‘LGUS’ RECOVERY PLANS TO HELP REBUILD ECONOMY’

TO complement national recovery efforts, local government units ( LGUs) should have their own plans for easing the impact of the pandemic on the economy, the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) said on Saturday.

ULAP National President and Quirino Gov. Dakila Cua said the individual recovery plans of the LGUs were “equally important” as the national plan.

In rebuilding the local economy, the ULAP wanted measures that would allow LGUs to mobilize resources, he noted.

The plans must help local governments bounce back to the pre- pandemic economic baseline, he added.

Included in the proposed economic recovery plans are specific forms of assistance to LGUs in the first and second Bayanihan Act.

The union also called for the launching of the “Restoration and Invigoration package for a Selfsufficient

Economy towards Upgrowth for LGUs” or RISE UP LGUs Program, which would be a special loan facility with low interest rates to assist LGUs, Cua said.

More funding will also be sought to pay for the interest rate of concessional loans to the LGUs.

Cua stressed that investors must also be lured to the countryside to generate economic revenue and employment, in collaboration with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

“It is crucial for the national and local governments to rebuild an economy that will meet the needs of ordinary people,” he said at the Webinar titled “Rebuilding the Local Economy,” which was organized by the Department of the Interior and Local Government and ULAP.

Cua said ULAP wiuld assist local chief executives by investing in information dissemination, knowledge sharing, and best practice modelling “as a way of capacitating the participants to contribute towards revving up efforts to put the local economy back on its feet soonest while keeping a close watch on the Covid-19 situation.”

“Being closest to the people and the first responders to any contingency, local executives perform the critical and indispensable functions at the frontlines, which supports the country adopting a response framework that is national government-enabled, local government unit-led and peoplecentered,” he added.