Duterte eyes special session on economic stimulus

A special session of Congress will be called by President Duterte once the proposed economic stimulus program to help ride out the coronavirus pandemic is finalized, Malacañang announced Thursday.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the proposed legislation includes not only the stimulus measures but also an extension of the President’s authority to respond to the public health emergency.

“The President will call for

a special session when there is already a consensus reached on the amount of the stimulus package,” he said during a Palace press briefing.

“The proposed legislation will include the extension of the emergency powers and the stimulus package. That will take place,” he added.

Congress adjourned sine die its first regular session early this month without passing the proposed second Bayanihan law. It will open the regular session next month.

Malacañang had earlier said the government prefers a proposed economic stimulus package that it can afford and will not require too much borrowing.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III had earlier opposed the ₱1.3-trillion economic stimulus packages proposed by the House of Representatives, saying these cannot be funded due to lack of excess revenue. He said any stimulus proposal must be funded by government savings, not by new borrowings.

The Palace agreed that the government must not borrow too much to finance the measure aimed at helping industries and reviving the economy. “We should only offer stimulus that we afford and right now that’s around ₱140 billion,” Roque said.

The proposed stimulus program also comes following the expiry of Republic Act No. 11469, also known as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act.

The law, signed last March, gave the President’s additional powers to respond to the pandemic, such as granting emergency subsidy to low income families, realigning funds in the national budget, directing the operation of private establishments, and requiring businesses to prioritize contracts for materials and services necessary for the crisis.

Roque had earlier said the President still needs the emergency powers to effectively address the pandemic, particularly to hasten the purchase of medical supplies. He said another important power of the President is the authority to take over private hospitals.

“The emergency powers are important in this case because if they don’t comply, then we may have to take over some of these hospitals and hire our own nurses and doctors to man them,” he said.

Increased testing capacity

Meanwhile, the government is aiming to conduct one million coronavirus tests by July following the arrival of additional test kits and the accreditation of more laboratories to improve national capacity.

Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) head Vivencio Dizon announced on Thursday the government’s testing goal alongside plans to conduct expanded targeted testing in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Cebu, and Davao.

As of June 22, around 612,571 tests have been conducted with a positivity rate of 5 percent, according to Dizon,

A bulk order of 1.05 million test kits arrived in the country last June 21 that will boost the country’s testing efforts, according to Dizon, deputy chief implementer of the government’s coronavirus response.

“We are now around 600,000 tests and we expect that within the month of July, we will reach 1 million. This is our initial goal but in the coming months, we will try to increase the tests to reach our target of 13 percent or 10 to 12 percent of our highly densely populated areas,” he said during Palace press briefing.

“We will strive in the next few months to reach nearly two percent of our entire population prioritizing densely populated aras like Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, Cebu and Davao,” he said.

At present, Dizon said the country has the capacity to conduct 51,302 tests per day, exceeding its earlier capacity goal of 50,000 this month.