BOTH Malacañang and several senators, such as Sen. Sonny Angara, have pointed out that some P18.4 billion under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 remains unobligated or unspent.
The Bayanihan 2 law, which came on the heels of Bayanihan 1 which allocated initial funds for the government’s pandemic response, will expire on June 30, 2021 or a week from now.
Congress has to pass a new law to extend the validity of the appropriations under the measure.
While the House of Representatives and the Senate can convene a special session, it would be best if President Duterte himself asks Congress to meet in a special session just to extend the fund’s validity so that the remaining balance can be used further for COVID-19 response.
‘While funds are available and their use is about to lapse, the COVID-19 status in the country has turned southward, with four new cases of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus detected in the Philippines.’
Early on, House ways and means committee chair Joey Salceda has been raising the warning about the unspent funds of Bayanihan 2. The same goes for Senator Angara. They correctly pointed out that the contact tracing, lab tests and health response capacities of provinces would be reduced drastically if lawmakers fail to produce another law officially backing these expenditures.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, meanwhile, confirmed that based on official information from the Department of Budget and Management, the amount obligated for Bayanihan 2 is P123.2 billion or 87.01 percent. So there is a balance of P18.4 billion or 13 percent.
While funds are available and their use is about to lapse, the COVID-19 status in the country has turned southward, with four new cases of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus detected in the Philippines. This was confirmed by the Department of Health, as the government placed border controls on “heightened alert” to block further transmissions.
The DOH said four Delta variant cases were confirmed from the 45 COVID-19 samples processed by the Philippine Genome Center last week. All four are returning Filipinos; three have recovered and one remains in the hospital.
While health authorities may be cited for early or prompt action, their efforts, along with those of the local officials in towns and cities nationwide, should not be weighed down by lack of funds to download. If a new legislative measure is needed to access these funds, the national government must rush it.
