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Duterte to call for special session to pass Bayanihan 2 — Palace


President Rodrigo Duterte will call for a special session of Congress to pass the proposed stimulus package for COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, Malacañang said Thursday.

Duterte’s spokesperson Harry Roque said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told him that the Executive branch would ask the Senate and House of Representatives to convene in a special session after the details of the stimulus package have been ironed out.

“Importante naman talaga na ma-renew o ma-extend po yang Bayanihan dahil napakadami pong mga benepisyo gaya ng sa health workers na natigil nung napaso na po itong Bayanihan Act,” Roque said in a radio interview.

Roque later told reporters that the special session may take place before July 27 when Duterte delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address.

“Antay antayin lang po natin,” the Palace official said in a televised briefing.

House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, for his part, said the chamber is committed to approve the second part of the Bayanihan law to further help the government address the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a statement, Romualdez said the House is still waiting for an official communication from the Palace regarding the special session.

"The House leadership under Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano is committed to approve the Bayanihan to Recover as One bill or the Bayanihan II to help President Rodrigo Duterte kickstart our economy and strengthen the government’s fight against the spread of COVID-19," he said.

Roque earlier said the government could only afford a stimulus package worth P140 billion, which is similar to the Senate’s proposal. He also said the government wanted new funding for testing subsidies and hiring of 50,000 contact tracers.

Congress adjourned session last month without passing the bill seeking to extend the validity of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which gave Duterte special powers for three months to effectively tackle the COVID-19 crisis.

The law expired on June 25.

Last week, Duterte told the Association of Southeast Nations that he would ask Congress to pass measures to boost the Philippines’ response to the pandemic.

Duterte called for the institutionalization of national preparedness and response mechanisms for pandemics and other hazards such as the creation of a medical reserve corps and stockpile of strategic and critical materials.

He also said the Philippines must amend the decades-old Labor Code, strengthen its social protection system and update its economic regulations in view of the advances in the digital economy. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ/KBK, GMA News

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