Bayanihan to Recover As One Act

Policy and objectives

Section 3 declares State policy to promote a just and dynamic social order ensuring prosperity and independence, freeing the people from poverty, and providing adequate social services with full employment, a rising standard of living, and improved quality of life, especially after disasters.
Section 3 directs COVID-19 recovery mechanisms to reduce adverse socioeconomic impacts through assistance, subsidies, and socioeconomic relief to all Filipinos.
Section 3 requires consolidation, updating, and validation of records through DSWD in coordination with IATF-EID, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and LGUs to build a comprehensive, up-to-date, unified database to identify relief recipients.
Section 3 mandates sustained efforts to test, trace, isolate, and treat COVID-19 cases to mitigate transmission and prevent further loss of lives.
Section 3 orders enhancement of healthcare system capacity by ensuring budgetary support to eliminate, prevent, and control outbreaks and pandemics and mitigate other health or life-threatening concerns.
Section 3 directs mitigation of pandemic economic costs and losses, restoration of public trust, acceleration of recovery and resilience through economic inclusivity and fiscal sustainability, and optimization of science, technology, and innovation in policy-making.
Section 3 includes establishing mechanisms that (a) accommodate alternative transportation, including a network of bicycle lanes in all roads in every city, municipality, and province for those who opt to use bicycles, and (b) enhance the country’s financial stability to support government programs against COVID-19.

COVID-19 response powers authorized

Section 4 authorizes the President to exercise powers necessary and proper to undertake and implement enumerated COVID-19 response and recovery interventions.
Section 4(a) authorizes prevention/suppression measures following WHO or United States CDC guidelines and best practices through education, detection, protection, and treatment.
Section 4(a) requires that the percentage of the population that undergoes COVID-19 testing must follow WHO standards and global benchmarks in areas identified by DOH and DILG as epicenters, and in other areas with higher transmission possibility.
Section 4(a) compels DOH and DILG to adopt a COVID-19 disease surveillance protocol defining minimum health standards for workplaces and business activities, including COVID-19 testing and establishment of contact tracing, including personal contact tracing where a person records places visited and persons contacted.
Section 4(a) requires automatic treatment for any individual who tests positive through laboratory confirmation at a national reference laboratory, sub-national reference laboratory, or DOH-certified laboratory testing facility, and mandates automatic isolation if necessary in a DOH-accredited quarantine and isolation facility.
Section 4(a) directs IATF-EID to identify and prioritize critically impacted areas and business activities and coordinate with relevant LGUs and government agencies for protocol implementation.
Section 4(a) directs DILG, in partnership with LGUs and other agencies, to distribute testing-kits to DOH-accredited government hospitals and facilities that can perform testing and to lead the government’s contact-tracing efforts.
Section 4(b) authorizes an expedited and streamlined registration process for SARS-CoV-2 viral testing kits (including PCR, nucleic acid, antigen, and other HTAC-recommended kits) and facilitation of prompt testing by public and designated private institutions for suspected/probable cases and others based on risk factors, plus compulsory and immediate isolation and treatment of confirmed, suspected, and probable patients.

Testing, treatment, and reporting rules

Section 4(b) requires that testing and treatment costs for COVID-19 patients be covered under the National Health Insurance Program of PhilHealth, and that contacts be immediately traced using efficient technology for data collection and analysis.
Section 4(b) requires engaging contact tracers, which may include displaced workers (formal and informal), barangay health worker networks, parent-leaders from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and members of duly accredited Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), subject to DILG rules on recruitment, training, and compensation.
Section 4(c) authorizes adoption of a protocol on viral testing and other COVID-19 testing kits recommended by HTAC, with IATF-EID ensuring: adequate numbers of testing centers offering available, affordable, accessible testing with PhilHealth reimbursement under existing guidelines, and equal access for geographically isolated or highly populated and depressed areas.
Section 4(c) requires hiring skilled medical technologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, and other skilled laboratory technicians to achieve an ideal personnel-to-laboratory ratio, using existing public and private molecular laboratory infrastructure.
Section 4(c) governs procurement and distribution of HTAC-recommended testing supplies based on current levels and projections of severe/critical symptomatic and exposed numbers and mild symptomatic and vulnerable returning-to-work numbers.
Section 4(c) allows LGUs to implement procurement/distribution/monitoring consistent with the Act, DOH guidelines, and HTAC recommendations using rapid health technology assessment.
Section 4(c) limits imports: only testing kits sold and complied with relevant regulations in the country of origin with an established regulatory agency may be imported, sold, accepted by donation, and registered in the Philippines.
Section 4(c) requires recall and delisting by the FDA of testing kits recalled by established regulatory agencies of other countries.
Section 4(e) requires DOH adoption of a uniform and consistent reporting standard in language understandable by the general public.

