Solon: Pass ARISE bill as a package, not as separate budget items

MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker is calling on the government to pass the proposed P1.3 trillion stimulus bill in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as a package and not as separate items in the national budget.

Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, an economist who serves as one of the authors of the Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE) bill in the House, said the measure was the “elephant in the room” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) earlier this week.

“The SONA was all about ARISE but ironically, nothing about ARISE,” Quimbo said in a press briefing, as she urged the Senate and the executive department to “engage us and come to the table with a coherent COVID recovery strategy in mind.”

The lawmaker said the measure was not among the priority legislations mentioned by Duterte in his speech, despite the measure addressing the issues raised by the President such as helping the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs); providing interest-free loans and training, regulatory relief and ease of doing business; extending help for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their jobs, and providing support for agri-business and domestic tourism, among others.

Quimbo said that if the plan of the executive department is to push for ARISE interventions as separate budget items in the 2021 national budget, it “will not be an effective economic stimulus package.”

“Kung i–chop-chop ang ARISE, at maging piece-meal ang approach, parang regular budget items lang ang treatment ng proposed interventions. How do we know which of these are counted towards the incremental effort of responding to COVID?” Quimbo said.

(If we will break down ARISE and it turns into a piece-meal approach, the treatment for the proposed interventions will be just like regular budget items.)

“We also lose the opportunity to do proper monitoring of these interventions, through Congressional oversight, as a singular platform that will address the most important economic concern today, which is the unprecedented level of unemployment, and a longer-term goal which we have always swept under the rug – to build a more resilient economy,” she added.

Quimbo said that in other countries such as the United States and in the European Union, distinct economic packages are being implemented as part of the measures to revive their own economies.

“Sayang ang mga pagkakataon na balangkasin ang hakbang as a single plan, with a single goal, because this brings hope to the people,” Quimbo said.

(We are wasting an opportunity to draw up our steps as a single plan, with a single goal, because this brings hope to the people.)

Under the bill, resources are set aside “for programs and policies that support the country’s emergence from an economy adversely affected by COVID-19.”

The measure has been approved on final reading in the House of Representatives while Senate President Vicente Sotto III has said that it is among the priority measures of the upper chamber during the second regular session.

/MUF