3-month extension of Bayanihan law approved by House committee of the whole

By JOHN CARLO M. CAHINHINAN

The powerful Committee of the Whole in the House of Representatives has approved the proposed three-month extension of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of 2020.

Deputy Majority Floor Leader Wilter Palma (Zamboanga Sibugay) moved for the House plenary to constitute itself into the Committee of the Whole around 10:28 p.m. of Wednesday and later approved the committee report over measures that seek extend Republic Act No. 11469 until September 30, 2020.

RA 11469 grants President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers to address and respond to the health crisis brought by the deadly coronavirus pandemic which badly hampered the country’s economy for the last three months.

Principally authored by Majority Floor Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Leyte), House Bill No. 6953 or the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act aims to “reduce the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the socioeconomic well-being of all Filipinos through the provision of assistance, subsidies and other forms of economic relief.”

The measure also seeks to “sustain effort to test, trace, isolate, and treat COVID-19 cases to mitigate the transmission of the disease and prevent further loss of lives.”

Workers displaced by the coronavirus lockdown since March are also expected to benefit the 30-day “unemployment or involuntary separation assistance” worth P10,000 under the measure.

Included in the beneficiaries of the program are displaced workers—probationary, project, seasonal, contractual, and casual employees in the private health institutions, tourism, culture and arts, construction, public transport, trade industries, and other sectors of the formal economy.

HB 6953 also provides one-month “emergency subsidy” to low income households who are qualified but were not granted such subsidy as mandated by RA 11469.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)