Senate, House to pass sector-specific stimulus bills

MANILA, Philippines ? Congressional leaders and economic managers have agreed to separately pass sectoral economic stimulus bills apart from the proposed extension of the emergency financial assistance measure, dubbed “Bayanihan 2,” that is expected to be approved shortly after Congress opens session on July 27.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III yesterday said there would be no big effect on the holding of special session for the passage of Bayanihan 2 or the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act since the second regular session of Congress is opening in three weeks.

He stressed that the Senate approved the bill on second reading and was waiting for a certification from Malacañang that did not arrive, to have the measure passed on third and final reading before adjourning last June 5.

“We will approve it on third reading and then we will call for a bicam (bicameral conference committee) with the House (of Representatives) and the DOF (Department of Finance) to work on the amendments,” Sotto told the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum via video conference.

The House already approved its version of the Bayanihan 2 bill. The bicam meeting is meant to reconcile any conflicting provisions of the Senate and House versions of the measure.

He said Sen. Sonny Angara, who chairs the committee on finance, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III have agreed that Congress would pass separate economic stimulus bills apart from Bayanihan 2 to make the programs more efficient and to manage cost.

The House passed a P1.3-trillion economic stimulus package while the Senate had worked on a financial rescue package for the poor initially costing P600 million to be implemented this year.

However, the DOF stressed last month that the national coffers could only spare P140 billion this year unless fresh revenues can be generated.

The Senate version of Bayanihan 2 reflected the reduction in funding even as they stressed the need for a more comprehensive economic stimulus package.

The agreement, in effect, divided the stimulus package into several bills, including the proposed Acceleration, Recovery and Investment Stimulus of the Economy Act (ARISE); Financial Institutional Strategic Transfer Act (FIST); Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) and the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives  for Enterprises Act (CREATE).

The House leadership yesterday pushed for a bigger budget for the proposed stimulus measure formulated to jumpstart the recovery of the nation’s economy from recession caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte called on Malacañang to increase the P140-billion funding for the proposed COVID-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus Act (CURES).

Villafuerte, principal author of the CURES bill, also urged economic managers to exert more effort in raising additional funds for the measure after presidential spokesman Harry Roque announced that the executive branch could only afford P140 billion as against the P1.5 trillion proposed by the chamber.

He said the administration is capable of raising more funds for the proposed Bayanihan 2, in light of the latest report that revenue collections by the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs (BOC) started to pick up this June, with their combined take totaling P270.77 billion, which is P211.5 billion or 28 percent higher than what both agencies collected in the same month last year.

Villafuerte stressed that the economic stimulus package is necessary to jumpstart economic recovery through infrastructure spending and job creation. Edu Punay, Cecille Suerte Felipe