The Philippine House of Representatives has passed a 1.3 trillion peso (50 pesos to the dollar) stimulus bill on its third reading to support industry recovery and reemployment. The 628 billion pesos in the bill would go to wage subsidies and loan repayments for companies hit by the outbreak, with the rest going to health, education and food security. It is expected to create 3m short-term jobs, create 1.5m infrastructure jobs over the next three years and support 5.57m small, medium and micro businesses.

The latest figures from the World Health Organization show that the Philippines had 28,459 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of June 20. The outbreak has had a severe impact on the Philippine economy. The World Bank has forecast that the Philippine economy will contract by 1.9 per cent in 2020. The Bank said the Philippine government had implemented a massive fiscal stimulus package, but the outbreak had not yet reached an inflection point, and the economic downturn would continue as a result of crises such as domestic shutdowns, reduced tourism, disruptions in trade and manufacturing, and spillovers from financial markets.

The Philippine government has allocated 27.1 billion pesos in emergency funds to fight the epidemic and support areas that have been hit hard by the outbreak. The Government also provided loans to affected civil servants and retirees through the Civil Service Insurance Agency and raised funds from state-owned enterprises.

Former Philippine Senate Speaker Manny Villar said his government is pursuing a "big Build" program that will help create more jobs and raise some family income to offset the negative impact of the epidemic. Rising public spending on infrastructure and social services, supported by low inflation and expansionary monetary policy, will help the slow recovery.

Alan Peter Cayetano, speaker of the House of Representatives, said the reopening of economic activity will tilt government investment toward sectors such as tourism, which has been hit hardest, to help micro, small and medium enterprises (msmes) recover, and accelerate infrastructure development to help get the economy back on track in the next year or two.

The Philippine economy grew 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the second-fastest growth rate in the region, trade and industry Secretary Ramon Lopez said recently. Once the Philippines recovers from the epidemic, its economy will continue to grow at a high rate. According to the world Bank's latest forecasts, growth is expected to rebound to 6.2 per cent next year.

The Asian development bank, a senior economic adviser to Mr Zhuang, said after the outbreak, the Philippines and other southeast Asian countries to adopt took various economic stimulus measures, including the provision of liquidity, and encourage financial institutions to corporate loans, for small and medium-sized enterprises to provide direct subsidies and credit guarantee, for unemployment and low-income groups to provide cash relief, etc., to prevent large-scale collapse of enterprises and financial meltdown. As of June 1, southeast Asian countries had invested us $312 billion, equivalent to about 10 percent of the region's GDP, playing an important role in stabilizing their economies.