Palace: No need for P405-B Bayanihan 3 amid pandemic

Malacañang stood pat there is no need to push for the passage of the P405-billion Bayanihan 3 bill into law just yet amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made the response when asked why such proposal was not mentioned during the President’s sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Titingnan po natin kung kakailanganin pa natin ng supplemental budget kasi mayroon pa po tayong 2021 budget at buwan pa lang po ng Hulyo so mayroon pa pong natitira talaga sa budget na iyan. Now kung magkukulang, imbes na humingi po ng supplemental budget, pupuwedeng ipasok na po iyan sa 2022 budget na tatalakayin ng Kongreso,” Roque said.

(We’ll see if we will need a supplemental budget because we still have the 2021 budget and it is just July. If the budget won’t be enough, instead of asking for supplemental budget, we can include that in 2022 budget.)

“Pero kung talagang kakailanganin eh madali naman pong humingi ng supplemental budget; kung kulang ang oras pupuwede ring humingi po ng special session. Pero sa ngayon po, tinitingnan natin kung mayroon talagang pangangailangan,” Roque added.

(If we really need additional fund, it will be easy to ask for supplemental budget. If the timeline is tight, we will ask Congress to hold a special session. But for now, we are still looking if there is really such a need.)

The proposed P405 billion Bayanihan 3 seeks to jumpstart the economy and tide over low income families grounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With Bayanihan 3 still in limbo, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released this week also showed 48% of Filipino families saying they feel poor.

Roque, however, maintained that the government has done enough to aid the poor amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Siyempre po nalulungkot tayo diyan [sa resulta ng SWS survey] pero iyan po ay dahil na rin po sa nagaganap na pandemya. Gaya po nang sinabi ng Presidente, bagama’t mahirap po ang buhay dahil nawawalan ng trabaho ang ating mga kababayan, eh sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon naman po sa ating kasaysayan ay nagbigay po tayo ng 660 billion-worth of social amelioration ‘no,” Roque said.

(We are sad over the SWS poll results but that is because of the pandemic. And the President has said that while there were job losses, we granted P660 billion worth of social amelioration.)—LDF, GMA News