IBON slams House’s ‘rushed’ 2022 budget deliberations

Economic think tank IBON Foundation Inc. slammed the “rushed” conclusion of the House of Representatives' 2022 budget deliberations.

In a statement, IBON said the concluded budget deliberations at the lower house did not ensure emergency cash assistance proving "that the government couldn’t care less for millions of poor Filipinos hit hard by repeated pandemic lockdowns.”

On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the proposed P5.024 trillion budget for 2022

Voting 238-6-0, the chamber met its target to end the budget deliberations on September 30, giving the final nod to House Bill 10153 before Congress goes on a month-long break.

The chamber formed a panel that will consolidate proposed amendments for the bicameral committee with the Senate. Its members are Representatives Eric Yap, Joey Salceda, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Stella Quimbo, and Edcel Lagman.

IBON said the government was “dismissive of how tens of millions of Filipinos suffer collapsed livelihoods and refuses to see how substantial ayuda and support to small enterprises can spur more rapid recovery.”

“The Duterte administration should add much-needed emergency COVID-19 cash assistance in the 2021 spending program and 2022 budget,” the group said.

The economic think tank emphasized that important pandemic emergency aid programs implemented in 2020 were discontinued in 2021 and are also not in the proposed 2022 budget.

In 2020, P233.7 billion was allotted for COVID-19 emergency assistance programs for low-income households, displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and tourism workers, informal workers and public utility vehicle drivers, student and teacher subsidies or allowances, and rice farmer subsidies.

Ayuda

IBON also noted that the allocation for regular emergency and other social assistance programs increased only slightly by P18.9 billion, from P200.9 billion in 2021 to P219.8 billion in 2022.

But the meager ayuda last year did little to mitigate the collapse in jobs and incomes caused by the lockdowns, the group said.

“The official number of unemployed and underemployed increased from 2.3 million and 5.9 million in 2019 to 4.5 million and 6.4 million in 2020, respectively, although IBON estimates the real number of jobless Filipinos at seven to eight million or more that year,” IBON said.

“The worst affected by the lockdowns were over six of 10 Filipino families who lived on less than P30,000 per month pre-pandemic, and by the end of the year, over seven of 10 families did not have any more savings to fall back on,” the group said.

The poorest 70% of families lost P13,000 to P32,500 in incomes on average from March 2020 to July 2021, while the number of households without any savings rose from 15.4 million in the first quarter of 2020 to 17.8 million in the second quarter of 2021, according to IBON.

Many were working in badly-hit informal retail trade, transport, carinderias, small business, and other sectors, the think tank said.

“Meanwhile, government ayuda quickly dwindled from the P293-billion Bayanihan 1 given in March-September 2020 to only P22.8 billion under Bayanihan 2 until year-end,” it said.

The jobs crisis and poverty persisted in 2021, yet more counterproductive lockdowns were imposed and even less ayuda was given, IBON said,

The number of officially reported unemployed and underemployed Filipinos as of August 2021 remains high at 3.9 million and 6.5 million, respectively.

“Yet even among those reportedly employed, 18.9 million or four of 10 jobs are in poor-quality informal and irregular work, not yet counting millions more in contractual or merely short-term wage work,” it said.

“Emergency assistance remains urgent with joblessness and underemployment still high and millions still not recovering from losses since last year. Yet the 2021 budget only gave P18.4 billion for COVID aid, and more lockdowns were imposed,” it added.

During the lockdowns in April and August 2021 that each lasted for more than a week, the group said the government only allocated P1,000 to P4,000 per family, which IBON said was too little considering many months of joblessness and livelihood and income losses that households have been enduring.

“Combined with the correct health and other stimulus measures, ayuda is crucial in easing the economic distress of Filipinos. The budget and social welfare departments should bat for this in the 2022 expenditure plan in Senate and bicameral deliberations,” IBON said.

The group also debunked the argument that there are not enough funds for ayuda and stimulus.

There are concrete proposals where funding for ayuda can be sourced as already pointed out by IBON, the Makabayan bloc’s SHIELD+ (strengthening health, social protection, economic and local industrial development), and Bayanihan 3, aside from a long-overdue billionaire tax, IBON said. — DVM, GMA News