President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Matina Enclaves in Davao City on August 24, 2020. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte could sign the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or the Bayanihan 2 within the week or by next week after consulting with various government agencies, Malacañang said Monday.
“As soon as possible po. I don’t think the first two weeks of September will pass without the bill being signed. I think they’re aiming that the bill should be signed this week. Next week at the latest,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in an online briefing after he was asked when the bill will be signed.
Roque said only the consultation with government agencies concerned is making the signing take long, noting that the President was the one who asked Congress for the measure.
“Alam niyo po kaya lang natatagalan nang kaunti at hindi pa naman mahabang panahon ang nakalipas, kinukunsulta po lahat ng ahensya ng gobyerno na merong stake dito sa Bayanihan 2 bill,” Roque said.
(The reason why it’s taking a little long, though it hasn’t been that long yet, is the consultation with concerned government agencies.)
“So yun lang po ang ordinaryong proseso pero I can assure you po pag natapos na itong consultation na ito e pipirmahan naman po yan ng Presidente, hiningi naman po yan ng Presidente sa Kongreso rin,” he added.
(That’s the ordinary process but I can assure you that once the consultation ends, the President will sign it since he is the one who asked for it from Congress.)
It was last month when the both chambers of Congress ratified the bill.
Bayanihan 2 provides for a stimulus package of P140 billion in regular appropriation and P25 billion as standby funding to cushion the effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The biggest share of the budget will go to loans for sectors hit by the pandemic like micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, the tourism industry and transportation and agriculture sectors.
The measure also allocates allowances to students in both private and public elementary schools, high schools, and colleges whose families were affected by work stoppage due to lockdowns.
Further, the bill also provides for the government’s health-related responses like including the retroactive payment of the P100,000 hazard duty pay for health workers; employment of existing emergency health workers; risk allowance of public and private health workers attending to COVID-19 patients, among others.