PH remains prospective AIIB member

Even as the Philippines did not sign Monday the articles of agreement for the establishment of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said the country “remains a prospective founding member.”

“As the deadline to sign is on December 2015, the Philippines is taking the time given to prudently consider its membership. Not signing today does not preclude us from signing before the aforementioned deadline,” Purisima said in a statement.

According to reports, about 50 countries were expected to sign the AIIB’s articles of agreement in Beijing Monday.

Aside from the Philippines, the other prospective members that have yet to sign the articles of agreement were Denmark, Kuwait, Malaysia, Poland, South Africa and Thailand, reports said.

Last week, Purisima said the Philippine government had “concerns about the governance of AIIB,” while also awaiting the bank’s basis for granting loans.

“We do hope that AIIB will function based on purely financial basis, and not political,” Purisima had said at a Center of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) conference in Washington, D.C.

The Philippines and China are in a dispute over a number of islands and rocks lying in South China Sea or what Manila calls West Philippine Sea.

But Philippine officials had said that the territorial row should not be a hindrance as far as the country’s possible membership in AIIB was concerned.

Last October, the Philippines, through the Department of Finance, signed a non-binding agreement to join discussions aimed at threshing out issues ahead of the bank’s formal establishment.

The China-backed lender had been reported as being positioned to become an alternative to the mainly US-backed multilateral financial institutions.

According to Purisima, the Philippine government was still looking closely at the composition of AIIB’s board of governors as well as the bank’s “fine print.”

Under the articles of agreement, the Philippines must shell out $979.1 million or about P44.2 billion for capital subscription. AIIB will have an initial capital stock of $100 billion.