BY GENALYN KABILING
The government has so far released around P77.98 billion worth of funds to sustain massive efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, President Duterte said in his latest report to Congress.
Of these funds, the President said P76.2 billion for various government agencies came from the Bayanihan 2 law and P1.7 billion additional release for state offices from the 2020 national budget.
“The government shall sustain and continue to strengthen our capabilities to implement programs and projects which among others seek to reduce the adverse socioeconomic impact of COVID-19; enhance the capacity of the Philippine health care system to control and eliminate COVID-19, and enhance fiscal and monetary policies to sustain COVID-19 measures,” the President said in his second monthly report on the implementation of Bayanihan 2 law.
Out of the P140 billion funds under Bayahan 2 law, Duterte said the Department of Budget and Management has released P76,228,874,712 to several government agencies for their COVID-related programs as of Oct.29.
The bulk of the funds went to the Department of Health at P20.57 billion for its various programs to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the President, the latest fund releases represented 54.45 percent of the P140 billion allocation under the Bayanihan 2 law.
These were based on the budget requests submitted by the agencies to the DBM. (Genalyn Kabiling)