Immunization, reporting, and subsidies

Section 4(d) requires uninterrupted immunization against vaccine-preventable diseases, especially for children, including COVID-19 vaccines.
Section 4(f)(1) provides an emergency subsidy of PHP 5,000.00 to PHP 8,000.00 to affected low-income households under granular lockdown and to households with recently returned OFWs, computed using prevailing regional minimum wage rates.
Section 4(f)(1) requires taking into account the subsidy received from the current Conditional Cash Transfer Program and rice subsidy in computing the emergency subsidy.
Section 4(f)(1) simplifies vetting/validation of Social Amelioration Program (SAP) beneficiaries and the related liquidation report to expedite subsidy distribution and requires submission of a definite actual SAP beneficiary list to Congress.
Section 4(f)(2) provides unemployment or involuntary separation assistance of PHP 5,000.00 to PHP 8,000.00 to displaced workers or employees due to COVID-19, covering specified employment types in private health institutions, culture and arts, creative industries, film and audiovisual workers, broadcast, construction, public transportation, trade and industries, cooperatives, and other sectors, as identified by DOLE, including freelancers, self-employed, and repatriated OFWs whose deployment was suspended due to a government deployment ban.
Section 4(f)(2) requires separating assistance given to OFWs from any benefits/assistance they receive as OWWA members.
Section 4(f)(2) allows recipients to receive the unemployment assistance even if they previously received subsidy under Republic Act No. 11469.
Section 4(f)(2) bars SSS members who received unemployment benefits under Section 14-B of Republic Act No. 11199 during the COVID-19 pandemic from receiving the assistance, and directs SSS to take proactive steps to ensure qualified members receive unemployment benefits under Republic Act No. 11199.
Section 4(f)(3) provides emergency subsidy to low-income households qualified but not granted the mandated subsidy under Section 4(c) of Republic Act No. 11469.
Section 4(f) requires that, as far as practicable, any subsidy program use a social protection distribution system embedding secure, privacy-preserving data capture, verification, deduplication, payroll generation, grievance, and payout using digital technologies, and authorizes payment of transaction fees for last-mile delivery to qualified beneficiaries.

Livelihood assistance, education help, and worker support

Section 4(g) requires access to livelihood assistance, skills and training programs, loan assistance, and employment opportunities for repatriated and returning OFWs for reintegration and full utilization of their skills for national development.
Section 4(h) provides a COVID-19 special risk allowance by the national government for all public and private health workers directly catering to or in contact with COVID-19 patients for every month during the declared state of national emergency.
Section 4(h) requires that the special risk allowance for public health workers is in addition to the hazard pay under Republic Act No. 7305 and the active hazard duty pay under this Act.
Section 4(h) exempts the special risk allowance for both public and private health workers from income tax.
Section 4(i) mandates mandatory COVID-19 testing of public and private health workers every fifteen (15) days during the declared national emergency.
Section 4(j) compels assumption of all medical expenses of public and private health workers for exposure to COVID-19 or any work-related injury or disease during the declared national emergency.
Section 4(k) provides compensation for public and private health workers who contract COVID-19 in the line of duty, with:
- PHP 1,000,000.00 for death of a health worker to heirs;
- PHP 100,000.00 for severe or critical illness; and
- PHP 15,000.00 for mild or moderate illness.
Section 4(k) grants retroactive application from February 1, 2020 and exempts the compensation from applicable taxes under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended.
Section 4(k) requires payment to beneficiaries not later than three (3) months after the date of confinement or death, and requires survival of this compensation subsection after the Act’s expiration as long as a health worker contracts mild or severe COVID-19 while in the line of duty or dies while fighting during the declared national emergency.
Section 4(l) requires life insurance, accommodation, transportation, and meals for all public and private health workers during the declared national emergency regardless of the community quarantine status.
Section 4(m) provides financial relief to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries during the declared national emergency by:
- condoning payment of interests, penalties, and surcharges of loans used for land acquisition to government agencies and GOCCs including Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP); and
- restructuring the remaining original principal value without interest,
- with prior interest payments credited to principal, subject to applicable general banking laws and BSP regulations on condonation.
Section 4(n) provides education subsidies to qualified students in private and public elementary, secondary, and tertiary education whose families face financial difficulties due to work stoppage and closure under the CQ and who are neither in the Listahan of DSWD nor covered under ESC, SHS VP, and TES under Republic Act Nos. 8545, 10533, and 10931, with suspension of the geographic prioritization of areas without SUCs and LUCs under Republic Act No. 10931.
Section 4(n) requires education subsidies released directly to private tertiary institutions or private basic education schools to apply to unpaid tuition in SY 2019-2020 or tuition for SY 2020-2021, and requires release prior to opening SY 2020-2021 or within a reasonable period after school opening but no later than September 2020.
Section 4(o) grants one-time cash assistance to displaced teaching and non-teaching personnel in private and public elementary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions, and part-time faculty in SUCs, who lost jobs or did not receive wages, including part-time faculty or non-permanent teaching personnel.
Section 4(pp) directs LGUs to act within the letter and spirit of national government rules, regulations, and directives pursuant to the Act while ensuring standards of CQ consistent with national policy, allowing LGU autonomy in matters undefined by national government or within national parameters, and requiring full cooperation for unified, cohesive, orderly national implementation.
Section 4(pp) requires the IATF-EID to provide guidance on cross-border concerns (including LSIs, OFWs, domestic travellers, and residents) while LGUs determine policies and regulations within their jurisdictions under freedom of movement.

