P1.5T budget kailangan para labanan ang COVID

COVID-19

AABOT sa P1.5 trilyon ang pondong gugugulin ng gobyerno upang maibalik ang sigla ng ekonomiya.

Sa online hearing ng Defeat COVID-19 Committee ng Kamara de Representantes, sinabi ni Finance Sec. Carlos Dominguez III na nasa P1.491 trilyon ang tinitignang pondo ng gobyerno para sa response measure nito.

“The total amount of funds we have now committed to combat the virus is now P1.491 trillion,” ani Dominguez. “This is right now close to $30 billion which is already 8 percent of our GDP (gross domestic product) last year.”

Sinabi ni House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez na bahagi ng pondong ito ang P836.4 bilyong economic stimulus package na kailangan para hindi mawalan ng trabaho ang halos 30 milyong manggagawa.

“This package is meant to rescue 29 million Filipinos, or exactly 29,630,194 workers, from threats of joblessness or reduced income due to the Enhanced Community Quarantine,” ani Romualdez. “Dapat mabigyan ng ayuda ang mga negosyante para patuloy na mapasuweldo ang kanilang mga empleyado. Kailangang siguruhin na bukas ang negosyo at patuloy ang komersyo.”

Sinabi ni Dominguez na pinag-aaralan na ng Land Bank of the Philippines ang pagbibigay ng pautang sa mga pribadong eskuwelahan na hindi pa nakasisingil ng tuition fee.

“The program is essentially for private schools. If private schools provide a ‘study now, pay later’ program and get a promissory note from the student to the private school, Land Bank can lend [finances to] the private schools against that promissory note, probably 70% to 75% of the value of the promissory note. That is a program we are looking at,” ani Dominguez.

Ipinanukala naman ni Government Service Insurance System president Rolando Macasaet sa Kongreso na bigyan ng dagdag na 30-day paid leaves ang mga empleyado ng gobyerno na magkakasakit.

“What you can do is all those employees who get sick, you just give them an additional 30 day leave credits instead of allocating more funds for them,” ani Macasaet. “For instance, a person, assuming a government employee, goes on quarantine for 15 days and gets sick for 15 days, he continues on receiving his salary for the next 30 days. This would be in addition to his regular paid sick leave credits.”