Government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) have thus far remitted a total of P129.45 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) as of April 29 to augment funds for state-led efforts to contain the further spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and provide economic relief to poor families and other vulnerable groups most affected by the economic fallout from this global health crisis.

Of this total, P 91.62 billion was remitted after the effectivity of Republic Act (RA) No. No. 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act on March 24 and up to April 29, the largest sum ever collected from GOCCs in span of only five weeks, according to the Corporate Affairs Group (CAG) of the Department of Finance (DOF) led by Undersecretary Antonette Tionko.

Before the effectivity of the Bayanihan law, GOCCs were able to remit a total of P37.83 billion to the BTr from January 1 to March 23.

On top of the cash dividends remitted by the GOCCs as mandated under RA 7656, the remittances also include the unutilized subsidies and payment of guarantee fees and National Government advances. Cash dividends remitted amounted to P121.75 billion.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which remitted P37.48 billion, topped the list of GOCCS with the highest dividend contributions, followed by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) with P17.9 billion, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) with P12 billion each.

The GOCCs under the Department of Transportation (DOTr)—Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and Philippine Ports Authority (PPA)—followed with their respective remittances of P6 billion each from the MIAA and CAAP and P5.05 billion from PPA.

The Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC) remitted P5 billion; National Power Corp (NPC), P4 billion; Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRecA), P3.8 billion; Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), P2.69 billion; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), P2.27 billion; PNOC Exploration Corp., P2 billion; and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), P2 billion.

Other GOCCs that remitted to the BTr include the National Electrification Administration (NEA), P1.55 billion; Metropolitan Waterworks & Sewerage System (MWSS), P1.43 billion; Clark Development Corp. (CDC), P1.13 billion; Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA), P1 billion and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), P1 billion.

The Philippine Sugar Corp. (Philsucor) remitted P875 million; Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), P659.55 million; National Housing Authority (NHA), P513.24 million; Cebu Port Authority (CPA), P500 million; and the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), P500 million.

The Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB), APO Production Unit, Inc. (APO-PUI), Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC), National Development Co. (NDC), North Luzon Tollways Corp. (NorthRail), Social Housing Finance Corp. (SHFC), Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), Philippine Postal Corporation (PPC), Batangas Land Company, Inc. (BLCI), DBP Data Center Inc. (DPI-DCI), DBP Leasing Corp. (DBP-LC), LBP Insurance Brokerage Inc. (LBP-IBI), LBP Resources and Development Corp. (LBP-RDC), LBP Leasing and Finance Corporation (LBP-LFC), Philippine Mining Development Corp. (PMDC), Philippine Retirement Authority (PRetA) and the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority (PFDA), along with various other GOCCs also remitted their dividends to the BTr.

Under RA 11469 or the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act, the President is authorized “to allocate cash, funds, investments, including unutilized or unreleased subsidies and transfers, held by any GOCC or any national government agency in order to the address the COVID-19 emergency .…”

The expanded budgetary powers granted by the Congress to the President under the Bayanihan Act just a week after the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) has enabled the government to formulate a four-pillar socioeconomic strategy to blunt the impact of COVID-19 on the Filipino people and the economy.

Dominguez told the House of Representatives during a recent online meeting of the economic stimulus cluster of its Defeat COVID-19 Committee (DCC) the President’s four-pillar strategy now has a combined value of US$29.3 billion (P1.49 trillion) or about 8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

This anti-Covid-19 strategy covers the following: [1] providing poor and low-income households, small-business employees and other vulnerable groups emergency and wage subsidies; [2] marshalling the country’s medical resources and ensuring the safety of its healthcare frontliners; [3] fiscal and monetary actions to finance emergency initiatives and keep the economy afloat; and [4] an economic recovery plan to create jobs and sustain growth under a post-quarantine scenario.

The P205-billion Social Amelioration Program (SAP) for 18 million poor and low-income households under this four-pronged strategy to defeat the virus marks the single biggest social protection program ever of the government.

-oOo-