Special session to extend Bayanihan 2 pushed
MANILA, Philippines — Forty-eight civil society groups on Friday urged the country’s top three officials to call for a special session to extend Bayanihan 2, which will expire on June 30.
The groups noted that more than P18 billion in unused funds for critical response programs for health, public transport, education, agriculture, tourism, labor and social welfare will be put to waste.
Congress must pass a bill extending the appropriations under the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act (Bayanihan 2) to allow the use of the funds until Dec. 31.
“We urge President Rodrigo R. Duterte, Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III and House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco to call a special session of Congress for this purpose,” the groups wrote in their letter of appeal.
