The European Union approved a grant worth 24.5 million euros ($28.8 million or P1.38 billion) to help strengthen the government’s peace and confidence-building initiatives in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and assist in the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi City in Mindanao.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III signed on Aug. 11 the agreement for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme-Peace and Development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao transmitted by the EU to formalize the grant for the project.
Pierre Amilhat, the director for Asia, Central Asia, Middle East/Gulf and the Pacific of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, earlier signed the agreement on behalf of the EU.
Under the agreement, 5 million euros of the grant will be used for the recovery and rehabilitation of areas devastated during the 2017 siege of Marawi City, while about 3 million euros will be allocated for the BARMM’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The PD BARMM project will be jointly implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority within five years or 60 months after the execution of the financing agreement.
“This third grant from the EU this year underpins this major economic bloc’s unwavering commitment to the attainment of genuine and lasting peace and development in Southern Philippines along with the speedy recovery of conflict-devastated Marawi City,” Dominguez said upon the signing the agreement.
“We cannot thank enough the EU and our other development partners for their ceaseless support for government efforts to spell peace in Mindanao and enable the island to achieve its full growth potential on the Duterte watch,” he said.
The financing agreement signed by Dominguez for the PD BARMM project brings to 85 million euros the total amount of grants provided by the EU this year for the government’s peace and development initiatives in Mindanao.
The EU extended two grants amounting to a combined 60.5 million euros (about $67.9 million) last month to assist in peacebuilding and development efforts in Mindanao with a focus on strengthening the institutions of the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Government, creating jobs and improving community-based infrastructure in agricultural communities.
These grants were for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme-RISE Mindanao for which the EU provided a 35.5-million-euro grant and the Support to Bangsamoro Transition which received a grant of 25 million euros.
For the PD BARMM, which has a total estimated cost of 35.1 million euros, the EU member-states will co-finance the project with the World Bank, the United Nations and the Australian government.
The EU will provide the biggest share in the PD BARMM project with 24.5-million-euro grant, while the other donors will contribute an indicative amount of 10 million euros. Other potential grant beneficiaries will provide the remaining 600,000 euros.
According to the Department of Finance, the project aims to improve the “social cohesion and resilience of the communities in the Bangsamoro region” and contribute to the development of a “peaceful, cohesive, secure and inclusively developed Mindanao.”