The Finance department is in exploratory talks with some of the Philippines’ international development partners to boost support for the projects adversely affected by the suspension brought on by the United Nations-sanctioned investigation into the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs, Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said over the weekend.
Dominguez has ordered Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven, who heads the department’s International Finance Group, to review the affected projects and find ways these can be financed by other bilateral partners that did not support the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.
The council had sought a comprehensive written report on the Philippines’ human rights situation in relation to its tough war against illicit drugs and narco-trafficking.
Dominguez did not identify these potential donor-countries as his department’s talks with them are still in the preliminary stage.
“We are currently in exploratory talks with our other bilateral partners on how they can assist the Philippine government in funding the grants that were previously under negotiation but were suspended on orders of the President,” Dominguez said in a statement.
Argentina, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay all voted to adopt the resolution of the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council. Fourteen others voted in the negative while 14 abstained.
France, Germany and Sweden were among the UNHRC non-members that backed the resolution.
Dominguez made it clear that the Palace order, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, only directed the concerned agencies to “suspend negotiations for and signing of all loan and grant agreements with the governments of the countries that co-sponsored and/or voted in favor of the aforesaid resolution, pending the assessment of our relations with these countries.”
The suspension, according to Dominguez, does not mean a permanent cancellation of the talks, but only a deferment pending the assessment of the Philippines’ relations with these countries.
He said the assessment would be done by Foreign Affairs, which is the Cabinet department tasked to promote and protect the Philippines’ interests before the international community.
He said the suspension only covered those loans under negotiation, and would not affect the loans and grants already being implemented.
Dominguez said the proposed financing with the affected countries, except for a small project loan for the Metro Manila Bus Rapid Transit worth 21 million euros, covered technical assistance grants, “and hence will not significantly affect the infrastructure program of the government.
“In any case, multilateral development financial institutions and other bilateral partners have signified their willingness to finance the said 21 million euro project loan.”
Moreover, Dominguez said, the loan terms offered by the affected countries, if there were any, were no better than the rates offered by the MDFIs and the other bilateral partners.
The ongoing grants on record with the affected countries amount to $197.03 million, including $172.4 million with Australia, $4.8 million from Ital, $1.11 million from Spain, $9.74 million from France and $8.98 million from Germany.
“All of these will not be affected,” Dominguez said.
The projects in the pipeline that would be affected were with France, which covered the Metro Manila BRT and those with Germany valued at $36 million to finance studies mainly on climate change, he said.
Dominguez said during a recent briefing on the his department’s 2020 budget at the Senate that the government had already found a substitute for the 21-million euro loan, while it was now looking for a replacement to finance the Germany-funded program.