LGU realignment, budget flexibilities, and releases

Section 4(q) authorizes local chief executives of all LGUs to realign local funds (including items such as development fund, Gender and Development Fund, Sangguniang Kabataan Fund, Special Education Fund (SEF), and other local funds) including unutilized or unreleased subsidies and transfers to address COVID-19.
Section 4(q) authorizes punong barangays to realign allotments and subsidies in response to the pandemic.
Section 4(q) allows LGUs to utilize up to ten percent (10%) of current budget to cover expenditures arising from COVID-19 responses, and waives the seventy percent (70%) limit on “pre-disaster” initiatives.
Section 4(q) allows LGUs to increase personnel services caps by up to ten percent (10%) for first (1st) to third (3rd) class municipalities and up to five percent (5%) for fourth (4th) to sixth (6th) class municipalities, and cities and provinces.
Section 4(q) limits increased personnel services use to hiring additional health workers, generating temporary jobs for marginalized and hard-hit sectors, and other emergency employment programs undertaken by the LGU in response to COVID-19.
Section 4(q) increases the allowable debt service ceiling to thirty percent (30%) of annual regular income including LGU share in national taxes.
Section 4(q) exempts LGUs from the loan ceiling cap imposed by the DOF.
Section 4(q) requires DBM and BTr to automatically and completely release adjusted or remaining shares of LGUs in national wealth and NTA pursuant to Section 286 of Republic Act No. 7160.
Section 4(q) appropriates PHP 3,500,000,000.00 with PHP 1,500,000,000.00 to Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) for LGU anti-COVID assistance, and PHP 1,000,000,000.00 each to LBP and DBP to subsidize interest on new and existing loans secured by LGUs from GFIs.

