GOVPH

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic and called on all countries to take urgent and aggressive action to mitigate or prevent its spread. Republic Act (RA) 11469, also known as the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” or Bayanihan 1, was signed into law on 24 March 2020 as a response of the government to the COVID-19 crisis. Note that initial measures were already undertaken by the President through—(a) Presidential Proclamation No. 922 issued on 08 March 2020 declaring a State of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines, and (b) Presidential Proclamation No. 929 issued on 16 March 2020 imposing an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) throughout Luzon due to the continuing rise of confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the serious threat to the health, safety, security, and lives of the Filipino people.

There is an estimated 3.9 million unemployed Filipinos in January 2021, which translates to an unemployment rate of 8.7% based on the Labor Force Survey Report of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The national government (NG) yielded P2,856.0 billion in total revenues in fiscal year 2020, of which P2,504.4 billion were derived from tax sources and P351.5 billion from non-tax sources. As shown in Figure 1, actual tax collections exceeded the revised program of P2,205.2 by 13.6% (or an amount equivalent to P299.2 billion) but was significantly lower than the original target of P3,332.4 billion.

In December 2020, loans outstanding (net of reverse repurchase agreements) of the Philippine banking system declined by 1.3 percent to P10.1 trillion from P10.2 trillion in December 2019. The weak bank lending, largely a result of the pandemic, was already observed earlier in November 2020 when it fell by 0.2 percent. This was the first time that the growth in loans from the Philippine banking system contracted after more than 13 years of positive growth, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The FY 2020 National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF) is a lumpsum appropriation under Republic Act No. 11465 or the General Appropriations Act of 2020. The NDRRMF is intended for aid, relief and rehabilitation services to areas and communities affected by human-induced and natural calamities.

The Global Connectivity Index (GCI) is a report published by Huawei Technologies to analyze a broad spectrum of indicators for information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and digital transformation. The GCI benchmarks 79 countries according to their performance in four pillars and 40 indicators that track the impact of ICT on a nation’s economy, digital competitiveness and future growth. Combined, these countries account for 95 percent of global GDP.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project of the World Bank (WB) reports on the six broad dimensions of governance for over 215 countries and territories over the period 1996 to 2019. The dimensions include: 1) Voice and Accountability; 2) Political Stability and Absence of Violence; 3) Government Effectiveness; 4) Regulatory Quality; 5) Rule of Law; and 6) Control of Corruption. The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) envisions that by next year (2022), the country will have improved rankings in the global governance indices..

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of access to adequate water for safe drinking, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)1 in preventing diseases. For instance, the World Health Organization recommended washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds to eliminate the virus effectively.

The Philippine economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), contracted by 8.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 from a growth of 6.7 percent in the same period in 2019. For the whole of 2020, GDP shrank by 9.5 percent from an expansion of 6.0 percent in 2019. This is at the low-end of the government’s growth estimate of -8.5% to -9.5% for 2020. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the 9.5 percent GDP contraction in 2020 is the worst economic performance ever based on recorded data since 1945.

The urgent demands of policy formulation, midway into the Eighteenth Congress, involves the continuous grind of the legislative mill even as key legislation have been enacted in the first half, notably those that seek to address the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Bayanihan 1) and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2), among other measures likewise crucial to national development. To give research support to the remaining work of the Eighteenth Congress, the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) produced this compendium of briefs on 96 individual legislative proposals classified into four policy areas, namely economic, social development, fiscal, and governance.  Each brief presents key aspects requiring legislative intervention and the salient features of the specific legislative proposal.

The Asian Water Development Outlook (AWDO) is a report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) which aims to assess water management and security conditions of 49 economies in the Asia-Pacific region. To measure the extent of water security, each country is assessed in the AWDO through the National Water Security Index (NWSI) representing the five stages of water security. The NWSI has a maximum value of 5 and a maximum score of 100. Each stage of the index corresponds to the total scores of a country’s five key dimensions (KDs) on water security with the most advanced stage categorized as “model” and the least advanced as “nascent.”

