There should be no more reasons from the government to reject the proposed P10,000 aid for every Filipino family considering the hike on the 2022 national budget, according to Taguig-Pateros Representative and former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
The lawmaker was referring to the P10K Ayuda Bill that he proposed, which seeks to distribute P10,000 worth of cash aid for every Filipino family. According to Cayetano, the more than P200-billion proposed budget under the Bayanihan 3 bill will be enough to cover the aid.
The provision to provide P10,000 to every family, however, was later not adopted.
In his latest push on Thursday, Cayetano told DZRH that money should not be a problem this time given the P500-billion increase in the proposed P5.024-trillion budget.
"Last year ang dahilan, this year ay wala raw pera. Pero for next year kasi may pera eh P500 billion ang idadagdag, so wala na pong dahilan except ang question lang what do we want to prioritize," the lawmaker told DZRH in an interview.
(Last year the reason was there was no more money this year. But for next year, we have money, P500 billion will be added, so there’s no more reason except to ask what do we want to prioritize.)
According to Cayetano, his sister, Senator Pia Cayetano, asked the National Economic and Development Authority on the chances of the bill getting approved - but the agency said it is focusing on opening up the economy.
"Pero wala namang conflict yung opening up the economy at direct stimulus," said Cayetano. "Kasi sa simpleng sagot naman kung may gusto may paraan, kung ayaw maraming dahilan."
(But there is no conflict between opening up the economy and direct stimulus. The simple answer here is: if there is a will, there is a way. If not, there are a lot of reasons.)
The representative said he supports the full reopening of the economy but lamented the situation of small business owners, who he said would benefit a lot from the P10,000 aid.
"I want the economy to recover, to fully open pero hindi naman po lahat mayayaman na may savings account, hindi po naman lahat may bangko na pwedeng takbuhan na utangan," he said.
(I want the economy to recover, to be fully open but not all of us are rich who have a savings account, nor does everyone have a bank they can run to ask for loans.)
"So yes, we're working on programs like a 10-year loan program na may one-year grace period for medium and big enterprises, pero dun sa mga sari-sari store, carinderia, sa mga jeepney, tricycle driver natin na minsan may mga sideline din dapat po meron talagang P10,000 kasi makakaahon sila dito," he added.
(So yes, we’re working on programs like a 10-year loan program that has a one-year grace period for medium and big enterprises, but for sari-sari stores, carinderia, jeep and tricycle drivers who sometimes have sidelines, they should also have P10,000 because they can recover using it.)
He thanked Senator Cayetano and Senator Joel Villanueva for giving his proposal a push, adding that the said aid could come from different programs instead of just one.
"It doesn't have to be in the form of one program, pwedeng may programa ang DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment), may programa ang DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), DOST (Department of Science and Technology)," he said.
(It doesn’t have to be in the form of one program, it could be that DOLE has its program, so does DSWD and DOST.)
Cayetano added he is okay with the government's plan to make the aid targeted, but that only applies to situations when a single province or sector is affected.
"Eh buong Pilipinas yung tinamaan. So ako, kung anong gusto ng gobyerno kung through the agencies o isang programa lang, pero kung tatarget tayo make sure we hit the target," he said.
(But the entire Philippines is hit. So for me, if the government wants to do it through agencies or through one program only, but if they want to target, make sure we hit the target.)
