P12 billion for ‘ayuda’ not enough, legislators want more

ESSENTIAL DOCUMENT A designated member of each household in Barangay Batis, San Juan City, will need to present a quarantine pass to village officials when leaving home to buy food and other essential items during the two-week lockdown that starts on Friday. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — The government has secured about P12 billion in funds to be given as “ayuda” (cash aid) to those who will suffer the most from the two-week lockdown of Metro Manila and nearby provinces starting Friday.

Lawmakers, however, said such amount was too small and urged the government to look for more money.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Wednesday that dividends remitted in advance by state-run corporations would fund the cash aid to affected households.

He said there was no need for any budget realignment at this point, unlike last year when funds for government agencies were used to finance the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Bayanihan 1 law.

However, Makabayan lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the government’s allocation for cash aid, arguing that the government should stop scrimping as the amount was too small for 10.7 million residents who needed financial assistance.

They also proposed a P3,000 monthly inflation adjustment allowance for all government employees to tide them over and inspire them to continue as public servants.

House Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate called the government’s ayuda allocation a “mere pittance compared to the cost of basic needs of Filipino families in the National Capital Region for two weeks.”

He cited data from iPrice, an online data aggregator, showing that as of April, Metro Manila had the second-highest rent next to Singapore. Zarate said the monthly cost of living, including rent, for a person in the metropolis was P50,800 and P28,800 without rent.

“This is just for one person. Even if you split it into two weeks, a person in Manila needs P14,000 a week. Yet you will only give him P1,000 for his living expenses?” Zarate said.

He noted that the P1,000 allocation per person was not even equivalent to two days of daily minimum wage in Metro Manila and definitely below the P1,058 daily family living wage for a family of five.

“Even if the government gives P4,000 per family, it is far from enough because based on the iPrice data, a family of four would need P57,600 to live comfortably for two weeks,” Zarate said.

House Assistant Deputy Minority Leader and Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas agreed, saying the government should release its full report on its savings in 2020 rather than scrimp on cash aid.

“We believe the government can fund a bigger aid program for ECQ (enhanced community quarantine)-hit residents,” she said.

Unused funds

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also said on Wednesday that the Department of Finance (DOF) should look at the unspent and unused funds that could be “sitting idly” in the state-owned Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) to fund the much-needed social amelioration program (SAP) for residents affected by the latest round of lockdown restrictions.

“I urge the [DOF] to include the PITC in its ‘cash sweep’ and immediately direct PITC to return any unused and unexpended funds in its possession so that it can be used to augment the budget for ayuda,” Drilon said.

Drilon issued the statement in reaction to a Commission of Audit report flagging PITC for its failure to return unused funds amounting to P11.02 billion to the Treasury.

Former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, on the other hand, suggested the realignment of some infrastructure budget into dole-outs.

“Given the financial straits for ayuda needed during the upcoming two-week lockdown, some amounts should be repurposed from the budget for less urgent infrastructure projects. P4,000 is adequate for one week only. Household spending can also be an economic stimulus,” Pernia said.

Unreliable list

For the cash aid plan to be transparent, Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro on Wednesday pleaded with the national government to allow local chief executives to amend their list of beneficiaries of cash aid for the coming ECQ as many Filipinos have already been pushed into poverty.

In a radio interview, Teodoro said local governments could no longer rely on the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) previous list of qualified beneficiaries, which was used during the distribution of SAP in 2020.

“Some of the people on [that] list may have already died or moved to other towns and cities. That is one of the effects of poverty on an individual and on families,” Teodoro said.

The DSWD’s list of SAP beneficiaries used 2019 data on families and individuals considered as “poorest of the poor.”

Distribution of the cash aid, however, was slow in the past year and saw thousands of Filipinos queuing for hours just to get the much-needed help from the national government.

Teodoro said it would be ideal if the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) directly downloaded the funds to local government units (LGU) instead of doubling the processing time by going first through the DSWD.

“What’s important here is the coordination of LGUs and barangays. That way, the process will be smoother, faster and more transparent,” Teodoro said.

He said all mayors in Metro Manila agreed to distribute cash instead of grocery items to allow their constituents to buy their most basic needs.

Cash for workers

Meantime, the Department of Labor and Employment said it would use P776 million of its emergency employment funds to assist some 115,000 formal sector workers in Metro Manila who would be displaced by the lockdown.

The labor department would also allocate P676 million from the fund to assist another 135,000 formal sector workers displaced by the enhanced community quarantine in Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas and Northern Mindanao regions.

The cash assistance would amount to P5,000 per worker.

Formal sector workers in Metro Manila and the four other regions who will be forced out of work or suffer further reduction in work hours or workdays due to the lockdown are eligible beneficiaries of the assistance.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III gave the order on Wednesday to tap the remaining P4 billion of the department’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program while waiting for approval of a request for an additional budget.

On Tuesday, Bello asked the DBM for P2 billion in supplemental funds for its COVID-19 Adjustment Measures Program for displaced formal sector workers.

Tupad is a cash-for-work program for those displaced by natural calamities such as typhoons, and the emergency employment lasts from 10 to 30 days.

—WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON AND MEG ADONIS INQ