The Philippines became the first recipient of Japan’s emergency support loan for economies affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the Department of FInance (DOF) said yesterday.
MB file
In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said yesterday that the Philippine government received the 50-billion yen financing package, equivalent to roughly P23 billion, from Japan last August 14.
Dominguez said the Japanese loan, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), will be used in the ongoing efforts to contain the further spread of COVID-19 and provide economic relief to Filipinos most affected by the global health crisis.
“We thank Tokyo and JICA for the release in record time of this emergency support loan for the Duterte administration's COVID response that has made the Philippines the first recipient of Japan's assistance program,” Dominguez said.
“This underscores the strong partnership between Japan and the Philippines under the Duterte presidency and the top priority that the Japanese government has given to our country as its development partner, especially at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
Japan disbursed the 50-billion yen COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan (CCRESL) in a record period of only 44 days after the signing of the agreement on the assistance package last July 1.
The CCRESL became effective on August 11 and was quickly disbursed by the Japanese government through JICA after only three days.
Despite the restrictions resulting from the quarantines imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19, officials of both countries were able to speed up the process of making the loan effective and ready for disbursement, Dominguez said.
Given the Philippines’ urgent need for budgetary support to address the COVID-19 emergency, it took only less than a month to secure all the documents necessary for the declaration of the effectiveness of the 50-billion yen CCRESL.
This is the quickest loan that was ever secured under Japan’s official development assistance financing package and in keeping with the “fast and sure” approach adopted by the two countries since 2017.
The CCRESL was approved by the Development Budget Coordination Committee last June 10 and was processed by the approving authorities of both countries in only 14 working days until the July 1 signing of the loan accord.