Section 10Sec./Art. 10

Appropriations and Standby Fund. -The amounts that will be raised under Section 4 paragraphs (pp), (qq), (rr), (ss), (sss) and (ttt) of this Act shall be used, for the response and recovery interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic authorized in this Act and the following:

(a) Thirteen billion five hundred million pesos (P13,500,000,000.00) for the following health-related responses:

(1) Continuous employment of existing emergency HRH and additional emergency HRH for hiring;

(2) Augmentation for operations of DOH Hospitals;

(3) Special risk allowance for all public and private health workers directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients for every month that they are serving during the state of national emergency as declared by the President;

(4) Actual hazard duty pay for all health workers serving in the front line during the state of national emergency as declared by the President;

(5) Free life insurance, accommodation, transportation and meals for all public and private health workers; and

(6) Compensation to public and private health workers who may contract mild or severe/critical COVID-19 infection while in the line of duty, and those who may die while fighting the COVID-19 pandemic;

(b) Three billion pesos (P3,000,000,000.00) for procurement of face masks, PPE, shoe covers and face shields to be provided to all local health workers, barangay officials, and other indigent persons that need protection to prevent the spread of COVID-19:Provided,That preference shall be given to products manufactured, produced, or made in the Philippines;

(c) Four billion five hundred million pesos (P4,500,000,000.00) to finance the construction of temporary medical isolation and quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories for frontliners, and for the expansion of government hospital capacity all over the country;

(d) Thirteen billion pesos (P13,000,000,000.00) for the implementation of the following;

(1) Cash-for-work programs for displaced workers as may be necessary in the management of or response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as, but not limited to, TUPAD, CAMP and DOLE-AKAP for OFW; and

(2) Unemployment or involuntary separation assistance for displaced workers or employees, such as those in private health institutions, culture and arts, creative industry including, but not limited to, film and audiovisual workers, construction, public transportation, and trade and industries, cooperatives, and other sectors of the economy as may be identified by the DOLE, in coordination with the BIR, and SSS; freelancers, the self-employed and repatriated OFWs including OFWs whose deployment were suspended due to a government-imposed deployment ban;

(e) Thirty-nine billion four hundred seventy-two million five hundred thousand pesos (P39,472,500 )000.00) for the infusion of capital to GPIs to be allocated as follows:

(1) Five billion pesos (P5,000,000,000.00) for the credit guarantee program of the PhilGuarantee;

(2) Eighteen billion four hundred seventy-two million five hundred thousand pesos (P18,472,500,000.00) to support wholesale banking and equity infusion of the LBP for low interest loans to be extended to persons and entities engaged in industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;

(3) Six billion pesos (P6,000,000,000.00) to support wholesale banking and equity infusion of the DBP for low interest loans to be extended to persons and entities engaged in industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; and

(4) Ten billion pesos (P10.000,000,000.00) as additional funding for the CAKES Program of the SBCorp and for its other lending programs, as well as interest subsidy, to be extended to MSMEs, cooperatives, hospitals, tourism industry, and OFWs affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and by other socioeconomic reversals;

(f) Twenty-four billion pesos (P24,000,000,000.00) to provide direct cash or loan interest rate subsidies, under the programs of the Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Credit Policy Council (DA-ACPC) and other forms of assistance to qualified agri-fishery enterprises, fanners and fisherfolk registered under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), and agriculture cooperatives, to finance the Plant, Plant, Plant Program to ensure food security and continuous productivity in the agricultural sector including accessibility through farm to market roads;

(g) Nine billion five hundred million pesos (P9,500,000,000.00) to finance the following programs of the DOTr:

(1) Two billion six hundred four million pesos (P2,604,000,000.00) to assist the critically impacted businesses in the transportation industry;

(2) Five billion five hundred eighty million pesos (P5,580,000,000.00) to provide temporary livelihood to displaced workers in the industry through service contracting, regardless of quarantine levels, of public utility vehicles, as provided in this Act, as follows:

(i) Three billion pesos (P3,000,000,000.00) for public utility jeepney drivers; and

(ii) Two billion five hundred eighty million pesos (P2,580,000,000.00) for drivers of other public utility vehicles;

(3) One billion three hundred sixteen million pesos (P1,316,000,000.00) to develop accessible sidewalks and protected bicycle lanes, procurement of bicycles and related safety equipment for bicycle distribution, sharing and lending programs, and procurement of bicycle racks;

(h) One hundred million pesos (P100,000,000.00) to finance the training and subsidies for tourist guides;

