By Fernan Angeles
THE government urged the public to be prudent in spending limited resources as the adverse economic effects of the global pandemic may take longer than they thought.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez went as far as likening the government’s war against the COVID-19, to how pro-boxer, now Senator Manny Pacquiao trains for an upcoming match. “When Sen. Pacquiao trains for a fight, he prepares for 12 grueling rounds.”
“As there can be no knock-out punch that cuts our fight short before a vaccine is developed, the government’s ability to sustain the fight depends on our fiscal stamina. We have the resources necessary to endure this challenge, but we must also conserve our resources for succeeding rounds of this fight,” said Dominguez in a statement.
The Department of Health’s data hinted at multi-level stages as the health department recorded 4,226 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total count to 126,885.
Death toll also climbed to 2,209 after 41 more patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.
Interestingly, more than half of the new infections came anew from Metro Manila. Laguna had 285 cases, followed by Cavite with 154, Cebu with 125 and Rizal with 118.
Active cases also increased to 57,559, of which 91.4 percent are mild, 7.3 percent are asymptomatic, 0.7 percent are severe and 0.6 percent are critical.
Dominguez said the P140 to P165-billion stimulus package under the envisioned Bayanihan to Recover as One Law, the record P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 and the Duterte administration’s sustained investments in infrastructure were designed to hasten recovery.
While critics complained that the stimulus package was too small to recover the trillions of pesos in economic losses and the millions of jobs lost, Dominguez said Bayanihan 2 included “targeted support for unemployed individuals and the hardest-hit strategic industries.”
Moreover, the package will also be complemented by the passage of the pending Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create) bill, which will slash corporate income tax from 30 percent—the biggest in Southeast Asia—to 25 percent, retroactively effective to July.
Foregone revenues from the lower tax rates under Create had been estimated to reach P42 billion this year—tax savings which Dominguez hopes would be reinvested by firms to revive their operations.