THE government is preparing a program worth P35 billion to P51 billion to support about 3.5 million employees working in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the country’s finance chief said.
Carlos Dominguez, Department of Finance secretary, said in a TV interview yesterday this covers the government’s support to the middle-class sector affected by the measures implemented to address the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
“We will announce a program to assist the employees of MSMEs by tomorrow, as well as to assist the MSMEs with a loan guarantee program. This will be aimed at what some people call the middle class,” Dominguez also told reporters via Viber yesterday.
The finance chief was asked in his interview with CNN Philippines yesterday if the middle class will be assisted in terms of direct financial assistance, however he said he “doubt(s) it at this point in time.”
“We define middle class, first of all, for those people who have regular jobs, those people who are working for the MSMEs, definitely will receive a cash support, and we believe that they will be around 3.5 million people involved there, and the total cost will be between P35 billion and P51 billion, so that part of the middle class, they will receive support,” Dominguez said in the same interview.
He added the MSMEs that are tax compliant and registered with the Social Security System will be among those that will qualify for the wage subsidy program, as “those are the companies in our system.”
“We have no way of identifying those who are not,” Dominguez said.
He said the needs of the middle class who are regularly employed have also been initially addressed under Republic Act No. 11469 or the Bayanihan Law through the grant of grace periods or extensions for them to pay their amortizations and other forms of loans.
“Those are designed primarily for the middle class because it’s the middle class that has housing loans, it’s the middle class that have credit card loans,” Dominguez said.
As for ending the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) that was imposed to stop the spread of the COVID-19, Dominguez said the government must study this “very carefully” and weigh the potential risks, such as the possibility of additional infections and fatalities that could overwhelm the local health care system.
Asked whether the government can manage an ECQ extension that will last until June, Dominguez said: “We will make sure that there will be enough funds to support those decisions. We are watching this very carefully and we are moving very conservatively.”
“We have actually planned until the end of May for financing. I’m not saying that we will extend it beyond April 30, but our plan has been really to fund our requirements to beat this COVID-19 from April and May,” he added
