Philippines gets $500 mln ADB loan to cushion pandemic impact

The Philippines and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a 500-million-U.S.-dollar loan to help the country's efforts to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken a heavy toll on the poor, the Philippines' Department of Finance (DOF) said on Wednesday.

The Philippines secured this fresh financing package from the ADB to help support the country's immediate budgetary requirements to address the coronavirus crisis with the signing of a loan agreement for the Expanded Social Assistance Project (ESAP), the DOF said in a statement.

The DOF said the ESAP, which builds on a decade of ADB's support for social protection programs in the Philippines, aims to assist the government in the continued implementation of its conditional cash transfer initiative dubbed the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez stated that the budget-support loan would not only help bridge Philippines' funding gap for its COVID-19 response but would also strengthen its social protection program as it restarts economy and help people get back on their feet amid the pandemic.

The loan aims to continue funding education and health grants to eligible 4Ps household-beneficiaries for a period of four years starting 2020, the DOF added.

Last month, the Philippines secured a 400-million-U.S.-dollar loan from the ADB to strengthen its domestic capital market and mobilize funds for the infrastructure projects it hopes can spur an economic recovery next year.

The Philippines, which is on the edge of a recession after the coronavirus-induced lockdown shuttered business and sapped domestic demand, is banking on its multi-billion-U.S.-dollar "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure program to help the economy rebound.

The ESAP loan, which covers a maturity period of 29 years inclusive of an eight-year grace period, brings to 2.6 billion U.S. dollars the total financing package extended by the ADB so far to the Philippines for its programs to address the COVID-19 crisis.

The policy-based loan, the ADB says, it will help the Southeast Asian economy grow its government and corporate bond markets and expand its investor base.

The Philippines now has 26,781 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 1,103 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

(CGTN)