Hungary offered to the Philippines a $500-million credit facility to finance the construction of water treatment facilities near rivers and lakes, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Wednesday.
Piñol said Hungarian Ambassador to the Philippines Jozsef Bencze in a courtesy call informed him about Hungary’s expertise in lake rehabilitation.
“Hungary is advanced in their water treatment [system and technology],” Piñol said.
Piñol said he was also looking at the possibility of turning Laguna Lake as the pilot area. “I have requested Secretary Carlos Dominguez of Department of Finance to assist us in exploring how we could tap the credit facility they have offered,” Piñol said.
He said that while the credit facility could be managed by Land Bank of the Philippines, the fisher folk of Laguna Lake would be the one to manage the operations of the treatment facilities.
Piñol said he also told Ambassador Bencze that he was interested in utilizing the same credit facility for the the construction of the proposed Philippine Rubber Tire Facility.