The Asian Development Bank said Friday it approved a $1.5 billion loan to help the Philippine government fund its novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response program and strengthen the country’s health care system in its fight against the pandemic.
“This assistance is our largest budget support loan to the Philippines ever and reflects our strong commitment to providing cornerstone assistance swiftly and effectively to help the country mitigate the pandemic’s devastating impact on Filipinos, particularly the poor and vulnerable, including women,” said ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa.
“Amid a global pandemic, the most vulnerable are developing countries, especially those with densely populated cities such as the Philippines. We commend the government for its leadership and clear actions in containing the spread of COVID-19, including scaling up its health response, enforcing an enhanced community quarantine in Luzon to save lives, and rolling out subsidy programs to affected segments of the population,” Masatsugu said.
The Philippines was among the first set of countries to implement strict social distancing measures through its enhanced community quarantine when it temporarily shuttered schools, government, and private businesses, while closing the borders on the entire Luzon island, where the capital Manila is located, starting 16 March.
“We thank the ADB under the leadership of President Masatsugu Asakawa for swiftly responding to the Philippines’ call for funding support in this time of crisis. We thank the bank as well for streamlining its operations to quickly deliver its assistance and for tripling the size of its response package from $6.5 billion to $20 billion to help developing member countries combat COVID-19,” said Finance Secretary and ADB governor Carlos Dominguez.