Presidential candidate Leody De Guzman said he will pursue a P1-trillion COVID recovery plan funded by a one-time 20 percent wealth tax “on the richest 500 families” in the country.
“I propose a state-driven economic recovery plan that regards the welfare of labor and the Filipino people as the foundation of the economy. Focus on the welfare, health, and rights of ordinary people, not the profit margins of the billionaires. People before profit,” De Guzman said.
The ambitious plan is composed of a P475-billion public jobs generation program, a P400-billion health stimulus, and a P125-billion stimulus for the micro, small and medium enterprises.
De Guzman said the plan seeks to generate 2.45 million jobs and impose a “fixed wage subsidy for 1 million workers in MSMEs.”
These include slots for 200,000 barangay health workers, 50,000 forest rangers and forest biodiversity caretakers, 300,000 teaching assistants and school personnel, and 500,000 agriculture workers, 200,000 construction workers, and 200,000 public works workers to be assigned to various agencies.
The program also aims to institutionalize the jobs generation program and include a P90-billion fund for an unemployment insurance program that will provide a P500 daily allowance to 1.3 million involuntarily unemployed workers for six months.
“The continuing program for 2023 onwards will seek to institutionalize the jobs generation program via a P500 billion per year employment guarantee to employ 2 million workers a year at a P750 daily wage and to be funded by recurring wealth tax on financial assets, from 1 percent to 5 percent based on a tiered tax rate and a wealth threshold,” De Guzman said.