rules, told a weekly media forum: “Now we are actually one with the President in achieving and providing the proper, appropriate and timely legislation to make the COVID pandemic and the portion of that obviously the national budget.”
He said the House leadership “made all the requisite adjustments,” and that “congressmen have made all the sacrifices to prioritize the vital needs of the nation, in terms of medical concerns like vaccines and social amelioration program.”
“We are one with the President and one with you and the nation to defeat this COVID pandemic and help us recover economically,” Romualdez, also President of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), added.
Despite the pandemic, Romualdez also assured that the Speaker Lord Allan Velasco had been working hard to pass vital legislations to help the country recover from the blows of COVID-19.
“The Speaker is very focused on this and he is providing the efficiencies and better performance of this Congress,” Romualdez said.
“We are very confident that with the able and steady hands of the Speaker and the unified leadership, we shall achieve these goals and reach our destination to full recovery and back to prosperity in 2021.”
Romualdez, President of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), also extended his gratitude to the House media who have been risking their safety to cover sessions and events in the chamber and inform the Filipino people despite the pandemic.
“To our very, very important partners, the media, you are the ones who bring forward the issues, sensitize us to what is the daily in terms of the needs of our countrymen, brothers and sisters, we most appreciate these efforts of yours,” Romualdez said.
“Your job is sometimes well, they say, unrewarding, but I say, I assure you that you are very, very much remembered, you are always in our hearts and minds, and I hope that the Speaker feels that more than also now that he is leading the House of Representatives,” he added.
On Monday, the House unanimously approved on third and final reading a measure extending the availability of funds under Bayanihan 2.
Velasco also said the House would set aside P50 million of its internal funds for the COVID-19 vaccination of its employees and members of the House media, including their five immediate family members.
Recto said a separate P55-billion will be for the handling of vaccines, for hiring contact tracers, for the conduct of COVID 19 tests under PhilHealth and for hazard and duty pay of health workers.
A total P70-billion will be allocated for social amelioration of the poor and the workers badly affected by the pandemic and P20-billion pesos for those devastated by the recent typhoons.
Recto said there was also P50-billion pesos for the rehabilitation of places adversely hit by calamities.
He said the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Education should also be given funds for internet allowance of teachers and students.
Bayanihan 3 also directs the Department of Trade and Industry to help small businessmen in their loans and restructuring of loans as the National Economic and Development Authority was asked to lay down a resiliency plan.
Meanwhile, Senate Finance committee chairperson. Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara hopes there is light at the end of the tunnel with the Senate approval on third reading House Bill Nos. 6656 and 8063, which seek to extend the availability of the 2020 appropriations until December 31, 2021, and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, until June 30, 2021, respectively.
“It is time to think about how we can restart, rebuild, and recover. Ultimately, that is the main goal in extending the availability of appropriations in the 2020 General Appropriations Act and in the Bayanihan 2 law. We are opening a wider window for the country to return to its original path of growth and development,” Angara said.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri cited the need for these measures since there are several projects and programs still pending that have not yet been delivered from the Bayanihan 2 measure as well as the GAA.
“As long as it is wisely spent for the right programs, this is the right way of doing it,” Zubiri said
Sen. Joel Villanueva said this required the adoption of extraordinary measures.
Extending the availability of the funds under the 2020 GAA and the Bayanihan 2, he said, would be the springboard to inclusive recovery in 2021.
