{"id":251463,"date":"2020-04-07T06:34:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T10:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=251463"},"modified":"2020-04-07T06:34:27","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T10:34:27","slug":"economic-team-tapped-to-seek-more-funds-for-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/07\/economic-team-tapped-to-seek-more-funds-for-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic team tapped to seek more funds for Covid-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on July 11, 2019. TOTO LOZANO\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has tapped his economic team to find ways to augment the current PHP275-billion budget for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response, a Palace official said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier said the national government does not have sufficient funds to address Covid-19 pandemic in the country.<\/p>\n

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the current situation in the country is \u201cvery fluid,\u201d considering that the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon has been extended until April 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cUna, sinabi natin hanggang<\/em>\u00a0April (12) lang. Ngayon ine<\/em>-extend\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0to April 30 (We initially announced that the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine is just until April 12. Now, we extended it to April 30),\u201d he said in a virtual press conference aired on state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0bibigyan din po natin ng kaunting<\/em>\u00a0leeway\u00a0din ang<\/em>\u00a0executive\u00a0at si Pangulo<\/em>, depending on\u00a0ano ang mga pangangailangan<\/em>\u00a0(So we have to give the executive and the President the leeway, depending on what they need),\u201d Nograles added.<\/p>\n

In a televised public address late Monday night, Duterte bared that the government needs more funds for relief efforts, as the country continues to deal with Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he had directed Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III to look for additional funds in addition to the PHP275-billion package.<\/p>\n

Nograles said the government needs more funds to effectively fight Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u00a0\u2019yung<\/em>\u00a0economic team\u00a0ay inatasan ni Presidente na mag-hanap ng<\/em>\u00a0ways and means\u00a0talaga na maka<\/em>-build up\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0funds\u00a0para ma-<\/em>sustain\u00a0ang ating mga kinakailangang gawin ngayong<\/em>\u00a0enhanced community quarantine (The President ordered his economic team to look for ways and means to build up funds and sustain the needs during the implementation of enhanced community quarantine),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, in his address to the nation, said he had also directed officials to \u201cexplore options\u201d to realign the budget for Covid-19 response by reducing or removing the allocations for several projects.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, in a separate virtual presser, said the realignment of funds would be the job of Dominguez, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, and Transportation Secretary Tugade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will know what to align and where to put those funds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cash aid for middle class<\/strong><\/p>\n

The community quarantine was supposed to lapse on April 12.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, extended the community quarantine until April 30, based on the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n

Following the extension of community quarantine, the economic team is now studying Duterte\u2019s plan to grant cash aid to middle-income families, Nograles said.<\/p>\n

Nograles said another program might be implemented for families who are in the middle class since they are not qualified to avail of the PHP200-billion social amelioration program for 18 million poor households.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has to be another program with another fund source and another set of guidelines,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are other ways we can help the middle class, not in the social amelioration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nograles, however, noted that the low-income households remain the priority of the government.<\/p>\n

He said there might also be a new package that will be offered to poor families affected by Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng uunahin muna nati, \u2018yung mga nangangailangan<\/em>\u00a0(We will prioritize those who are in need), the poorest of the poor,\u201d Nograles said. \u201cMay<\/em>\u00a0second\u00a0pa na<\/em>\u00a0coming social amelioration (There will be a second coming social amelioration package), if need be.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte has tapped his economic team to find ways to augment the current PHP275-billion budget for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":222529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251463","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=251463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251464,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251463\/revisions\/251464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}