Gov’t spent P389B for COVID-19 response – DBM

September 1, 2020

The Philippine government has already spent P389 billion for its response programs amid health crisis due to coronavirus pandemic, the Department of Budget and Management said on Tuesday.

In a televised press briefing, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said the P389.06 billion expenditures were as of August 28 and bulk of the amount or P211.6 billion went to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The DSWD has been implementing the Social Amelioration Program wherein over 18 million low income households and vulnerable sectors have received between P5,000 to P8,000 in two tranches when the government enforced lockdown in most parts of the country from mid-March to June this year to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Most of the COVID-19 projects went to the programs that provided assistance to low income households, displaced formal and informal workers, displaced overseas Filipino workers and affected farmers and fisherfolks," Avisado said.

For SAP, he said the DSWD has already served 17,686,842 beneficiaries for the first tranche and 13,364,915 beneficiaries for the second tranche.

The DBM has already released P48.98 billion to the Department of Health for hazard pay, special risk allowances of healthcare workers, procurement of personal protective equioment and purchase of COVID-19 testing kits, among others.

The expenses came from the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act or Bayanihan I, which Congress passed into the law when the health crisis broke out early this year.

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to sign into law anytime from now the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or the Bayanihan II, which grants him the power to disburse at least P140 billion for the government's COVID-19 responses.

"Out efforts to fund COVID-19 response programs for the remainder of the year do not stop that tis why we are thakful to Congress for passing the Bayanihan II and it is now in the Office of the President through the Office of the Executive Secretary for review and signature," the Budget chief said.

For the Bayanihan II, the allocation is broken down as follows: P21 billion for health and standby fund of P10 billion or a total of P31 billion; P18 billion for cash for work; P6 billion for social assistance; P39.47 billion for government financial institution capital infusion and P15.53 billion standby fund; P24 billion for agriculture; P9.5 billion for transportation; P4.1 billion for tourism; P7.5 billion for education; P1 billion for Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; and P9.3 billion for others. Celerina Monte/DMS