Health products, PPE, and streamlined procurement

Section 4(s) enforces measures to protect people from hoarding, profiteering, injurious speculations, manipulation of prices, product deceptions, and cartels/monopolies or other combinations in restraint of trade, or other pernicious practices affecting supply, distribution, and movement of essential goods and prime necessities including food, clothing, hygiene and sanitation products, medicine and medical supplies, fuel, fertilizers, chemicals, building materials, implements, machinery equipment and spare parts required in agriculture, industry, and other essential services, whether imported or locally produced.
Section 4(t) requires donation, acceptance, and distribution of health products intended to address COVID-19 not to be unnecessarily delayed, and mandates that health products for donation certified by the regulatory agency or its accredited third party from countries with established regulation are automatically cleared, except health products that do not require FDA certification or clearance.
Section 4(u) provides PPE (protective suits, face masks, shoe covers, face shields, goggles, and similar items) to public and private COVID-19 referral hospitals, barangays, and other indigent persons through DOH, with preference and incentives for medical safety products locally manufactured.
Section 4(v) authorizes, as the need arises, procurement of listed items as exempt from bidding process requirements under Republic Act No. 9184 and other relevant laws, while requiring publication in the GPPB online portal, the procuring entity website if available, and conspicuous notice within premises reserved for the purpose within seven (7) working days from the date of acceptance of award.
Section 4(v) requires the published information and documents to include: project name, approved budget for contract, contract period, name of winning supplier/distributor/manufacturer/contractor/consultant, amount as awarded, notice of award, date of award and acceptance, contract or purchase order, and a certification of efforts to secure the most advantageous price based on price data or preliminary market scanning.
Section 4(v)(i) lists eligible goods (including PPE such as gloves, gowns, masks, goggles, face shields; surgical equipment and supplies; laboratory equipment and reagents; medical equipment and devices; supplies/tools/consumables; common medicines; testing kits; and other DOH and relevant agency-determined supplies/equipment).
Section 4(v)(i) prioritizes allocation/distribution of such goods to COVID-19 referral hospitals (including PGH, LCP, Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital), private hospitals with existing capacities to provide support care and treatment to COVID-19 patients, and public and private laboratories with existing capacities to test suspected COVID-19 patients.
Section 4(v)(ii)-(vi) authorizes procurement of goods and services for social amelioration, lease of property/venues for health workers, quarantine centers, medical relief and aid distribution locations, temporary medical facilities, establishment/construction/operation of temporary medical facilities, utilities/telecommunications/critical services for quarantine/relief operations, and ancillary services related to these.
Section 4(v) provides domestic preference and requires DTI through Negosyo Centers to coordinate availment of relevant credit and training programs to promote domestic supply, while still requiring competitive procurement procedures.
Section 4(v) requires awarding to the lowest domestic manufacturer-bidder notwithstanding a bid being fifteen percent (15%) in excess of the lowest foreign bid, subject to securing a DTI certification that articles in the domestic bid are substantially composed of Philippine-grown/produced/manufactured articles/materials/supplies.
Section 4(v) prioritizes and expedites qualification and documentary requirements for local manufacturers and suppliers through DOH, FDA, and other concerned departments and agencies.
Section 4(v) authorizes partnering with the Philippine Red Cross as the primary humanitarian agency auxiliary to government, subject to reimbursement, for distribution of goods and services incidental to COVID-19 response.
Section 4(w) authorizes engaging temporary Human Resources for Health (HRH) to complement/supplement the health workforce or staff temporary facilities established under Section 4(u)(4).
Section 4(w) requires temporary HRH to receive appropriate compensation and allowances, mandates national government actual hazard duty pay for HRH on the front line, and exempts the active hazard duty pay from income tax; it also requires DOH, DOLE, and attached agencies to coordinate proper referral of returning OFW-health workers or those with suspended deployments to ongoing hiring of temporary HRH.

Credit, guarantees, incentives, and supply protection

Section 4(x) ensures availability of credit to productive sectors, including measures to lower effective lending rates and reserve requirements, and imposes low-interest credit accommodation for MSMEs, cooperatives, and self-employed with payable within three (3) years and no collateral if the loan does not exceed Three million pesos (P3,000,000.00).
Section 4(y) provides loan interest rate subsidies for institutions of learning affected by reduced enrollment or needing to implement blended learning, requiring more reasonable terms than prevailing market terms, conditioning on non-implementation of tuition/fee increases for the next school year, and requiring private schools/colleges/universities receiving grants to retain personnel complement and not retrench employees for nine (9) months from receipt of grant.
Section 4(z) directs SBCorp to expand loan programs for MSMEs, cooperatives, hospitals, tourism, and OFWs through increased loanable funds, reduced documentary requirements, increased maximum loan amounts per borrower, reduced interest rates, extended loan terms, financial technologies to expand reach, and fast turnaround processing time, and allows loan proceeds for payroll costs, materials and suppliers, mortgage payments, rent, utilities (including fuel and storage), creation of supportive businesses, re-purposing business capital, business debt obligations incurred before the covered period, and acquisition of new technologies and systems for resiliency.
Section 4(aa) directs LBP and DBP to introduce low interest and/or “flexible term” loan programs for operating expenses for businesses affected by COVID-19, prioritizing agri-fishery and non-essential businesses that are MSMEs and cooperatives, including start-ups and cooperatives.
Section 4(bb) directs PhilGuarantee to issue an expanded government guarantee program for non-essential businesses, prioritizing critically impacted businesses, MSMEs, cooperatives and activities supporting DOH initiatives on adequate health supply, and to guarantee loan portfolios of partner financial institutions for eligible MSME/cooperative loans.
Section 4(cc) liberalizes incentives for manufacture or importation of critical or needed equipment, supplies, or essential goods for COVID-19 response, with exemption from import duties, taxes, and other fees determined by BOC and BIR respectively, and allows limitations on sale/distribution/trade to prevent shortages and keep prices reasonable.
Section 4(cc) punishes violations under Section 16 of Republic Act No. 7581 (the Price Act, as amended).
Section 4(cc) defines “critical products, equipment or supplies or essential goods” to include COVID-19 containment/mitigation goods under Section 4(u)(1), waste management equipment/technologies/services approved by DENR, DOH, or other regulatory agencies, and inputs/raw materials/equipment necessary to manufacture essential goods under Section 4(u)(1).
Section 4(cc) requires DTI certification for import-duty/tax/fee exemption qualification ensuring imported equipment/supplies are not locally available or not of sufficient quality, and gives preference to Philippine-made products.

