President Rodrigo Duterte might extend the modified community quarantine (MECQ) status in Metro Manila and nearby provinces if Congress would allocate funds to aid poor families affected by the strict lockdown, Malacañang said on Wednesday.
Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. echoed Duterte’s statement that the government could no longer afford to provide emergency relief to those who were most affected by the lockdown.
“The funds intended by Congress for ayuda (aid) or [for the] Social Amelioration Program (SAP), for those who are living in areas which are under lockdown because of ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) or MECQ have been already used by the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development),” Roque said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
“If Congress provides for ayuda for Metro Manila and these four provinces then the situation may change,” he added, referring to the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan
But Roque said the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) would have to make the formal recommendation to the President.
“As far as the President is concerned, we have used up the ayuda provided by congress. Under our Constitution, we can’t spend public funds without the law appropriating for such money,” he said.
The Palace official said he called Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte to include funds for the SAP in the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act or Bayanihan 2.
The Bayanihan 2, which calls for the creation of a P140-billion standby fund for health and socioeconomic programs, was passed on third and final reading by the Senate.
“I’m not sure if Congress was able to include it in the Bayanihan 2 package. I still have to check. It was not in the Senate version. We tried to insert it in the House version,” Roque said.
“I don’t know if it is there and I don’t know if it will be approved by the bicam (bicameral committee). So we’re not certain,” he added.
Apart from the additional fund for cash aid, Roque said the IATF-EID would also decide based on the data, particularly the case doubling rate, mortality rate and critical care capacity.
Roque said that although the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases continues to rise, the case doubling rate in Metro Manila was at nine days, which qualified the region under general community quarantine or GCQ.
Metro Manila has not exhausted its critical care capacity because of the One Hospital Command Center, which referred patients to hospitals with more capacity.
Metro Manila and the four provinces were placed under MECQ until August 18 following the appeal of health workers for a “timeout” to prevent the collapse of the country’s healthcare system amid the pandemic.
In a televised public address aired on Monday night, Duterte said he wanted to heed the request of medical frontliners to extend MECQ in Metro Manila and nearby provinces until the end of August to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
However, he admitted that the government no longer had funds for its cash assistance program.
“The problem is the funds are already depleted,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Philippines’ virus cases increased to 143,749 as the Department of Health reported 4,444 new cases.
The National Capital Region had the highest number of cases at 2,618, followed by Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan.
With reports from RED MENDOZA