The Asian Development Bank (ADB) these days approved a $200 million loan to support the Philippine government’s effort to supply emergency money subsidies to vulnerable households amid the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
High, sustained economic process and job creation in recent years and therefore the government’s social insurance programs have combined to cut back the Philippines’ national economic condition rate from 23.3% in 2015 to 16.6% in 2018, translating to 5.9 million Filipinos escaping poverty during this era.
On 24 March, Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed into law the “Bayanihan to Heal as one Act”—or Republic Act No. 11469—authorizing the govt. to implement a COVID-19 emergency grant program that provides cash payments of Php5,000 to Php8,000 ($100 to $158) per month for 2 months to 18 million low-income families nationwide.
This large program includes 4.3 million poor households covered underneath the country’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program referred to as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). ADB has been supporting the 4Ps CCT program since 2010.
ADB’s $200 million loan, under the Social Protection Support Project–Second financing funding, will contribute to the $726 million required to supply emergency subsidies to 4Ps households in April to provide 2020.
The loan is an element of ADB’s comprehensive support to the Philippines to mitigate the damaging effects of the pandemic on the economy and well-being of Filipinos. It comes when the linguistic communication of the $1.5 billion loan for ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support program on 23 April.
2 grants approved in March totaling $8 million area unit supporting the delivery of food baskets to a minimum of one hundred forty,000 vulnerable households in subway Manila and near provinces, purchase of emergency medical provides, and fixing of a brand new laboratory which will increase the country’s COVID-19 testing capability by three,000 tests every day.
ADB is also getting ready an expanded social assistance Project to support the government’s medium-term financing of the 4Ps program.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it’s owned by 68 members—49 from the region
