Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Small Business (SB) Corp., the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has been able to secure fresh funding for the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program to assist the recovery of small-scale businesses.

In a text message on Thursday, Lopez said government financial institutions Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) have provided PHP1 billion to SB Corp. to continue the rollout of the loan program for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The SB Corp. has stopped receiving new applications for the CARES program as loan applications have reached PHP3.5 billion.

The DTI initially earmarked PHP1 billion for the program.

“We are just completing documentation from (the) SB Corp. side,” Lopez said, adding that fresh funding may be rolled out next week.

Aside from Landbank and DBP, the DTI is also allocating funds from its “Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso”, or P3 loan program.

Early this week, Lopez said an additional PHP5 billion would be “good enough for now” to sustain the CARES program. (PNA)