BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno
MANILA – A quick-disbursing, employment-creating program will greatly help the economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said.
“The emergency employment is quick-disbursing and will have (a) high multiplier effect. It is pro-poor and egalitarian,” Diokno told journalists in a Viber message Monday.
Diokno said the program is imperative as the government moves into the “next phase of the road to the New Economy”.
“(This) gives the ordinary worker a greater sense of self-respect since he works for the food on his table,” he said. “By helping himself, the worker helps his fellowmen and society.”
To finance this proposed program, Diokno said the government “needs a supplemental budget, the size of which can be decided upon by the President with the recommendation of his economic managers”.
Diokno, former Budget and Management chief, estimates “that a one-percent increase in the deficit would amount to PHP200 billion of 'new' spending; a two-percent increase would amount to PHP400 billion”.
He said part of the emergency fund can be used to create two million new jobs, which will be allocated to 42,045 barangays, to be distributed based on the number of inhabitants per barangay and the level of unemployment per province or city.
Among the jobs that will be created under this program are for green projects like cleaning of rivers and tree planting; public works projects like road maintenance, fortifying sea walls and social housing; or health projects like contact tracing and maintenance work in Covid-19 facilities.
Diokno said “the workers will be paid 10 percent lower than the minimum wage rate in the region, will work for eight hours, five days a week, for seven months” or from June to December this year.
He said the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act authorized the President to re-align budget for this year for the Covid-19 response and allowed the government to give cash aid to poor households.
However, Diokno said the impact of the fiscal stimulus is limited.
“Of course, the change in the composition of the budget, say from slow-moving capital projects or budgetary assistance to government corporations to quick-disbursing cash grants, makes some difference,” he added.
Diokno said the government’s focus now is to save lives, livelihoods, and jobs.
“The lofty goals of getting A-rating by 2022 and achieving upper middle-income status this year can wait. As individuals, and as a people, we should prepare for a ‘New Economy’ —not a ‘New Normal’, which is an oxymoron. The New Economy should be better, safer, and more technologically ready,” he said.
Diokno’s proposal, however, was earlier discounted by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III who said a supplemental budget needs supplemental revenue, which the government currently does not have. (PNA)
