COVID19- Philippines Opens USD 524m War Chest

Wednesday 18th of March 2020

COVID19- Philippines Opens USD 524m War Chest

The Philippines government’s media arm has revealed the breakdown of the huge budget released for the COVID-19 crisis that is sweeping the country. The country opened its USD 524 million “war chest” to combat the COVID-19 and USD 271m is allocated to the tourism sector.

As a reason for allocating 50% of the huge budget to the tourism sector, the country’s finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III explained that it is the industry that is most affected by coronavirus outbreak.

The Philippines is one of the top 10 countries that are most dependent on tourism. The Philippines’ National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has estimated that tourist arrivals in the country will drop by 1.4 million that will incur up to USD 3.6bn loss. Moreover, 30,000 to 50,000 jobs may be lost amid the COVID-19 threat.

An additional USD 60m will be allocated to contribute directly to efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19, including the acquisition of test kits. The funds came from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).