The House of Representatives has adopted a resolution expressing its sincerest appreciation and’ profound gratitude to the United States Agency for International Development for its continued assistance, especially the almost P1-billion financial aid to the Philippines to fight coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The chamber adopted before it adjourned sine die last Friday House Resolution (HR) 954 principally sponsored by House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Tingog party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez.
The resolution recognizes USAID’s consistent showing of great concern for the welfare of the Filipino people in these difficult times.
The Romualdez couple said “USAID deserves the highest recognition and.admiration of this grateful nation” for its demonstration of goodwill and promotion of democratic values and advances in governance, peace, and democracy.
“The USAID has always been providing full support to the Philippine government’s projects in terms of economic development and governance, education, environment, health, and other humanitarian assistance,” they said in the resolution.
The resolution noted that the Philippines obtained more than P762.6 million from the US, through the USAID and the State Department to fight COVID-19. This is apart from the various development projects worth more than P5 billion ($100 million) it received last March.
The US Embassy said on June 5 that the US government will extend an additional P201 million, bringing the total amount of aid to the Philippines to fight COVID-19 to over P978 million.
The resolution thanked USAID for their continued generosity, support and commitment to the Filipino people despite various issues hounding the relationship between the Philippines and the United States.
The USAID serves as the world’s premier international development agency, which provides development assistance and humanitarian efforts to save lives, reduce poverty, strengthen democratic governance and help partner countries, including the Philippines.
The resolution said the Philippines received from the US a total assistance of P29.6 billion ($582 million) in the health sector and P228.8 billion ($4.5 billion) for the country’s development goals overthe past twenty 20 years.
According to the resolution, USAID helps the National Government, through its health and humanitarian assistance, to implement universal.health standards, safety measures and response strategies to protect Filipinos against COVID-19 by way of giving assistance to Local governments for a more robust health service delivery at the barangay and household levels; helping individuals, families and frontline health workers to protect themselves from infection through widespread training programs which plays a pivotal role in supporting the Departmentmof Health (DoH) to rapidly and effectively communicate the latest COVID-19 guidelines nationwide; and expanding community access to water, sanitation and hygiene information, services and commodities in places directly affected by the virus.
In support to the health sector, the USAID also helped the DoH to upgrade laboratories and expand specimen transport systems to boost its testing capacity; developed a COVID-19 commodity and logistics tracking pool that improves the availability of life saving equipment and supplies; supported the health programs of the DoH to maintain essential health services for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV, for family planning and maternal care, and for child health; and supported financial risk protection, procurement and supply of health commodities, and human resources for health.
“Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, USAID supported the basic education, higher education and workforce development in the country, in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), to advance the children’s right to quality education through meaningful reading and learning experiences at home or remote learning, and helped identify or address learning gaps for students once schools reopen after the pandemic,” the resolution stated.
“In response to COVID-19, USAID set up an online marketplace in three essential marine biodiversities in South Negros, Visayan Sea, and Calamianes Group of Islands in Palawan, to address food supply disruptions, including the new public dashboard production to incorporate data analytics on ecological sustainability through partnership with universities, non-governmental organizations and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources,” the resolution said.
The USAID also provided humanitarian support to protect those displaced by conflict and recent earthquakes in Mindanao by amplifying health messages from the DoH for internally displaced persons and improve access to hand washing and hygiene supplies to reduce the transmission of COVID-19; partnership with train camp managers on COVID-19 to implement social distancing and improve sanitation; and continued provision of vital water supply in transitory sites in Lanao del Sur for families displaced by the Marawi siege.
The resolution said the USAID also collaborated with eighteen local government units in some of the hardest-hit areas to support the immediate disbursement of emergency funding and distribution of Special Amelioration Program (SAP) subsidies, strengthen the capacity of local crisis response information, manage quarantine measures, set up public hand washing facilities, ensure food supply, and support local business recovery.