DOF PR
The government has thus far spent around P258 billion, or 73 percent of the P352 billion it has released for its coronavirus response programs, on emergency subsidies and other forms of assistance to poor and low-income households, displaced workers and other vulnerable groups reeling from the work stoppage resulting from the global health crisis.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the P352-billion unplanned fund releases, which mostly involved reprogramming of existing appropriations in the 2019 and 2020 budgets, to respond to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, came from the tax collections of state revenue agencies; income from actual dividend collections from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs); and concessional loans and grants provided by multilateral lenders such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.
Data gathered by the Department of Finance (DOF) from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) show that as of April 23, the government has released a total of P200.42 billion for the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) and other economic relief measures for poor households and other vulnerable groups.
This amount was released by the DBM to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which implements the SAP cash subsidies to some 18 million households.
Another P6.435 billion was released to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for its assistance program for workers affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon and similar containment measures imposed by local government units (LGUs) in other parts of the country in a bid to stop the spread of COVID 19.
A total of P51 billion was released to the Social Security System (SSS) for the implementation of the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program for some 3.4 million qualified workers of 1.6 million small businesses.
The rest of the P352 billion spent by the government so far for its COVID-19 response efforts went to the Department of Health (DOH) for the procurement of testing kits, and other essential medical supplies to contain the spread of the virus; the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for the production of locally produced COVID-19 testing kits; other state agencies to finance the budget requirements for the temporary COVID-19 treatment and monitoring facilities, and the emergency repatriation of distressed overseas Filipino workers (OFWs); and the LGUs for the allocation of the Bayanihan Grants to provinces, cities and municipalities.
“So far, supisiyente po yung cash natin pero naiipit na po tayo sa budget allowance natin (So far, we have sufficient cash but we are limited in our budget allowance),” Dominguez said at the Friday televised briefing of President Duterte and select Cabinet officials belonging to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
