MANILA – Any conditions on assistance the Philippines may receive from a foreign aid agency must be aligned with the policies of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, a Palace official said.
Malacañang issued the statement on Sunday, August 20 after Washington-based Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) announced that the Philippines is among the candidate countries to receive assistance for 2018.
“We acknowledge and welcome the decision of the United States Millennium Challenge Corp to extend assistance to the Philippines after the first grant ended in May 2016,” Duterte’s spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.
MCC said it will assess a country’s eligibility for the grant based on criteria such as the country’s demonstrated commitment to just and democratic governance, economic freedom, and investments in its people.
Additional indicators include the country’s opportunity to reduce poverty and generate economic growth in the country, as well as the availability of funds.
The Philippines’ inclusion, Abella said, serves as a “recognition of the efforts” of the administration to “continue and maintain macroeconomic policies while investing in human capital development in health and educational systems and improving social protection programs to protect the poor.”
He credited the administration’s socioeconomic agenda for the Philippines’ inclusion in MCC’s list of candidate countries.
While the Philippine government welcomed the recent developments, Malacañang stressed that it will study the conditions set by the U.S. poverty reduction agency.
“While we are happy with this new development, our economic managers would study the conditions set by the MCC if these are aligned with the President’s priority agenda,” Abella added.
In December 2016, MCC deferred a vote on the re-selection of the Philippines, saying it withheld its second aid due to “significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties.”
Its first grant, worth $434 million, expired in May last year.
