‘Bayanihan Fund’ to be revived

Speaker Jose de Venecia asked President Arroyo yesterday to instruct Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to release the guidelines for the P300-million Bayanihan Fund.

The absence of rules to cover the collection of pledges and the implementation of projects has prevented the fund from being used by its intended beneficiaries, De Venecia said.

"What Secretary Purisima needs to do now is to come up with the ground rules to collect pledges and implement the projects," he said. "Because right now, the P300 million remains frozen."

De Venecia also announced he had invited and convinced Washington Sycip, founder of the Sycip, Gorres & Velayo (SGV) accounting firm, to manage the fund.

"He will take charge of the collection of the pledges and the projects for the fund," De Venecia said.

De Venecia is the brains and moving spirit behind the Bayanihan Fund.

He proposed last year the establishment of the fund in response to Mrs. Arroyo’s announcement that a continuing deficit in the budget had plunged the country into a "fiscal crisis."

De Venecia intended the fund as a stop-gap measure to lessen the impact of the crisis on the poor while Malacañang and Congress came up with a more permanent solution to reduce the deficit.

The fund would be channeled toward projects that would benefit the poor, such as the construction of classrooms and the provision of computers and other basic education needs.