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Bayanihan 2

Caricature: Duterte Signed Bayanihan 2

THE government deserves the support of the public as it exerts its best efforts to provide assistance to various sectors adversely affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

With President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing of “Bayanihan 2,” the government is on the way to further intensifying its aid and assistance not only to the health care sector, but also to other affected sectors.

They include agriculture, tourism and transportation that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCCO) chief Martin Andanar.

Note that the three sectors, along with the multibillion-peso manpower export industry, are among the major pillars of the economy, which continues to struggle because of the deadly COVID-19.

“Bayanihan 2,” or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act,” contains a stimulus package plan consisting of P140 billion worth of regular appropriations and a standby fund of P25.5 billion.

The stimulus package is seen to sustain the government’s “proactive responses and help the impacted industries recover from the economic downturn caused by the crippling health crisis.

Andanar underscored the need for a stimulus package as “we gradually reopen our economy to bounce back and to achieve our forecast growth for the coming months and year.”

And with the return to the provinces of thousands of rural people who left their villages years ago to look for greener pastures in the metropolis, the countryside is expected to be productive again.

The exodus of thousands of rural people, mostly farmers, fishermen and ordinary workers, to Metropolitan Manila and other urban centers, pushed Philippine agriculture into a sorry spectacle.

With the implementation of Bayanihan to Recover as One Act-2,” we are on the road to winning the battle against hunger, poverty and unemployment as the world grapples with the health crisis.