Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Friday the P12.5-billion capital infusion into Development Bank of the Philippines will provide additional funds for the state lending institution’s COVID-19 response programs.
Dominguez said in a statement these include extending low-interest, easy-to-pay loans to the transport, healthcare, education sectors along with micro, small and medium enterprises and other affected industries.
He said the DBP would act as a wholesale bank that would buy the loans of smaller banks, cooperatives and other institutions to free up more credit for the benefit of other industries that need to recover from the pandemic-induced impact on the global economy.
Under the P12.5-billion appropriations approved by President Rodrigo Duterte, the fund will be allocated as P5 billion for the transportation sector with 68 transport cooperatives as beneficiaries; P2 billion for healthcare assistance to 20 hospitals ; P500 million for 17 schools; and P5 billion for 230 MSMEs and other businesses.
