House leaders said that the Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair (BPSF) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which has brought government services and aid closer to the people, is a living proof that the social protection and amelioration funds allocated in the national budget are being used appropriately.
Deputy speaker David Suarez of Quezon, House Committee on Dangerous Drugs chairperson Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, and House assistant majority leader Ernesto Dionisio of Manila all agreed that the BPSF – with Marcos and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez as primary proponents and movers – is a resounding success and should be continued or even institutionalized.
“We’re talking about hundreds of millions being downloaded directly to individuals,” Suarez said during the daily press briefing at the House of Representatives July 31.
“Come budget hearings, we can actually say yes, the budget and the funds were used properly and effectively, and the BPSF was one proper conduit that the funds benefitted the less fortunate na mga kababayan natin,” he added.
The BPSF has reached 20 provinces and cities all over the country and with billions of funds released for government services and social protection in the past several months, including areas in Mindanao, such as Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga City, Bukidnon, Agusan del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Davao de Oro, and Tawi-Tawi.
For Barbers, the BPSF is a revolutionary government program that releases aid directly to the grassroots of society.
Dionisio, for his part, said that the BPSF is “a window to see the plight of our countrymen.”
“I really applaud ‘yung move ni Presidente Bongbong Marcos at Speaker Romualdez for doing the BPSF na direktang nare-receive yung tulong ng bawat Pilipino, inaabot yung mga Pilipino,” Dionisio said in a press release from the Office of the Speaker. “We will make sure that the funding of such programs will be protected…(and) to increase the number of beneficiaries.” ||
