Gov’t won’t tap yet big infra project funds for COVID-9 response

MANILA, Philippines — The government has yet to cancel any big-ticket infrastructure projects in the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program to help augment the country’s COVID-19 response even as President Rodrigo Duterte called on his economic team to source out more funds to fight the contagion.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, spokesman Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado are still looking for other sources of funds following the President’s appeal.

“We’re not touching ‘yung sa Build, Build, Build yet. Wala pa po tayo doon,” Nograles said in a virtual press briefing.

“The reason for that is that when we jumpstart the economy, malaking bahagi po ng pag-jumpstart ng ekonomiya ang ‘Build, Build, Build.’ ‘Yun po ang makaka-rev up ng ekonomiya natin,” he added.

On Monday night, Duterte asked his economic team to look for more sources to fund the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the P275-billion budget already allotted was “not enough.”

Congress earlier passed the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act which gave Duterte special powers as the government grapples with the respiratory disease. Among the additional powers granted to him is to reallocate government funds for COVID-19 response.

In a statement Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the government managers can “free up some funds that would not be utilized for the intended purpose and realign it to the amelioration programs.”

This includes the government’s flagship infrastructure projects that will be “impossible to be fully implemented within the year” and whose budget can be realigned for programs in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Drilon said.

EDV