House adopts Senate version of Duterte special powers bill

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives on Tuesday adopted the Senate version of the bill granting special powers to President Rodrigo Duterte in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

The lower chamber adopted Senate Bill No. 1413 or the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” which seeks to declare national emergency and authorize Duterte “for a limited period and subject to restrictions, to exercise powers necessary and proper to carry out the declared national policy.”

With the adoption of the bill, the two chambers no longer have to convene in a bicameral conference.

“In view of the continuing rise of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the serious threat to the health, safety, security, and lives of our countrymen, the long-term adverse effects on their means of livelihood, and the severe disruption of economic activities, a state of national emergency is hereby declared over the entire country,” the bill states.

“In order to optimize the efforts of the President to carry out the tasks needed to implement the aforementioned policy, it is imperative to grant him authority subject to such limitations as hereinafter provided,” he added.

Under the bill, the President is allowed to adopt the following measures:

• Adopt and implement measures to prevent or suppress further transmission and spread of COVID-19 through effective education, detection, protection, and treatment;
• Expedite and streamline the accreditation of testing kits and facilitate prompt testing by public and designated private institutions of PUIs (persons under investigation) and PUMs (persons under monitoring), and the compulsory and immediate isolation and treatment of patients;
• Provide an emergency subsidy amounting to P5,000 to P8,000 a month for two months to low-income households;
• Ensure that all public health workers are protected by providing them with a “COVID-19 special risk allowance”, in addition to the hazard pay granted under the Magna Carta of the Public Health Workers
• Direct the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) to shoulder all medical expenses of public and private health workers in case of exposure to COVID-19 or any work-related injury or disease during the duration of the emergency;
• Provide compensation of P100,000 to public and private health workers who may have contract severe COVID-19 infection while in line of duty;
• Ensure that all Local Government Units (LGUs) are acting in line with the rules, regulations and directives issued by the National Government pursuant to this Act; are implementing standards of community quarantine consistent with what the National Government has laid down for the subject area;
• When the public interest so requires, direct the operation of any privately-owned hospitals and medical and health facilities including passenger vessels and, other establishments, to house health workers, serve as quarantine areas, quarantine centers, medical relief and aid distribution locations, or other temporary medical facilities; and public transportation to ferry health, emergency, and frontline personnel and other persons;
• Continue to enforce measures to protect the people from hoarding, profiteering, injurious speculations, manipulation of prices, product deceptions, and cartels, monopolies or other combinations in restraint of trade, or other pernicious practices affecting the supply, distribution and movement of food, clothing, hygiene and sanitation products, medicine and medical supplies, fuel, fertilizers, chemicals, building materials, implements, machinery equipment and spare parts required in agriculture, industry and other essential services, and other articles of prime necessity, whether imported or locally produced or manufactured;
• Ensure that donation, acceptance and distribution of health products intended to address the COVID-19 public health emergency are not unnecessarily delayed and that health products for donation duly certified by the regulatory agency or their accredited third party from countries with established regulation shall automatically be cleared;
• Partner with the Philippine Red Cross, as the primary humanitarian agency that is auxiliary to the government in giving aid to the people, subject to reimbursement, in the distribution of goods and services incidental in the fight against COVID-19;
• Engage temporary human resources for health (HRH) such as medical and allied medical staff to complement or supplement the current health workforce or to man the temporary medical facilities to be established;
• Ensure the availability of credit to the productive sectors of the economy especially in the countryside through measures such as, but not limited to, lowering the effective lending rates of interest and reserve requirements of lending institutions
• Liberalize the grant of incentives for the manufacture or importation of critical or needed equipment or supplies for the carrying-out of the policy declared herein, including healthcare equipment and supplies
• Ensure the availability of essential goods, in particular food and medicine, by adopting measures as may reasonably be necessary to facilitate and/or minimise disruption to the supply chain, especially for basic commodities and services to the maximum extent possible;
• Require businesses to prioritize and accept contracts, subject to fair and reasonable terms, for materials and services necessary to promote the herein declared national policy
• Regulate and limit the operation of all sectors of transportation through land, sea or air, whether private or public
• Regulate traffic on all roads, streets, and bridges, and access thereto; prohibit putting up of encroachments or obstacles; authorize the removal of encroachments and illegal constructions in public places; and perform all other related acts
• Continue to authorize alternative working arrangements for employees and workers in the Executive Branch, and whenever it becomes necessary, in other independent branches of government and constitutional bodies, and the private sector
• Conserve and regulate the distribution and use of power, fuel, energy and water, and ensure adequate supply of the same;
• Move statutory deadlines and timelines for the filing and submission of any document, the payment of taxes, fees, and other charges required by law, and the grant of any benefit, in order to ease the burden on individuals under Community Quarantine’
• Direct all banks, quasi-banks, financing companies, lending companies, and other financial institutions, public and private, including the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System and Pag- Ibig Fund, to implement a minimum of a thirty (30)-day grace period for the payment of all loans, including but not limited to salary, personal, housing, and motor vehicle loans, as well as credit card payments;
• Provide for a thirty (30) day grace period on residential rents falling due within the period from March 16 to April 15, 2020, without incurring interests, penalties, fees, and other charges
• Implement an expanded and enhanced Pantawid Pamilya Program responsive to the needs posed by the crisis

According to finance committee acting chair Sen. Pia Cayetano, the bill authorizes the President to “reprogram, reallocate, and realign” any appropriation in the 2020 General Appropriations Act (GAA) “as may be necessary and beneficial to fund measures that will respond to the COVID-19 emergency, including social amelioration for affected communities and the recovery and rehabilitation.”

The President will also have authority to “allocate cash, funds, and investments held by any government-owned or controlled corporation (GOCC) or any national government agency as necessary to address the COVID-19 crisis,” Cayetano noted.

 GSG