Prior to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an estimated 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) according to the 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) Report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). OFWs with existing work employment contracts, referred to as Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs), comprised 96.8% or roughly 2.1 million, while only 3.2% or about 70,000 were those without contract. A slight decrease in the number of OFWs was noted in 2019 compared to 2017 and 2018 surveys.

The E-Government Development Index (EGDI) is a composite indicator which is used to measure the readiness and capacity of national institutions to use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to deliver public services. It is the product of a survey—the only global report that assesses the e-government development status of all United Nations Member States. It is based on the weighted average of three normalized indices: 1) telecommunications infrastructure index (TII), 2) human capital index (HCI), and 3) online service index (OSI).

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is an important source of development financing for the Philippines. Republic Act No. 8182 or the Official Development Assistance Act of 1996 defines ODA as a loan or grant contracted with foreign governments (with whom the country has diplomatic or trade relations) and international or multilateral lending institutions. ODA contains a grant element of at least twenty-five percent (25%) and is intended to promote sustainable social and economic development and welfare.

Section 22 of the “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010” (RA 10121) provides for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRM) Fund. It is appropriated annually for disaster risk reduction, mitigation, prevention and preparedness activities. The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) through the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) manages the Fund (NDRRMF).

Papers favoring decentralization argue that subnational governments (SNGs) are better situated than the national government to ascertain citizens’ preferences, making SNGs more responsive to local needs through poverty-alleviating and inequality-reducing initiatives, among others. Several decentralization-related measures had been filed in the 18th Congress, including those calling for constitutional change of the system of government to promote broader regional autonomy and equitable wealth distribution. This paper aims to contribute to the national discussion on the role of decentralization in reducing poverty and inequality. By using the cross-country Regional Authority Index as measure of fiscal decentralization and by employing a fixed-effects model, this paper finds a significant and inverse relationship between the decentralization and poverty, and decentralization and inequality. One key finding is the importance of SNGs in co-determining national policies, such as the distribution of national taxes. This suggests the significance of a mechanism through which SNGs are represented and take part in decisions concerning national policies.

Presidential Decree No. 1869 signed in July 1983 consolidated all laws issued in relation to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or PAGCOR (i.e. PD 1067-A, 1067-B, 1067-C, 1399 and 1632). Under the PAGCOR charter, the corporation is mandated to: (a) regulate, operate, authorize and license games of chance, games of cards and games of numbers, particularly casino gaming; (b) generate revenues to finance the government’s socio-civic and national development programs; and (c) help promote the tourism industry.

Personal remittances in August 2020, or house-tohouse transfers from overseas Filipinos (OFs) to their families, declined year-on-year by 4.1% to US$2.76 from US$2.87 billion recorded in August 2019. The cumulative remittances for the first eight months of the year totaled US$21.41 billion, a slight decrease of 2.6% from the US$ 21.99 billion recorded in the same month in 2019.

Based on the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) adopting 2018 as the new base year for the national income accounts, six of the 17 regions in the Philippines surpassed the 6.0% overall economic growth in 2019. The Bicol region registered the fastest growth rate at 7.4% from 6.9% in 2018. This was followed by the NCR (7.2%), Davao (7.0%), Ilocos (6.9%), Cagayan Valley (6.7%) and Western Visayas (6.4%). Except for Davao, these regions also bucked the deceleration in the growth of the overall economy. On the other hand, the regions which registered the lowest growth rates are: MIMAROPA (3.9%) and SOCCSKSARGEN (3.5%). Regional.

Regulatory enforcement is one of the factors measured under the Rule of Law Index (ROLI) of the World Justice Project (WJP). This particular ROLI factor examines how government regulations “are fairly and effectively implemented and enforced” in their respective territories and countries. It assesses different areas that governments continue to regulate such as consumer protection, occupational health and safety, public health, commercial transactions, among others. Each of the indicators or dimensions under this regulatory enforcement factor is scored from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the strongest adherence to the rule of law.

Republic Act No. 6975 created the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as an attached bureau to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). BFP envisions a modern fire service fully capable of ensuring a fire-safe nation by 2034. The BFP modernization program seeks to upgrade the government’s firefighting capability to include fire protection services for buildings and structures, including forests, airports, ships and vessels docked at wharves. This is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 11 of the global indicator framework in making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.