Palace: MECQ may be extended if Congress provides cash aid

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte may still be open to extending the modified community quarantine (MECQ) status in Metro Manila and its nearby provinces if Congress will 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 most affected by the imposition of stricter quarantine measures due to the depleting funds of the government.

“The funds intended by Congress for ayuda or Social Amelioration Program, 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 during an interview with CNN Philippines.

“If Congress, of course, provides for ayuda (aid), for Metro Manila and these four provinces, then the situation may change,” he added.

Roque, however, said that he would first let the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) make the formal recommendation to the President.

“I am only the spokesperson of the IATF, of course I can’t preempt the IATF… But as far as the President is concerned, we have used up already the ayuda provided by Congress. And as you know, under our Constitution, we can’t spend public funds without the law, appropriating such money,” he said.

The Palace official said he personally called Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte to include funds for the SAP in the Bayanihan To Recover As One (Bayanihan 2) Act to aid those living in areas that were reverted to MECQ.

The Bayanihan 2, which calls for the creation of a P140-billion standby fund for health and socio-economic programs, was passed on third and final reading by the Senate, a day after President Duterte directed its expeditious approval in his State of the Nation Address.

“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 would also decide based on the data, particularly the case doubling rate, mortality rate, and critical care capacity.

“Of course it’s data that will guide the IATF to decide what its recommendations to Congress will be. The last time around, the recommendation was for GCQ (general community quarantine) albeit with localized or granular lockdowns,” he said.

Source: TheManila Times