Bill vs discrimination of COVID patients OK’d

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THE House of Representatives on Tuesday night approved on third and final reading two coronavirus disease 2019 response measures, including a measure penalizing discrimination against frontliners and COVID-19 patients.

Voting 204-0 with one abstention, lawmakers approved House Bill (HB) No. 6817 which is principally authored by Quezon City Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte.

The bill seeks to stop discrimination against persons who are declared confirmed, suspect, probable, and recovered, healthcare workers and service providers.

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It seeks to grant “full, inviolable protection against prejudice and discrimination to those who have already suffered and recovered from COVID-19, those who carry the brunt providing medical care, logistical and service support.”

It also seeks to recognize the dignity and heroism of the work of health workers, responders and service workers.

Those who will be found guilty of harassment or assault will face imprisonment of one year to 10 years or a fine of P200,000 up to P1 million while all the other offenses will be punishable with imprisonment six months up to five years or a fine of P50,000 to P500,000.

The House, voting 202-6 with one abstention, also approved House Bill No. 6816 or the proposed Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) law.

The bill seeks to grant banks and other financial institutions tax exemptions and reduced registration and transfer fees on certain transactions involving the offloading of non-performing assets (NPAs) to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

NPAs are the banks’ and financial institutions’ non-performing loans (NPLs) and real and other properties acquired (ROPAs) in settlement of loans and receivables.

The measure encourages financial institutions to sell NPAs to asset management companies, created as Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Corporations (FISTC) which specializes in the resolution of distressed assets.

Congressmen also approved on second reading Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano’s bill which provides for a P1.5-trillion social amelioration program to address unemployment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic or the proposed COVID-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (CURES) Act of 2020.

The bill is anchored on the principle that government spending on infrastructure is a vehicle towards economic recovery from the pandemic as it directly increases employment, adds to demand for goods and services through purchases of materials and equipment, and creates a multiplier effect through additional spending of hired workers.

Projects under the proposed CURES Act of 2020 shall target infrastructure building at the barangay level in areas of HEAL: Health for the construction or improvement of barangay municipal health centers; Education, for expansion of school buildings to decongest classrooms, technical vocational learning centers, establishment of digital education in the public educational system; Agriculture, for construction, repair or improvement of municipal provincial fish ports, trading centers; and Local roads and livelihood projects such as farm to market roads.

Deputy speaker Luis Villafuerte, a co-author of the bill, said local HEAL projects are needed to create jobs and other livelihood opportunities in the countryside, especially for Filipinos whose incomes were lost or reduced because of the COVID-19 crisis. Hence, he said a major government effort is needed to create a significant number of jobs in rural areas via accelerated infrastructure investments, he said, because people in the provinces would continue to flock to Metro Manila and other urban centers if major projects are put up only in these areas.

“How can we create enough jobs in the countryside if the bulk of state infrastructure investments remain concentrated in Metro Manila and other urban centers?” he said.

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