DBM drafting ‘austerity measures’ to re-channel non-essential budget items to fund Bayanihan 3

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is drafting a measure to reduce government spending on non-essential programs in order to help fund a proposed legislation that will provide assistance or subsidies to those affected by strict COVID-19 quarantine protocols.

“We are working out in the executive department an executive order for the observance of austerity measures,” Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said during the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday.

The Budget chief said the planned austerity measures are aimed at “sweeping” funds available at the moment from national government agencies, government-owned-and-controlled corporations (GOCCs), and those that can be generated by the Department of Finance (DOF).

With the funds to be gathered from austerity measures, Avisado said, “[We’ll] come up with a more determinable amount to match the efforts of Congress because there are varying amounts in so far as the various bills filed currently considered.”

“We are trying to look out what will be the appropriate or approximate amount that the DOF can raise and those that we can also gather from the available funds of various national government agencies to help finance the Bayanihan 3,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto in December filed the Bayanihan to Rebuild As One bill, his proposed third part of the Bayanihan Law, which comes with a P485-billion appropriation for various government interventions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senator Manny Pacquiao also filed the proposed Expanded Stimulus Act of 2021, proposing for a P335-billion stimulus package to further help the Philippine economy to recover from the negative impact of the health crisis.

In the House of Representatives, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco is pushing for a P420-billion Bayanihan 3 bill to further help stimulate the country's economic recovery amid the health crisis.

The Budget chief said that most of the budget to fund a proposed third stimulus package will be taken from maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of national government agencies and GOCCs, particularly “the non-essential items or programs that may now be re-channeled to address the continuing effects of the pandemic.”

“MOOE budget for travel expenses, seminars, and representations. These are non-essentials anymore and [some] projects that are yet to be implemented,” Avisado said.

Nonetheless, he said, the government will avoid “as much as we can” to re-channel budget from infrastructure projects as these are “identified to help us recover and the economy to bounce back.”

Avisado has earlier admitted that the government cannot afford to distribute another round of assistance in the NCR Plus, which is currently under a two-week enhanced community quarantine.

“As a matter of fact, the financial assistance we are giving out now is just a one time financial assistance,” he said.

“The other dimension of this that we are looking into is what about other regions which may experience the same quarantine reclassification. We are preparing for it. By then we would be needing the assistance of Congress for an enabling law similar to Bayanihan 1 and Bayanihan 2,” he added.—AOL, GMA News