Foreign borrowings for COVID-19 fight hit P 1.1 trillion

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign financing secured by the Philippines to bankroll its fight against the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic further rose to $22.51 billion or more than P1.1 trillion to date, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

The latest DOF data on Friday showed that $20.06 billion in combined external loans, grants and commercial borrowings, which were earmarked for COVID-19 response, had been injected into the national budget.

Grants given to the Philippines by multilateral lenders and bilateral development partners amounted to $54.06 million, while loans for specific pandemic response-related projects hit $2.39 billion.

Building up

As of Aug. 25, $19.65 billion worth of these foreign financing were already disbursed to the government, the DOF said.

The newest additions to the foreign funds obtained to beef up the COVID-19 war chest included the $400-million Philippines first financial sector reform development policy loan from the World Bank, and the $400-million facilitating youth school-to-work transition program (subprogram 3) from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), which were both signed in August.

A total of $3 billion in dual-tranched US dollar-denominated global bonds issued in July was also added to budgetary support financing for COVID-19 response.

The World Bank’s $280-million second additional financing for the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Philippine rural development project (PRDP) was likewise included among the project loan financing tapped to recover from the pandemic.

Vaccine procurement

Last week, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III told legislators that out of the total foreign financing in the past one and a half years, $1.13 billion that came from multilateral institutions such as the ADB, Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the World Bank covered the purchase of 105.65 million COVID-19 vaccines.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III–DOF photo

Dominguez said that as of Aug. 26, a total of 194.89 million doses were secured by the government to cover and inoculate 100.5 million Filipinos. The government targets to vaccinate all adults in the country by year-end.

Requirements covered

According to Dominguez, 15.5 million doses worth $176.5 million were funded by the national budget; 24.9 million doses worth $284.5 million were acquired by the private sector and local governments, and 48.84 million doses worth $503 million were donated by foreign governments like China, Japan and the United States, among others, as well as the COVID-19 vaccines global access facility (Covax).

In a separate televised briefing with President Duterte last week, Dominguez assured that all vaccine procurement were amply financed.

“We don’t have to worry about money here. We have already all the money ready to be paid for these doses,” Dominguez said.