Japan's aid agency plans to extend additional loans and grants to the Philippines to not only sustain infrastructure development but also strengthen defenses in disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Philippines chief representative Takema Sakamoto told Manila Bulletin last Wednesday, Jan. 15, that while the total amount of new official development assistance (ODA) and their approval schedules will be determined by the head office in Tokyo, he is hopeful for more concessional financing for Philippine programs and projects this year.
To support the Marcos Jr. administration's ambitious Build Better More (BBM) infrastructure program, Sakamoto said JICA will likely soon greenlight fresh loans to build the Davao City Bypass, the Central Mindanao High-Standard Highway between the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Malaybalay, as well as the second San Juanico Bridge connecting the islands of Leyte and Samar in the Visayas, among other bridge, railway and road projects.
"We are conducting the preparatory survey already, so these are some of the promising candidates" for JICA financing, he said.
Besides infrastructure, Sakamoto disclosed that JICA Philippines is looking to beef up support for the maritime sector in relation to ongoing security and territorial issues in the West Philippine Sea with China.
Sakamoto said JICA may provide a soft loan so the Philippine government can buy vessels and develop port facilities.
"At the same time, we're now discussing further technical cooperation with the PCG [Philippine Coast Guard]—for example, a master plan for capacity development," he added.
JICA Philippines is also eyeing new sectors such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, through potential co-financing partnerships with the Manila-based multilateral lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as the French government's aid arm Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Sakamoto disclosed.
In particular, Sakamoto mentioned that he has already pitched to Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga the idea of starting four to five new technical cooperation projects, plus one loan, to address climate change issues in the country, during the sidelines of the Second Philippines-Japan Environment Week.
To help achieve the Philippines' nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sakamoto said JICA is planning to dispatch special advisers and experts to the Climate Change Commission (CCC), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
"We're collaborating with the DOF [Department of Finance] and SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] to ensure a more transparent MRV," he added, referring to the measurement, reporting and verification system for NDCs.
The country's NDC aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 75 percent by 2030.
JICA Philippines is likewise in discussions with the Philippine government to put in place early warning system equipment and technologies that are crucial in disaster management, Sakamoto said.
Another "new frontier" for JICA Philippines is universal healthcare (UHC), which Sakamoto said aims to support the Department of Health's (DOH) mandate to provide comprehensive health coverage to all Filipinos.
He disclosed that a JICA loan for the Philippines' UHC program is expected to be greenlit soon, to include wider healthcare coverage in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), especially maternal health.
Also, JICA Philippines is supporting the joint initiatives of the Japanese, United States and Philippine governments in developing the Luzon Economic Corridor as well as strengthening cybersecurity under these three countries' trilateral cooperation, Sakamoto said.
He noted that JICA wants to help the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) ward off cyberattack risks reportedly coming from China.