DAVAO CITY – The Philippine government received a total of P35.1 billion in pledges from various international development partners for the Bangon Marawi Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Program (BMCRRP), Finance secretary Carlos G. Dominguez announced.
The finance chief told a press conference Wednesday that of this amount, the government cornered P32.7 billion worth of concessional loans and P2.4 billion in grants during a closed door pledging session during the Sulong Pilipinas 2018 held at the SMX Convention Center here.
However, the Department of Finance (DOF) has yet to release a list of the international partners and their corresponding pledges as they have yet to get clearance from the International Finance Group (IFG).
But Dominguez thanked various international development partners such as Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the governments of China, Japan, and Italy for helping the city rise from devastation.
He also expressed his gratitude to the United Nations, ADB, and World Bank, and the governments of the United States, Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Korea and Spain for supporting Marawi’s reconstruction efforts in the form of technical assistance and preparatory support needed to ensure the implementation of the Bangon Marawi program and carry out community-based initiatives to help the residents of Marawi rebuild their lives.
Dominguez said around P72.58 billion will be needed to rehabilitate Marawi to be allocated over a five-year period, of this amount P47.20 billion will be allocated for the BMCRRP; and P17.20 billion for the rehabilitation of the Most Affected Areas (MAA) and P1.25 billion for livelihood assistance to be sourced from the local funds.
The remaining P6.9 billion was the humanitarian assistance from UN and its specialized agencies, as well as the governments of Australia, Italy, Japan, Korea, US, and private sector partners given during the early stageS of the recovery program.
Dominguez announced the government’s planned issuance of Marawi Bonds worth about P13.5 billion, regular budgets of government agencies, and pledges from international community will cover the funding requirements of the (BMCRRP).
“In the overall financing strategy for Marawi, 54% of the funding requirement will come from generous support we have received from foreign sources — in the form of grants and concessional loans while while local funds will be used to fund is 46% of the amount needed to rehabilitate and reconstruct the city,” he said.
“So in reality this really is a almost equal partnership between our foreign development partners and Filipino people themselves for the rehabilitationand reconstruction of Marawi,” he said.
Dominguez assured that we will “continue to work harder in the coming days to hasten the recovery and rehabilitation of the city.” (Antonio Colina)
