Former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday said he is hoping to reach a consensus with the Executive Branch on his P10,000-per-family cash aid proposal before President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23. In a press conference together with his allies in Congress on June 30, Cayetano said the group is willing to present the information they have gathered on the effectiveness of the 10K Ayuda proposal. “Sana tama ang impormasyon ng Pangulo going to the SONA and that we reach a consensus. The President has to have the right information dahil baka hindi umaabot sa kanila na may ganoong pondo,” he said. (I hope the President has the correct information going to the SONA and that we can reach a consensus. The President has to have the right information because the fact that there are funds might not be reaching him.) Cayetano was Duterte’s running mate in the 2016 national election. The former Speaker had previously said there are multiple available sources to fund the P10,000 per family cash aid. He had cited the P207-billion worth of unobligated funds on top of the P400 billion declared in the government’s December 21, 2020 book balance, which he said can be reprogrammed similar to what the House did in Bayanihan 1. “We will work with the government, not against it,” he said. Cayetano also urged Congress to hold a hearing on the unused funds from Bayanihan 2, such as P18.4 billion which was allocated for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and healthcare workers as well as the P23 billion which was reallocated for the P1,000 per person cash aid distributed by Malacañang. “Pag-aralan natin ano ‘yung mga programa (sa ilalim ng Bayanihan 1 at 2) na helpful para ulitin, ano ang mga hindi maganda para ‘di na ulitin, ano ‘yung hindi in-implement, at bakit hindi in-implement,” he said. (Let’s look into the programs under the Bayanihans 1 and 2 that were helpful and worth repeating and which ones should not be repeated, as well as the programs that agencies failed to implement and why they were not implemented.) “I appeal to all our leaders to be very sober, but of course I appeal to the government to listen to the issues that are happening on the ground,” Cayetano added.
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