MANILA, Philippines — The government is preparing a budget of P23 billion as financial assistance to 22.9 million beneficiaries affected by the hard lockdown imposed on Metro Manila and four neighboring provinces following a surge of coronavirus infections, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said on Monday.
Speaking at presidential spokesperson Harry Roque’s press briefing, Avisado said the number of beneficiaries corresponds to 80 percent of the low-income population of the capital region and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan and Rizal as determined by the National Economic and Development Authority and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
President Duterte was expected to approve the amount in his meeting with the Cabinet later on Monday.
Avisado said the funds would come from the unused balance of the Bayanihan 2 assistance program.
Bayanihan 2 (Republic Act No. 11494) and the preceding Bayanihan 1 (RA 11469) are legislated programs aimed at facilitating the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and providing funds and other resources to boost economic recovery.
Around P2,000
Early this year, Mr. Duterte signed RA 11519, extending to June the appropriations under Bayanihan 2, which lapsed in December last year.
The budget chief said beneficiaries were expected to get the financial aid by the middle of April.
Roque said assistance per beneficiary might be a “little below P2,000 or a maximum of P2,000.”
But Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III declined to confirm Roque’s figures. “Let’s wait for Malacañang’s announcement,” he said.
According to Roque, the beneficiaries will most probably be workers who are unable to report on the working days during the weeklong enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), from March 29 to April 4.
Food assistance
He also said local officials were considering providing food instead, since there were reports that the previous cash assistance from the government was spent on gambling and other vices.
Avisado said the financial package, as approved by Mr. Duterte, would be transferred to the local governments, which would be in charge of distribution.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, in a statement, said cash aid “should not come in tranches, but should be continuing.”
“It doesn’t mean that once we’re out of ECQ, people would not be suffering anymore,” she said.
In its statement, advocacy group Social Watch Philippines said, “This continuing pandemic is a wake-up call for the government to strengthen its technical capacity and administrative competence in providing social protection schemes.”