The government will issue the so-called “patriotic bonds” in January next year to raise funds for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of war-torn Marawi City in Mindanao, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday.
“As far as the Marawi bonds is concerned, we [will] probably do it sometime next year or early January,” Diokno said.
“We are still finalizing the specifics and the terms of the bonds,” Diokno said.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III floated in August the idea of issuing the bonds, possibly worth P30 billion, to finance the rehabilitation of Marawi.
Dominguez said he had ordered the Treasury to study the possible issuance of the debt securities. He said the bonds would appeal to those citizens who would like to help rebuild the lives of their fellow Filipinos in Marawi.
“These are what you would call patriotic bonds to help augment the funds that the government has set aside for Marawi’s rehabilitation,” Dominguez said at a recent meeting of Finance’s executive committee.
He made the statement even as the Senate adopted Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III’s proposed resolution calling for the creation of a special committee that would focus on rebuilding Marawi.
Pimentel said the extent of the damage sustained by Marawi and the large number of displaced citizens because of the rebellion required a well-coordinated, large-scale rebuilding effort on the part of the government.
Dominguez asked National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon to study the tenor or length of maturity of the bonds, which could possibly be for 20 years.
Diokno earlier said the government would release at least P15 billion to rehabilitate Marawi in the next two years. The allocations would form part of the proposed budget of the Marawi reconstruction master plan spearheaded by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Diokno said the initial fund of P5 billion for 2017 would be sourced from the 2016 and 2017 National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council fund, with a combined remaining balance of around P7.4 billion, and the 2017 contingent fund with a balance of almost P3.35 billion.
President Rodrigo Duterte also formalized the creation of an inter-agency task force dedicated to the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Marawi.
Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 3 on June 28 to create Task Force Bangon Marawi, with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as chairman and Public Works Secretary Mark Villar as vice chairman.