Foreign donors to meet for rehab fund

The government is planning to spend P130 billion next year for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) reported Tuesday that the amount was expected to help ensure that the adverse impact of the calamity on economic growth and poverty incidence would be temporary.

The post-calamity recovery plan is set to be released Wednesday, but the Neda disclosed some of the projects and programs to be funded by the amount.

These included the construction of shelter for affected families, provision of seedlings and farming and fishing equipment, employment of people in the affected areas in the construction projects, and the reconstruction of local government offices and public facilities.

Of the P130-billion spending target for reconstruction and rehabilitation, P34 billion will come from savings and emergency fund from the 2013 national budget. The balance of nearly P100 billion will come from the national budget for 2014 and from loans from foreign development lenders.

Government economic officials are scheduled to meet with representatives from various lending institutions this morning to present the details of the recovery plan.

The institutions may commit amounts they may extend as loans to help fund portions of the recovery plan.

Expected to attend the meeting are representatives from the governments of the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Ireland, among others.

Supertyphoon Yolanda was reported to have resulted in more than 6,000 deaths and caused more than P30 billion in damage to agriculture and public infrastructure.

The Neda has also acknowledged the likelihood of an increase in the poverty rate as a result of the calamity, which struck Central, Western and Eastern Visayas due to the resulting disruption in economic activities and damage to property. Last year, the poverty rate stood at 25.2 percent, slightly lower than the 26.3 percent registered in 2010.

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, who is also director general of the Neda, said the poverty rate could spike, but added that the government was bent on helping ensure this would be contained within the first semester of 2014.

He said the government had set a goal of keeping the country back to its poverty reduction trend in the latter part of next year.

The country’s economic officials have acknowledged that the Philippines’ medium-term poverty reduction target has become difficult to attain but added that the country was not giving up on the target. Poverty in the Philippines last year remained one of the highest in Asia.

The Philippines is one of the few countries that is off-track to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on poverty reduction. Under the MDG, a commitment made by member-countries of the United Nations, poverty rates were targeted to be halved from the 1990s level by 2015. In the case of the Philippines, the poverty rate should be reduced to only 17.2 percent by then.