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THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) will extend its development policy
program support for the Philippines, an official of the multilateral
lender said Monday.
Jaseem Ahmed, ADB director, said the bank is
preparing for the second tranche of the loan amounting to roughly
$250 million and scheduling a third loan in the same amount for next
year.
“Hopefully, by June, we would have made firm
agreements with the government,” Ahmed told reporters.
The fund will be used for programs on fiscal
stability, anticorruption and budget process, and to improve the
collection efforts of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau
of Customs.
In a related development, Japan and ADB have
provided a $1-million grant to give to the millions of impoverished
people in the country, most of whom have no financial protection,
greater access to insurance service.
The grant, provided by the Japan Fund for
Poverty Reduction and managed by ADB, will develop and implement
guidelines and standards for an insurance service that will cater
to the need of low-income families for protection against the risk
of income loss due to death, illness or work-related injury.
To date, only 3.1 million poor people in the
Philippines are insured.
“An affordable insurance scheme for the poor
would be a potent tool to shield them from uncertainty and future
losses,” Eiichi Sasaki, ADB financial sector specialist, said.
The grant agreement was signed by ADB and the
Department of Finance.
The National Credit Council of the DOF will
implement the project over the period of four years starting next
month.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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