EXPLANATION OF VOTE

Bicameral Conference Committee report on the disagreeing provisions of SBN 1564 and HBN 6953: Bayanihan to Recover As One Act

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto

20 August 2020

Mr. President: 

How I wish we could report back a pandemic response bill which provides bigger funding for more programs, not because it would make us look good, but because that is what our people need.

If the ordinary Filipino has room in his heart for more than just himself during this pandemic, I was hoping that his government could create a bigger space in its budget for him to survive.

Although the list of what we plan to give our struggling families is long, the cash position of our government is short. That is what we’ve been repeatedly told. 

But still we pushed the envelope, and I credit Senator Sonny, the captain ball of the Senate squad, for skillfully moving the goalposts several times. 

Kung dati P140 billion lamang ang “limit na pinipilit” – this was the fiscal line on the sand – ngayon po sa bill na ito ay P165 billion na.

To better explain it to our people, let us replace pesos with kilometers. Kumbaga sa kalsada, ang P140 billion ay hanggang Luneta lang, kaya kung gusto sana nating paabutin hanggang Sorsogon, dagdagan ng P400 billion – or kilometers – pa. 

Ang binigay lang po sa atin ay 20 additional kilometers – hanggang Muntinlupa lang.

But how can we quarrel with the executive, when they have control of the asphalt and cement to be used in road building?

And the truth is, Mr. President, I sympathize with them. They have to raise P11 billion a day – kada beinte-kwatro oras – to sustain the operations of this government.

And it is not an easy task at a time when, as I’ve said before, our revenue stream has been reduced to a trickle because beer taps have gone dry, and the people who go to bars and fiestas to guzzle them have not been filling their cars with gas. 

But there’s a way to finance a bigger package, and that is through loans. We are far from maxing out the national credit card as our debt stock hasn’t yet crossed half of the GDP.

Let me make it clear that there is no dishonor in taking out debts to prevent deaths. It is, in fact, the right thing to do when lives and livelihoods are at stake. 

So it can be said that this bill is a wartime rationing of resources. Hopefully, a vaccine marches in sooner, or the virus retreats on its own. While based on pandemic timelines, this one will not be over as quickly as EDSA 1, we hope that it will not be as long and as brutal as the Siege of Leningrad.

Mr. President: 

This is not a stimulus bill, lest it be misconstrued or marketed as one. It is not. It is a mere replenishment of the amounts we have given the executive through Bayanihan 1.

It is also not the main source of funds in fighting the pandemic. The 2020 national budget remains as the main expenditure instrument. 

I would like to commend my colleagues, who, with their contributions, managed to work around the severe limitations imposed on this measure.

I would like to thank our captain ball for accepting and championing the modest provisions I have introduced, here in the Senate and in the third chamber that is the Bicam.

Among these are the P5 billion to hire more tracers; the inclusion of the printing of self-learning modules in the P4 billion fund for distance education; marshalling unspent trust funds of local governments for COVID-19 response; extending aid to teachers and students; establishing field hospitals; institutionalizing the One Hospital Command system for optimal use of hospital beds for COVID cases; making the Special Risk Allowance and Actual Hazard Duty Pay tax-exempt, because pay for heroism should not be reduced by withholding tax; and mandating said allowances as over and above Magna Carta benefits.

In closing, let me again remind our friends in the other branch that laws are only as good as their implementation. In this case, fund releases should be faster than the virus. 

And most of all, monies appropriated here should not mutate into other uses.

I vote yes.