‘Small group’ formed to draft post Covid-19 recovery plan

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang on April 6, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has created a “small group” tasked to formulate an economic recovery plan after the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in the country, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said on Wednesday.

Nograles, who concurrently serves as the spokesperson of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID), said the group is composed of Duterte’s economic managers.

He, however, refused to spill additional details about the proposed measures that will be implemented to ensure that the Philippine economy would bounce back from the impact of Covid-19 crisis.

“There’s a small select group that will discuss these things. Kasama na diyan yung economic recovery plan ng gobyerno (It includes the government’s economic recovery plan),” Nograles said in a virtual press conference aired on state-run PTV-4.

The rapid spread of Covid-19 is causing great disruption to the Philippine economy.

Nograles said the group composed of the country’s economic managers needs “more data” to complete the presentation of their proposed economic recovery plan.

“So sinabi ni Pangulo na ituloy pa nila yung ginagawa nilang studies (The President told them to continue the conduct of their studies),” he said.

Covid-19 infections in the Philippines have already jumped to 5,453, including 349 fatalities and 353 recoveries.

During his address at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three Summit on Tuesday, Duterte admitted that the Philippines is bracing for a “significant decline” in its economic output.

“We cannot know yet the full impact of this pandemic. But what is fast becoming obvious is that the world will not and cannot be the same after this crisis. This is a statement repeated by almost all of the leaders. There can never be going back to what it used to be,” Duterte said.

Duterte, nevertheless, ensured that his administration would do its best to rebuild the Philippine economy.

In a teleconference held Tuesday with the special House panel responding to Covid-19 outbreak, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III presented the proposed PHP1.45-trillion package of fiscal measures intended to jumpstart the economy from the impact of Covid-19.

Dominguez also noted that Duterte’s economic team had adopted a socioeconomic strategy anchored on four pillars, which include the emergency support for vulnerable groups; marshaling of resources to defeat Covid-19; emergency fiscal and monetary actions; and an economic recovery plan.