THE humanitarian and development arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said it expects to lose P35 million in funding for its projects due to the foreign aid freeze imposed last month by United States President Donald Trump.
The projects to be affected are feeding program, relief assistance, and human skills development for the poor and calamity-hit communities, said Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, Caritas Philippines president, in a radio interview.
Bagaforo said Caritas depends on foreign funding, like that coming from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Catholic Relief Service of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Bagaforo said the freeze does not mean Caritas’ social services programs will stop. He said the Catholic Church will try to continue the programs using its own funds, particularly from the “Alay Kapwa” program of Caritas Philippines.
“More and more, I think we should be able to support our own programs. We can do it if we are able to strengthen and expand our Alay Kapwa program,” he said.
“It’s about time that, on our own, we should be able to raise our own funds, to help our own people,” he added.
