Vice President Leni Robredo targets distributing P216 billion worth of cash assistance of “ayuda” to help Filipinos recover from the COVID-19 crisis within her first 100 days as president if she gets elected next year.
“In our first 100 days, we will focus on addressing our most urgent problem—controlling the pandemic and mitigating its impact on our people’s lives,” Robredo said during a Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry forum.
“We will set aside P216 billion in the national budget for ayuda (aid) distribution to protect families from hunger and provide them with their basic needs without being forced to go to work,” she added.
Aside from distributing financial assistance, Robredo added her administration would also increase support for health workers, make COVID testing more accessible, improve hospital capacity, and intensify vaccination.
“We will not stop at vaccines: We will start stockpiling different COVID treatment medicines and deploy them to areas where there are shortages,” she said.
VP Leni also vowed to improve the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law.
“We will accelerate the rollout of Universal Health Care by concentrating on enrolling every Filipino in the UHC system in the first three months. While people are signing up, we will start partnering with local health service providers to deliver health services,” she said.
Robredo to give P216B ‘ayuda’ fund on first 100 days as president
“All of these can be done only if we rebuild trust in our institutions—and that’s exactly what we are going to do. We will put our house in order and restore confidence in the Philippine government.”
Meanwhile, Robredo criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s Build, Build, Build program.
“The point is not about building more, but about building better, making sure that quality is assured, corruption is eliminated, and the infrastructure we build actually contributes towards making the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable better,” she said.
“Our government will prioritize feasible and strategic projects that provide high impact for the Filipino people. This means shifting away from the failed car-centric public budgeting and more bus rapid transits, better service contracts for transport workers, a just transition for transport workers, protected bike lanes, bike racks, safe pathways, better bus stops, and railways for our long-term needs,” she added.
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