President Rodrigo Duterte will sign the “Bayanihan to Recover As One Act” or Bayanihan 2 “as soon as possible,” Malacañang said Monday.
In a virtual presser, Palace spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte was still in the process of consulting stakeholder government agencies.
“I can assure you po kapag natapos na po itong consultation na ito e pipirmahan naman po iyan ng presidente dahil hiningi naman po iyan ng presidente sa Kongreso rin,” he said.
Congress approved on third and final reading the Bayanihan 2 bill in August.
“[Duterte will sign the bill] as soon as possible po. I don’t think the first two weeks of September will pass without the bill being signed. I think, they are aiming that the bill should be signed this week, next week at the latest,” Roque said.
Bayanihan 2 consists of P140 billion in regular appropriations and P25.5 billion in standby funding.
Once enacted into law, Bayanihan 2 will be effective until Dec. 19, 2020.
It will allot budgets for the government’s cash-for-work programs, the hiring of emergency human resources for health, the construction of isolation facilities, the procurement of face masks and personal protective equipment and the building of smart campuses, among others. John Ezekiel J. Hirro