5 billion in interest earnings the Philippine International Trading Corp. made through public funds lodged in the state trading company.
The funds must be returned to help the government's "continuous efforts to identify sources of fiscal space and to accommodate the country’s various medical and social needs as a result of the pandemic, compounded by the successive calamities which recently hit the country," the letter read. The earnings were from the the "cash and investment balances transferred by several national government agencies to the corporation for the procurement of their various requirements," a statement from the Department of Finance read.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pushed for the abolition of the PITC, saying that it was duplicating the purpose of existing procurement agencies.