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The Philippine government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have inked an agreement for a 200-million U.S. dollars loan on additional financing for the government's efforts to provide unconditional emergency cash assistance to millions of poor households that have been adversely affected by the quarantine measures imposed to contain COVID-19, the country's Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday.
The DOF said this loan accord, which was signed on Tuesday, is the second additional financing provided by the ADB under the Social Protection Support Project (SPSP), which supports the government's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.
According to the DOF, this budget-support loan will help bridge the immediate financing requirements of the government's response to this coronavirus crisis through the distribution via cash cards of cash grants to beneficiaries.
The DOF further said the loan for the project, which carries a maturity period of 29 years inclusive of an 8-year grace period, is expected to be disbursed by June this year.
On April 24, the ADB and the Philippines signed a loan agreement that would let the Duterte administration access up to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in budgetary support from the ADB to augment funds for its stepped-up efforts to contain the global health crisis.
ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said this loan for the COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) program is the largest budget support ever extended to the Philippines by the ADB.
The CARES program loan is under the ADB's Countercyclical Support Facility Pandemic Response Option, which is a quick-disbursing budget-support facility to aid countries like the Philippines in mitigating the severe economic shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and bankrolling measures to prevent the further spread of this highly contagious virus.
Asakawa said ADB's financing for the CARES program loan "is part of a well-sequenced support package that will provide financial and technical advice to help the (Philippines) meet the challenges posed by a crisis that is wreaking havoc both globally and nationally."
The ADB was among the first multilateral development institutions to provide assistance to the Philippines' COVID-19 response efforts with its delivery of a three-million U.S. dollars grant for the government's purchase of medical supplies for its frontline health workers.
(CGTN)
