{"id":253948,"date":"2020-05-05T06:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=253948"},"modified":"2020-05-05T06:55:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T10:55:00","slug":"ph-still-has-enough-covid-19-funds-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/05\/ph-still-has-enough-covid-19-funds-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"PH still has enough Covid-19 funds: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. JOEY DALUMPINES\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The government still has sufficient funds to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak, Malaca\u00f1ang assured the public on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque gave the assurance, saying the government is not in a hurry to ask Congress for a supplemental budget to augment the money spent for Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSa ngayon, hindi pa tayo humihingi ng<\/em>\u00a0supplemental budget\u00a0sa Kongreso. Sapat pa po ang pondo natin<\/em>\u00a0as is (We are currently not asking the Congress to approve a supplemental budget [to combat Covid-19]. We still have enough funds),\u201d Roque said in a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4.<\/p>\n

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III bared on April 23 that the government has so far spent PHP352.7 billion amid the country\u2019s fight against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

In his April 27 press briefing, Roque said the government has only PHP77 billion available funds to stop the further transmission of the new coronavirus.<\/p>\n

Roque said there is nothing to worry about because the government is on top of the situation despite the threat posed by Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi lang po natin alam kung hanggang kailan kasi itong problema sa<\/em>\u00a0Covid,\u00a0hanggang walang bakuna at walang gamot<\/em>. (We just do not know how long the problem about Covid-19 would last so long as there is no vaccine and no cure). But for now, we\u2019re okay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, Duterte has the special power to realign funds in the 2020 national budget to stop the contagion.<\/p>\n

In a televised public address on April 23, the President said he might ask Congress to approve a supplemental budget to boost the funding for Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n

Roque said Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado has yet to give the exact amount of supplemental budget the government would need to address the health crisis in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deadline was April 30 and I inquired from Secretary Wendel Avisado\u00a0kung meron nang sumatotal<\/em>\u00a0(if they already have a sum total of the [proposed supplemental budget]),\u201d he said. \u201cFor now,\u00a0wala pa po silang hinahandang<\/em>\u00a0(they have yet to prepare the proposed) supplemental budget.\u00a0Okay pa po<\/em>\u00a0(The situation is still okay), as is where is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duterte has extended until May 15 the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in areas considered high risk for Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, other areas across the country are under a general community quarantine.<\/p>\n

Covid-19 infections in the Philippines has so far jumped to 9,485 with 623 deaths. Some 1,315 patients have already recovered from the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The government still has sufficient funds to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak, Malaca\u00f1ang assured the public on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":252612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253948","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\/253948","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=253948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253949,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253948\/revisions\/253949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}