House OKs P2.8-T stimulus package

The House of Representatives passed twin stimulus bills worth P2.8 trillion, both aimed at jump-starting the economy and offsetting job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, in the last two days of session before Congress went on recess.

On Thursday night, the 302-member chamber approved the P1.3 trillion Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (Arise) Bill, that was meant to protect jobs and bail out job-creating businesses.

House Bill No. 6815 was approved on third and final reading by a 216-7 vote.

On Friday morning, the House passed the proposed COVID-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (Cures) Act of 2020 under House Bill No. 6920.

The chamber approved the P1.5-trillion stimulus program on third and final reading by a 210-7 vote.

Congress will resume sessions on July 27, coinciding with the President’s fifth State of the Nation Address.

Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said the Arise Bill would seek to “save our people from joblessness and their families from starvation” as millions of Filipinos were expected to be out of work in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“With this measure, we hope to protect the jobs of 62 percent of our country’s workforce who are employed in [micro, small and medium-sized enterprises],” he said.

Arise allocates a budget of P650 billion for an expanded infrastructure program on health care, education and food security. A P20-billion fund was also allotted for mass testing.

Cures on the other hand, is a three-year stimulus program aimed at putting the stalled economy back on its “high-growth path” by complementing government initiatives to decongest Metro Manila and creating more infrastructure jobs in the provinces.

“This measure aims to blunt the impact of what the International Monetary Fund expects to be the worst global recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s by stimulating economic activity and creating so many jobs in the countryside,” Deputy Speaker Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr. said.

“In so doing, Cures will at the same time boost President Duterte’s ‘Balik Probinsya,’ Bagong Pag-Asa program by encouraging city dwellers to return to their home provinces,” he said.