{"id":251450,"date":"2020-04-07T01:51:13","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T05:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=251450"},"modified":"2020-04-07T01:51:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T05:51:13","slug":"prrd-seeks-addl-funds-for-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/07\/prrd-seeks-addl-funds-for-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD seeks add’l funds for Covid-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte updates the nation on the government’s efforts in addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on April 6, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to look for more sources to fund the government\u2019s response against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).<\/p>\n

In a public address aired over state-run PTV-4 late Monday night, Duterte said the initial PHP100 billion fund for one month or PHP270 billion for two months is \u201cnot enough money to go around”.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Pasig River, he said the government\u2019s funds would eventually run out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling on the Secretary of Finance to generate.\u00a0Magnakaw ka, maghiram ka, wala akong pakialam, i<\/em>-produce\u00a0mo \u2018yung pera kasi \u2018pag naubos na ito\u2026 Hindi ko malaman<\/em>\u00a0(Steal, borrow, I don\u2019t care, produce money because if this runs out\u2026I don\u2019t know what will happen),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One law or Republic Act No. 11469, the government has set aside a PHP200 billion emergency subsidy for about 18 million low-income families affected by the month-long enhanced community quarantine of Luzon.<\/p>\n

These low-income households will be receiving financial assistance between PHP5,000 and PHP8,000.<\/p>\n

Duterte made this call after confirming that he received the letter of Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla requesting the government to include middle-class families in the government\u2019s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).<\/p>\n

\u201cSinulatan ako ni<\/em>\u00a0Governor Jonvic Remulla\u2026who is appealing to include the middle class in their constituency because\u00a0kailangan din nila<\/em>\u00a0(they also need it).\u00a0Ako<\/em>\u00a0(Me) I agree, I know the political-economic horizon of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he agreed with Remulla that the health crisis brought by Covid-19 affected everyone and \u201cnot just the poorest of the poor\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam ko na<\/em>\u00a0(I know) we cannot just focus or zero in\u00a0itong<\/em>\u00a0the poorest of the poor. It\u2019s actually a — it has bloomed into something\u00a0ginagamit sa politika ng mga politiko na<\/em>\u00a0(that politicians use) \u2018will go for the poorest of the poor\u2019.\u00a0Pero \u2018yan talaga ang totoo<\/em>\u00a0(But that\u2019s the truth),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he would try to look into ways to include the middle class, but admitted that it would be a difficult task.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will discuss it when I reach the point raised by Governor Remulla of Cavite which I think is valid. We\u2019ll try to remedy whatever\u00a0kung may mapulot pa tayo sa daan<\/em>\u00a0(if we can pick up some from the road),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he really wanted the social amelioration program to cover everyone, but the funds were only enough to cover low-income households.<\/p>\n

A greater challenge, he said, is that the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine has forced the economy to be on standstill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe economy is not moving, standstill, so\u00a0wala tayong kita. Ang ginagamit natin ito na \u2018yung nireserba natin na pera<\/em>\u00a0(so we have no earnings. What we\u2019re using now is the money we have reserved),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He reiterated the importance of providing immediate assistance to the vulnerable citizens or they would have nothing to eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng unahin natin ang tao, ang tiyan. Kasi \u2018pag wala ng kinakain<\/em>\u00a0(Let\u2019s prioritize people and their stomachs. Because if they have nothing to eat), a human being can be violent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he sought for cooperation and patience, vowing to manage the distribution of food and other assistance so that everyone gets their equal share.<\/p>\n

His appeal comes after around 21 persons demanding food and other assistance were arrested in Quezon City for holding a protest rally sans government permit on April 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to look for more sources to fund the government\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":251451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251452,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251450\/revisions\/251452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}