Disruptions, business contracting, and loans assistance

Section 4(dd) ensures availability of essential goods, particularly food and medicine, by facilitating and/or minimizing supply chain disruption and improving end-to-end supply chain, including reducing logistics costs for basic commodities/services, and empowers DTI to suspend export requirements of export enterprises producing critical goods under Section 4(u)(1) so they must supply locally subject to Section 4(cc).
Section 4(ee) requires businesses to prioritize and accept contracts for materials and services necessary for the declared national policy, with rates chargeable by accommodation establishments to persons mandated by law/regulations to undergo quarantine regulated by the DOT.
Section 4(ff) provides extension support, direct cash or loan interest rate subsidy, or other assistance to qualified agri-fishery enterprises, agriculture cooperatives, farmers, fisherfolk, and other agricultural workers through DA.
Section 4(gg) directs DOTr and authorized agencies to extend assistance to critically impacted transportation industry businesses (including transport cooperatives), specifically:
- direct cash or loan interest rate subsidies,
- grants for applicable regulatory fees,
- substitution of refund option to travel vouchers,
- grants for fuel subsidy and/or digital fare vouchers,
- grants for training, equipment, facilities, test kits, and necessary personnel for coping with increased health risks.
Section 4(gg) requires DOTr to prescribe eligibility requirements and other terms and conditions for assistance within fifteen (15) days from the Act’s effectivity.
Section 4(gg) restricts loan-related measures to critically impacted businesses and transport cooperatives only, requires a reasonable and proper business plan, and requires use of the loan/loan guarantee programs and related measures under the Act subject to the corresponding intervention rules including proper credit assessment by LBP and DBP.
Section 4(gg) allows regulatory-fee grants to include reductions by removal of local taxes and reductions of fees/charges of regulatory agencies and LGUs, payable to BIR, LGUs, and relevant regulatory agencies chargeable against the fund created for that subsection, and caps grant availment for a critically impacted business at not more than six (6) months.

Tourism, ICT infrastructure, and transport regulation

Section 4(hh) directs the DOT to assist critically impacted tourism enterprises (including tourism-oriented barangay micro business enterprises, tourism cooperatives, and informal sector members in tourism) through loan interest rate subsidy, DPWH tourism road infrastructure program support, cash-for-work programs, training/marketing/product development promotions, IT utilization for tourism services and emergency response, and establishing COVID-19 testing centers in tourist destinations identified by DOT in partnership with LGU and DOH and/or private entities, plus other relevant programs including infrastructure and subsidized domestic package tours.
Section 4(hh) requires SBCorp to administer the loan interventions for DOT under the CARES Program subject to DOT guidelines, and restricts loan interventions to accredited tourism enterprises, including small-scale tourism-oriented enterprises accredited by LGUs under Republic Act No. 9178; it also states that availing other Act relief measures does not disqualify tourism enterprises from measures under this subsection.
Section 4(ii) authorizes measures through partnership with internet/communications service providers to accelerate deployment of critical ICT infrastructure, including additional cell towers, equipment, software, and wireless technologies, to address connectivity, speed/stability, cybersecurity, and support online services and home/mobile working, learning, work-from-home transactions, meetings, and seminars/webinars via DICT.
Section 4(ii)(1) temporarily suspends requirements to secure permits/clearances for construction of telecommunications and internet infrastructure for three (3) years from the Act’s effectivity, except:
- building permit from the Office of the Building Official pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 1096 (National Building Code of the Philippines, as amended), and
- CAAP height clearance permit.
Section 4(ii)(1) requires CAAP height clearance if the tower infrastructure exceeds fifty (50) meters in height and within a three (3)-kilometer radius of an airport flight plan, or is within a ten (10)-kilometer radius of communication-navigation surveillance facilities located off-airport