Proposed P335B stimulus package for pandemic recovery filed in Senate

A long queue of people and vehicles has formed as the military officers check every individual’s temperature and identification cards on a checkpoint between the boundary of North Caloocan and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan during the first day of the Metro Manila lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus in March 16, 2020. INQUIRER PHOTO/ JAM STA ROSA

MANILA, Philippines — A bill seeking a P335-billion expanded stimulus package to aid in pandemic recovery has been filed in the Senate.

Senator Manny Pacquiao filed Senate Bill No. 2123 or the proposed Expanded Stimulus Package Act of 2021, which seeks to augment the funds provided under two Bayanihan laws passed by Congress last year.

“We are facing an era of unprecedented tests. The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe. World economies are either crumbling or in a steep plunge. Although uncertainties seem to overshadow our days ahead, decisive actions have to [be] made at the soonest possible time,” the senator said in the bill’s explanatory note.

“At present, there is no single cohesive action plan in place to cushion the blow brought about by the pandemic to our people’s everyday life,” it further read.

According to Pacquiao, his proposed measure seeks to “fills up such a void in our current system as it addresses the gaps in our policies while maintaining transparency measures among our agencies.”

Under the bill, P100 billion out of the P335-billion proposed funding will be earmarked for the amelioration of “low-income individuals, households and the homeless.”

Funding under the measure also includes the following recovery interventions:

• P100 billion for worker subsidies
• P100 billion for capacity building of critically-impacted sectors
• P30 billion for assistance of displaced workers
• P3 billion for internet allowance for K-12 teachers and students
• P2 billion for internet allowance of tertiary-level teachers and students

“This measure aims to completely mend all the short-term and long-term courses of action of different governmental sectors so as to provide an institutional approach to this national turmoil,” Pacquiao said in filing the bill.

EDV