{"id":255890,"date":"2020-05-23T06:54:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T10:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=255890"},"modified":"2020-05-23T06:54:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T10:54:47","slug":"p150-b-funds-to-be-realigned-for-covid-19-response-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/23\/p150-b-funds-to-be-realigned-for-covid-19-response-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"P150-B funds to be realigned for Covid-19 response: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. during a press conference at the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City on January 4, 2018. JOEY DALUMPINES\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Around PHP150 billion from the budget items of the executive branch would be realigned to augment the funds for the government\u2019s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the statement in a radio interview following President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s recent order for Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado to look for additional funds that can be used to address the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlam na natin kung magkano mare-realign natin doon sa mga current budget ng executive at tinitimbang na lang po \u2018yun\u2026 Ang sabi sa akin, mahigit kumulang mga PHP150 billion<\/em>\u00a0(For now, we already know how much from the current budget of the executive can be realigned. It\u2019s still being weighed. I was told it was around PHP150 billion),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier directed Avisado to realign public funds to expand the number of Filipino families who will receive aid from the national government amid the health crisis.<\/p>\n

Roque said the government is still assessing how it would spend the budget that would be realigned to boost the fight against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya nga po pinag-iingatan kung saan gagastusin ang PHP150 billion kasi beyond PHP150 billion, talagang kinakailangang pumunta for a supplemental budget<\/em>\u00a0(We are really being careful as to how we will spend the PHP150 billion because going beyond that would mean asking for a supplemental budget),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This developed as the government acknowledged that it cannot afford to ask Congress for a supplemental budget, Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque admitted that the government would have a hard time asking for a supplemental budget because of the low tax collection due to the quarantine protocols imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi ka naman pupwedeng magkaroon ng supplemental budget ng wala kang sources of revenue<\/em>\u00a0(You cannot ask for a supplemental budget if you do not have sources of revenue),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To further boost the Covid-19 funds, the government is also planning to apply for loans, Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque said the country can still borrow money because despite its low credit rating, it is still high compared to the credit scores of its neighboring countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaya nga nakakautang tayo at umutang naman tayo habang mababa pa ang interest rate<\/em>\u00a0(That\u2019s why we were able to borrow and we are borrowing money while the interest rates are still low),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Philippines has so far borrowed from foreign lenders and secured grants worth nearly USD5 billion, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported.<\/p>\n

The DOF has noted that some USD4.05 billion of the USD4.858 billion of foreign loans have already been downloaded to the government for its Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Around PHP150 billion from the budget items of the executive branch would be realigned to augment the funds for the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":252612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","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\/255890","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=255890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255892,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255890\/revisions\/255892"}],"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=255890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}