The Philippines received $19.656 billion in official development assistance (ODA) the past two decades, of which 40 percent or $7.947 billion were contracted in the past four and a half years of the Duterte administration.
In its report to Secretary Carlos Dominguez III of the Department of Finance (DOF), the agency’s International Finance Group (IFG) said the loans during the current administration were contracted mostly to help bankroll the government’s massive infrastructure investments under the Build, Build, Build (BBB) program, along with scaling up state funds for the huge financial requirements of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response and subsidies for families and sectors hit hard by the pandemic.
“The extensive bilateral borrowing during the (Duterte) administration has been instrumental in allowing the (government) to spend around 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for infrastructure to spur economic growth, and in safeguarding development gains during the pandemic,” said DOF Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven, head of the IFG,
Loans the past four and a half years under Duterte exceeded the ODA contracted by the Arroyo government in its nine-year term at $6.067 billion.
Bilateral ODA loans of the Aquino administration reached $5.641 billion.
During the past 20 years, Japan has granted the Philippines US$14.139 billion in loans contracted and committed making it the country’s largest bilateral source of ODA or 72 percent of the Philippines’ total bilateral loan portfolio.
Japan was followed by European Union, $3.049 billion; China, $1.185 billion; South Korea, $1.101 billion; United States, $160 million and; the Middle East, $20 million.
Japan remains the top ODA partner of the Philippines under President Duterte, accounting for $6.122 billion or 77 percent of the total ODA commitments. – Irma Isip