(i) Three billion pesos (P3,000,000,000.00) to assist SUCs in the development of smart campuses through investments in ICT infrastructure, acquisition of learning management systems and other appropriate equipment to fully implement flexible learning modalities;

(j) Six hundred million pesos (P600,000,000.00) for subsidies and allowances to qualified students of public and private elementary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions;

(k) Three hundred million pesos (P300,000,000.00) for subsidies and allowances of displaced teaching and non-teaching personnel, including part-time faculty, in private and public elementary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions including part-time faculty in SUCs;

(l) One billion pesos (Pl,000,000,000.00) as additional scholarship funds of TESDA under its Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) and Special Training for Employment Program (STEP) for the retooling, retraining, and upskilling of displaced workers including returning OFWs, as well as provision of tool kits under the STEP;

(m) Six billion pesos (P6,000,000,000.00) to finance DSWD programs such as, but not limited to, AICS, emergency subsidy to cater for areas which will be placed on granular lockdown, Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) for informal sectors not being catered by DOLE, distribution of food and non-food items, livelihood assistance grants, and supplemental feeding program for daycare children:Provided, further,That funds of the AICS program can also be utilized to address COVID-19 response and recovery and to procure food packs subject to the existing circulars of DSWD;

(n) Four-billion pesos (P4,000,000,000.00) to assist the DepEd in the implementation of Digital Education, Information Technology (IT) and Digital Infrastructures and Alternative Learning Modalities, including printing and delivery of self-learning modules of the DepEd;

(o) One billion five hundred million pesos (Pl,500,000,000.00) as assistance to LGUs under the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF);

(p) One hundred eighty million pesos (P180,000,000.00) to finance the allowances for National Athletes and Coaches whose allowances were reduced due to the pandemic;

(q) Eight hundred twenty million pesos (PS20,000,000.00) for the augmentation of the Department of Foreign Affairs- Office of the Migrant Workers Affairs 2020 Assistance-to -Nationals Fund for repatriation-related expenses, shipment of remains and cremains of overseas Filipinos (OFs) who passed away due to COVID-19, medical assistance of OFs, and other assistance that may be provided for OFs who are affected by the pandemic;

(r) Four billion pesos (P4,000,000,000.00) for the tourism industry, to be distributed as follows:

(1) One billion pesos (Pl,000,000,000.00) for the Tourism Road Infrastructure Programs of DPWH; and

(2) Three billion pesos (P3.000,000,000.00) for the implementation of cash-for-work programs under DOLE and for the unemployment and involuntary separation assistance for displaced workers or employees;

(s) Four billion five hundred million pesos (P4,500,000,000.00) for construction and maintenance of isolation facilities including billing of hotels, food and transportation to be used for "'the COVID-19 response and recovery program by the Office of Civil Defense as the head of the National Task Force against COVID-19;

(t) Five billion pesos (P5,000,000,000.00), subject to Section 4(b) hereof, to finance the hiring of at least 50,000 contact tracers to be implemented by the DILG which shall include, but not limited to, recruitment, training, compensation, monitoring, logistics, and operational expenses;

(u) Two million five hundred thousand pesos (P2,500,000.00) for Professional Regulation Commission's computer-based licensure examination;

(v) Two billion pesos (P2,000,000,000.00) to subsidize the payment of interest on new and existing loans secured by the LGUs from LBP and DBP at One billion pesos (Pl,000,0O0,000) each;

(w) Ten million pesos (P10,000,000.00) for the HTAC research fund to provide for the commissioning of more COVID-19 research and enhance its internal capacity of evidence generation; and

(x) Fifteen million pesos (P15,000,000.00) for the establishment of a computational research laboratory in the University of the Philippines-Diliman Institute of Mathematics to process big data analysis for COVID-19 and other pandemic research.

In addition, a standby fund in the amount of Twenty-five billion five hundred twenty-seven million and five hundred thousand pesos (P25,527,500,000.00) is hereby authorized and shall be made available once additional funds are generated from savings and unused amounts to fund the following:

(1) Ten billion pesos (P10,000,000,000.00) for COVID-19 testing and procurement of COVID-19 medication and vaccine;

(2) Nine billion twenty-seven million and five hundred thousand pesos (P9,027,500,000.00) to support wholesale banking and equity infusion of the LBP for low interest loans to be extended to persons and entities engaged in industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;

(3) Six billion five hundred million pesos (P6,000.000.000.00) to support wholesale banking and equity infusion of the DBP for low interest loans to be extended to persons and entities engaged in industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; and

(4) All other programs and activities authorized in this Act:

Provided,That the DBM shall submit reports on the releases made pursuant to this section as part of the monthly report as mandated in Section 14 of this Act.