House approves three bills to address pandemic impact

THE House of Representatives has approved three measures that seek to partially address the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Voting 202 affirmative, six negative and one abstention, lawmakers approved on third and final reading House Bill 6816, or Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) Bill late Tuesday.

The bill aims to help financial institutions in their bad debt resolution and management of their nonperforming assets (NPAS) in order to cushion the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their financial operations. It will be transmitted to the Senate for its own deliberations.

The bill said NPAS consist of financial institutions’ nonperforming loans (NPLS) and real and other properties acquired (ROPAS) in settlement of loans and receivables.

The bill encourages financial institutions to sell NPAS to asset management companies, created as Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer Corporations that specialize in the resolution of distressed assets. CURES

THE House also approved on second reading House Bill 6709 or the P1.5-trillion Covid-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (CURES) Act of 2020.

Deputy Speaker for Finance Luis Raymund Villafuerte said this new P1.5-trillion stimulus package focusing on infrastructure spending and create more jobs in the countryside.

According to Villafuerte, HB 6709 is guaranteed to create a multitude of employment opportunities, especially in rural areas to partly make up for the jobs that were lost amid the pandemic.

Villafuerte said the proposal will help ease the pressure on the Duterte administration to create hundreds of thousands of jobs this year, now that the Covid-19 crisis has displaced almost 2.76 million workers.

Villafuerte said the bill will also support of President Duterte’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program.

Anti-discrimination bill

THE lower chamber also approved on third and final reading House Bill 6817 prohibiting the discrimination against persons who are declared confirmed, suspect, probable, and recovered cases of Covid-19, as well as health-care workers and service providers.

The bill seeks to grant full, inviolable protection against prejudice and discrimination to those who have already suffered and recovered from Covid-19, those who carry the brunt providing medical care, logistical and service support.

It also seeks to recognize the dignity and heroism of the work of health workers, responders and service workers.