Bicam adopts 40 provisions in House version of Bayanihan 2

He said the House had actually come up with a “superior” version of the Bayanihan 2 bill, stressing that the minutes of the deliberations would show that members of the House contingent were fair and objective during the discussions on some of the contentious provisions of Bayanihan 2. (File Photo: House of Representatives/Facebook)

MANILA – A party-list lawmaker on Sunday said around 40 major provisions from the House-approved version of the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act were adopted by the bicameral conference committee during last week’s three-day marathon deliberations.

Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Michael Defensor made the statement after the supposed insinuations made by some senators that the House contingent had advanced their personal interests and it was only the Senate that pushed for certain provisions out of “pure advocacy”.

He said the House had actually come up with a “superior” version of the Bayanihan 2 bill, stressing that the minutes of the deliberations would show that members of the House contingent were fair and objective during the discussions on some of the contentious provisions of Bayanihan 2.

“My suggestion is to authorize the secretariat to release the minutes of the sessions of the bicam talks so the public would know who had presented the majority of the major provisions in the final Bayanihan 2 bill and who among the bicam members had actually been lobbying actively for which interest groups during the entire discussions to come up with the consolidated version,” Defensor said.

Deputy Speaker Dan Fernandez, meanwhile, slammed the “showboating” of some senators who scoffed at the bicam-approved Bayanihan 2 bill, despite it being ratified by the Senate last Thursday.

“If our high and mighty senators feel that the consolidated Bayanihan 2 bill was not up to their standards, then why did they approve it during the bicam talks?” Fernandez said. “The truth is a majority of the good features of Bayanihan 2 were actually introduced by the House and were only adopted by the Senate.”

Fernandez said the senators appear “conflicted” between taking credit for passing President Rodrigo Duterte’s priority measure and pleasing the “ragtag band of anti-government critics”.

House set to ratify Bayanihan 2

Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said the House of Representatives is set to ratify on Monday the Bayanihan 2 Bill with provisions that would allow the chamber to scrutinize the strict implementation of programs related to coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response and emergency subsidy to cash-strapped individuals.

“We are set to ratify the Bayanihan 2 bill when we resume session tomorrow. But this time, we made sure that certain provisions are set in place for a strict implementation of the law,” Romualdez said. “From Day One of the implementation of law, the House of Representatives will closely monitor how government agencies disburse the budget allocated to them. Delays in disbursing funds to the needy are no longer acceptable.”

The bill, once signed by Duterte, provides an emergency subsidy of PHP5,000 to PHP8,000 to affected low income households in areas under granular lockdown and to households with recently returned Overseas Filipino Workers. The amount will be computed based on prevailing regional minimum wage rates.

This time, however, Congress mandated that the “vetting and validation of beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), and the related liquidation report thereto shall be simplified to expedite the distribution of the subsidy.”

Romualdez also noted that the law now mandates all government agencies concerned to submit to Congress a definitive and actual list of SAP beneficiaries.

“This will allow Congress to exercise its oversight function more efficiently in monitoring how these funds are disbursed to the beneficiaries. We do not want repeat of Bayanihan 1 where absence of database resulted to confusion in distribution of funds,” he added.

Among the key provisions that were introduced by the House that were eventually adopted by the bicam panel include:

–Granting the authority to reprogram and realign funds to fund purchase of personal protective equipment (PPEs), establishment of isolation facilities, field hospitals, vaccines/cure, testing, and subsidy for COVID-19 positive patients;
–Authority for local government units (LGUs) to realign local funds for Covid-19 response;
–Retroactive application as of Feb. 1 of the PHP100,000 hazard duty pay for health workers and PHP1 million to be provided to the heirs of every health worker in case of Covid-related death;
–Directing the use of unutilized portions of the Municipal Development Fund for Covid-19 response;
–Allowing the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to transfer funds to LGUs for assistance programs;
–60-day grace period for payment of loans; and
–Creation of a national online electronic application system accessible to everyone in each LGU to provide contact tracing capacity, among others.