Rep. Joey Salceda, current chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, proposed five ways to raise funds to bankroll the economic stimulus package being eyed by the incoming President Marcos Jr. One is a provision allowing the president to tap all unused or unreleased subsidies of GOCCs.
To bankroll the economic recovery (stimulus) package of the incoming administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda has proposed five options, including passing a provision allowing the incoming president to use all unused or unreleased subsidies of the government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
In a statement, Salceda, the incumbent chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, pointed out that realignment of budget is not the only recourse for the incoming administration to finance its “Bayan Bangon Muli” (BBM) economic stimulus package.
“Realignment is not the only recourse for the President-elect [Ferdinand Marcos Jr]. I can see at least five other possible courses of action for the package to be funded adequately,” he said.
First, the incoming administration can do a “cash sweep” just like what President Duterte did through Executive Order (EO) 87, which ordered the reversion to the Bureau of the Treasury of unliquidated balances of accounts payable prior to the issuance of the EO in 2019, Salceda said.
He noted that the economic stimulus package could be in the form a “supplemental appropriations bill” with “unprogrammed allocations” that can be funded using excess revenues and augmentations like the usual unprogrammed allocations in a regular General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“So, augmentation, excess revenues, and other relevant provisions under unprogrammed allocations in the 2022 GAA can be lifted into this provision,” he said.
Salceda also proposed measures that allow easier financing of the incoming administration’s economic recovery package, such as adopting provisions from the Duterte administration’s Bayanihan law.
“We can adopt the Bayanihan provision on the power to discontinue programs, projects, and activities, provided that certain parameters for discontinuance can be set. I think we can place a moratorium on some wasteful spending practices, such as year-end on-site seminars,” he said.
“The package can include a provision that utilizes any unused funds in Special Purpose Funds for the programs under the package,” he added.
Salceda also proposed that a provision, allowing the President to use unused or unreleased subsidies to GOCCs and government agencies that “will no longer be able to finish the program subsidized this year,” be included in the bill.
“In any case, let’s give the new administration a chance to fund and enact its own plans and programs for the country’s economic recovery,” he said.
Majority Leader Martin Romualdez last week said the next Congress is eyeing the passage of Bayanihan-type of legislation called Bayan Bangon Muli and resetting of the scheduled December barangay elections to save P8 billion that can be used to fight the pandemic.
“It was [presumptive] President Marcos’s initials, BBM or Bayan Bangon Muli bill stimulus package that will allow the incoming President to harness the resources available during the closing period of 2022 and [pass] measures that are needed for the pandemic, hopefully endemic stage of this COVID,” Romualdez said.
He added that one of the appeals of the barangay chairpersons they met at the Liga ng mga Barangays, is the resetting of barangay polls, “so we shall consider that.”
Romualdez said the next Congress will prioritize the passage of presumptive President Marcos Jr.’s legislative agenda.
Tags: #MarcosJr., #stimuluspackage, #GOCCs, #BayanihantoBBM, #economy