{"id":253094,"date":"2020-04-24T03:14:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T07:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=253094"},"modified":"2020-04-24T03:14:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T07:14:17","slug":"p352-7-b-spent-for-covid-19-response-dof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/24\/p352-7-b-spent-for-covid-19-response-dof\/","title":{"rendered":"P352.7-B spent for Covid-19 response: DOF"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III holds a press conference at the Impact Challenger in Nonthaburi, Thailand on November 4, 2019. ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government has so far spent PHP352.7 billion to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far,\u00a0ang nagastos po natin<\/em>\u00a0is already, for this (Covid-19) is,\u00a0na hindi natin plinano, ay<\/em>\u00a0PHP352.7 billion\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0(So far, we have already spent PHP352.7 billion for this Covid-19. This is unplanned),\u201d Dominguez said in a taped briefing aired on state-run PTV-4 on Friday.<\/p>\n

He said the funds spent for the Covid-19 response were taken from the PHP4.1-trillion national budget for 2020, tax collections, savings, and borrowed money from multilateral agencies.<\/p>\n

Dominguez made the remarks after President Rodrigo Duterte said the government is \u201crunning low on funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government still has enough funds but the budget for Covid-19 response is now getting limited,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupisyente po \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0cash\u00a0natin pero naiipit na po tayo sa<\/em>\u00a0budget allowance\u00a0natin<\/em>. So\u00a0\u2018yan po ang problema natin ngayon<\/em>\u00a0(Our cash is sufficient but our budget allowance is dwindling. That\u2019s our problem now),\u201d Dominguez said.<\/p>\n

About PHP275 billion have been released as the government\u2019s emergency fund to address Covid-19.<\/p>\n

He earlier bared that the government plans to borrow USD5.6 billion from the Asian Development Bank to help the Philippines combat Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Responding to Dominguez\u2019s latest remarks, Duterte said the government needs to look for ways to address the current challenges the country is facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIyan ang problema ngayon<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s the problem now). It\u2019s really a question of money,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the funds are not sufficient, they will have to borrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The President also reiterated that the government might sell public properties, in case the borrowed money is \u201cnot enough\u201d to stop the further transmission of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy am I talking this way? You know why? There is no telling how long, gaano katagal itong Covid sa buhay natin (this Covid-19 would affect our lives),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWala kaming hangarin na pigilin iyang pera<\/em>\u00a0(We don\u2019t have any intention to stop the spending of money). It\u2019s not ours. It belongs to the Filipino people and should be spent for the welfare of the Filipino people,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and other \u201chigh-risk\u201d Covid-19 areas have been placed under an enhanced community quarantine until May 15 to effectively curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government has so far spent PHP352.7 billion to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country, Finance …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":236572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253094","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\/253094","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253095,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253094\/revisions\/253095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}