Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte is making a stronger push for a third round of cash subsidies to poor and low-income households amid record job losses and faster food price hikes that threaten to shove many highly vulnerable families back to poverty in the face of the long-drawn-out Covid-19 pandemic and its consequent recession.
Villafuerte made another pitch for the Bangon Pamilyang Pilipino (BPP) assistance program, which the independent majority bloc BTS sa Kongreso first proposed last month to provide at least P10,000 in cash assistance each to vulnerable households, amid the latest official data and forecasts, respectively, on 15-year-high unemployment and higher-than-expected inflation.
“A third round of cash subsidies to highly vulnerable households would let government pare the number of families now in danger of falling back to poverty amid the confluence of high food prices, rising unemployment, a prolonged recession and prospects for a slow economic recovery,” Villafuerte, a BTS sa Kongreso stalwart said.
“The proposed BPP cash subsidy of P10,000 per beneficiary-family would enable poor and low-income households to buy their basic food and non-food needs, hence boosting household income and domestic consumption that would help quicken economic recovery from the coronavirus-driven global recession,” Villafuerte said.
He said the BTS bloc’s proposed subsidy would help prevent many families from becoming poor once more, as he pointed to a recent study by the state-run think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) showing that last year’s social amelioration program (SAP) under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan 1) prevented the poverty incidence from climbing to 18.3%—or about 4.54 million families—after declining to 12% in 2018.
“It behooves the Congress to write new legislation providing for a third round of cash grants to prevent more families from becoming poor and hungry amid the pandemic,” he said.
Citing the PIDS study made by its president Celia Reyes and two researchers, Villafuerte said the poverty rate would have jumped to 24.3% or 25.65 million Filipinos from the year-before 16.7% or 17.67 million people.
“A third round of cash subsidies to highly vulnerable households would let government pare the number of families now in danger of falling back to poverty amid the confluence of high food prices, rising unemployment, a prolonged recession and prospects for a slow economic recovery.”
But Villafuerte said that because of the two rounds of SAP cash grants to families and the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) to families under Bayanihan 1, the PIDS study estimated a slower jump in poverty last year to 14.1% or 3.48 million households and 19.8% or 20.91 million individuals in the entire population.
Under Bayanihan 1, the Duterte administration last year gave out cash aid of P5,000 to P8,000 per household for two months under the SAP, and likewise the same amount per dislocated small-business worker, also twice, under the SBWS.
Villafuerte co-authored both Bayanihan 1 and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2) as well as the laws extending the validity of Bayanihan 2 up to June 2021 and of the 2020 national budget up to December 2021.
He said earlier that funds for the proposed BPP subsidy of P10,000 per beneficiary-family are available under unutilized appropriations and unobligated funds in the national budget.
The congressman said the government recently reported around P452 billion in unutilized funds from the 2020 national budget and P204 million in its unobligated cash balance.
“It behooves the Congress to write new legislation providing for a third round of cash grants to prevent more families from becoming poor and hungry amid the pandemic.”
He said the proposed BPP subsidy could be sourced from these unutilized and unobligated funds, which are under the 2020 and 2021 appropriations laws.
House Bill (HB) No. 8597 or the BPP Assistance Program that was primarily authored by former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Taguig Rep. Lani Cayetano, aims to treat the cash assistance given to qualified families as “capital” that would help stimulate consumption and revitalize the economy.
Under the proposed BPP, the priority beneficiaries for the P10,000 cash grant are the poorest of the poor, senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, displaced workers, medical frontliners, families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), individuals who were not able to secure aid through Bayanihan 1’s SAP and SBWS, Philippine National ID holders, and members of vulnerable groups.
While the government is focused on reviving the economy by providing assistance to banks, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and other businesses, the sectors most vulnerable to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have been left out, he said.
“If they do not get the help they need, economically dislocated families might not die from Covid-19 but from hunger,” Villafuerte said.
Preliminary results of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)’s 2020 Annual Estimates of Labor Force Survey bared that the joblessness rate soared to a 15-year high last year of 10.3%, equivalent to 4.5 million unemployed Filipinos, from 5.1% in 2019.
As for headline inflation, Bangko Sentral Gov. Benjamin Diokno sees it possibly exceeding the government target of 2-4% in the next few months before sliding back to the target band in the year’s second semester.
Based on the reported minutes of the BSP Monetary Board (MB)’s February meeting, inflation is seen to average 4% for 2021 because of the higher outturns in December 2020 and January 2021 coupled with the increase in global commodity prices.