Bayanihan law may be extended

DISCHARGED Staff members of a hospital in Manila clap their hands as one of them wheels out a 70-year-old patient who has survived COVID-19. The number of infections in the country has surpassed 9,000 as experts continue to determine the characteristics of the virus. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — Congress may have to amend the law it passed on March 24 or introduce a new measure extending President Rodrigo Duterte’s special fiscal power in leading the government’s response to the new coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.

The Senate and the House of Representatives resume their regular sessions on Monday as the country grapples with the economic fallout from quarantine restrictions Mr. Duterte imposed to stop the onslaught of the new coronavirus, which has infected more than 9,000 Filipinos.

Lacson pointed out that Republic Act No. 11469, known as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, has a sunset clause that limits its effectivity to only three months after being signed into law by the President.

Cash subsidy

Among the most significant provisions of the law is the distribution of cash subsidies of up to P8,000 to 18 million low-income households and the President’s authority to realign unused funds from last year’s national budget.

“We have to discuss further if a simple amendment to extend the effectivity [of the law] or pass a new law granting the President more or limited powers,” Lacson told the Inquirer.

“This law is timebound. It’s not forever,” he said in a separate radio interview.

Lacson said prolonging the law could be inevitable as “the health issue is not being addressed appropriately” by the concerned authorities.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III reiterated on Sunday that the Senate would resume its session on Monday requiring the physical presence of the majority of the 24 senators in compliance with the 1987 Constitution.

In the House of Representatives, only about 25 lawmakers would be physically present, according to an advisory from the chamber’s secretariat. The rest of the members would participate in the discussions through videoconferencing and vote through digital apps.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon had confirmed his attendance in the 3 p.m. session after he earlier expressed reservation about the safety of the senators who were already senior citizens like him attending the Senate proceedings.

More time to fight virus

Lacson said the government would need more time to contain the spread of the coronavirus, warning that the health situation in the country might remain unchanged in the next two to three months.

He blamed the apparent stubbornness of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III in defying Mr. Duterte’s order for the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct massive rapid tests to help speed up the government’s efforts to isolate people infected with the coronavirus.

Lacson, one of the senators who signed a resolution demanding Duque’s resignation over the health chief’s supposed incompetence, also assailed the continued failure of the DOH to track down the contacts of the people who had COVID-19, the severe respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

RAPID TESTING A woman avails herself of the procedure offered by the Philippine Red Cross at its Mandaluyong headquarters. —EDWIN BACASMAS

He said the DOH’s negligence in locating the people who were on the same flight with the Chinese national who was the country’s first confirmed coronavirus case doomed the government’s response to the health crisis.

“It is incompetence that will kill us all. We still have not learned our lesson,” Lacson said.

“For me, contact tracing is an important element [because] without it, we will not have a [reliable] baseline data,” he stressed, adding: “Contact tracing is nonexistent so there is no baseline data to rely on for testing purposes. While physical distancing seems to be working—quarantine, lockdown and all—the infection rate, based on a measly number of [people] tested so far, is quite alarming.”

Rapid tests

Lacson noted the dayslong backlog in the results of the polymerase chain reaction tests, which Duque favored over rapid tests, whose results are known within minutes by using the blood sample of an individual.

“How can we flatten the curve if we are not testing enough? Without an efficient contact tracing, how can we arrest the spread of the virus?” he said.

“At the rate we are going with this slow testing pace, the Philippines may probably be the biggest contributor in surpassing the Spanish flu of 1918, which lasted 36 months and [resulted in] up to 50 million deaths worldwide,” he said.

As of Sunday, the Philippines has 9,223 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the DOH reporting 295 new infections. Four more patients died, bringing the toll to 607. But 40 more patients recovered, boosting the number of survivors to 1,214.

In a statement issued on Sunday, House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said the 302-member chamber would give priority to measures the government would need to press the fight against the coronavirus.

High on the agenda is a disaster resilience bill that streamlines the government’s response to calamities, as well as a measure that reduces the income tax paid by businesses and rationalizes fiscal incentives.

Romualdez cited the P700-billion proposed Philippine economic recovery act, aimed at mitigating “the economic impact of COVID-19 and ensure business operations and support employment retention.”

Economic stimulus

The proposed economic stimulus law, he said, would fund a nationwide job creation program, including infrastructure development.

Another bill would lay down policies and regulations for life in the country after the pandemic, he said.

“The House will deliberate various pending COVID-related bills and resolutions to help government response in curbing the pandemic’s effect [on] the economy and the general public, especially [on] the labor force,” Romualdez said.

He said the House might also consider extending the validity of the 2020 national budget to deal with the delays in the implementation of infrastructure projects and other major programs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Other House priorities include the creation of a department of water, modernization of fire protection, and a proposed solo parents law.

—WITH A REPORT FROM DJ YAP