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By Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter
IN AN effort to secure a grant
from Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the Philippines has
fine-tuned six compact proposals for submission to the MCC
Transaction Team prior to the MCC peer review process.
The Millennium Challenge is a
United States government corporation that works with some of the
poorest countries in the world to reduce global poverty by promoting
sustainable economic growth,
The Department of Foreign Affairs
reported that the Philippines submitted the proposals after the
MCA-Philippines (MCAP), led by Department of Finance and Secretary
Dante Canlas of the Point of Contact (POC), held technical
discussions with the MCC Transaction Team from December 1 to 5 last
year.
The MCC Transaction Team,
however, requested for additional details and as such, the
revitalized proposals would be resubmitted on January 31.
The proposals include fiscal
revenue enhancement and social safety net programs, community and
road infrastructure, coastal surveillance for fishing and
agricultural access to water.
“The Philippines was able to
correct certain misperceptions, reinforce understanding of the
reality on the ground, and highlight the resolve and actions we have
taken to fight corruption and to improve governance,” Foreign
Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said in a statement.
“We have also made progress in
developing our Compact proposals,” he added.
It was earlier reported that the
Washington-based MCC has suspended its aid for the Philippines
because the country still needs to initiate more measures to fight
corruption.
As a result, the MCC Board
decided to sign a Compact Agreement with the Philippines once the
country passes the indicator criteria on corruption.
“We take this as an affirmation
of their confidence in our efforts to prevail. We also see this as a
welcome challenge, in the context of the overall challenges we face
in winning a final victory against corruption,” Romulo, a former
executive secretary, said.
Romulo reiterated that out of 17
policy indicators that the MCC maintains, the Philippines scored
above the median in 14 indicators, saying that the country just
missed the control of corruption indicator by 0.01 below the median.
“This was largely due to a
change in the methodology used, which failed to take into account
recent efforts of the Philippine government to fight corruption,”
Romulo noted. “We have also enhanced our efforts to improve the
public health expenditure indicators. The median score was moved up
from that used a year ago.”
The MCC criteria includes investing
in people, massively reducing corruption and spreading economic
freedom and performances in civil liberties, political rights,
voice and accountability, government effectiveness, rule of law,
public health expenditure immunization rates, girls’ primary
education completion rate, public expenditure on primary education,
inflation, business start up, trade policy, regulatory quality,
fiscal policy, natural resource management and land rights and
access.
Romulo said the Philippine
government had shrugged off fears of losing the country’s
eligibility for the MCC grant [as] “the Philippines will submit
its anticorruption programs satisfying the Mac’s anti-corruption
standards.”
“We are very grateful to
the MCC Board, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and to the
officers and staff of the MCC, for recognizing the commitment and
determination of the Philippine government to vigorously implement
good governance and to aggressively fighting corruption,” Romulo
said.
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