PH shortlisted for 2023 grant from US aid arm

The Philippines has been shortlisted among the possible recipients of grants given away yearly by the United States’ aid arm, the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), even as the Marcos administration sees no need yet to tap this financing for next year.

In an Aug. 31 report, the MCC listed down 62 countries classified as having “low income” per capita, including the Philippines, plus four lower middle-income countries as candidates for grants for fiscal year 2023.

On the other hand, the MCC prohibited a total of 15 low-income and lower middle-income countries from its financial assistance next year due to various human rights concerns and other unresolved issues with the United States.

Asked if the Philippine government would avail itself of an MCC grant for any of the Marcos administration’s priority programs and projects, Finance Undersecretary Mark Dennis Joven replied to the Inquirer on Thursday: “Not as of the moment.”

While the Philippines was already a candidate country for the MCC’s 2023 grants, it was not yet considered an “eligible” country pending passing the criteria, which included controlling corruption and upholding rule of law.

Last year, the Philippines failed to qualify for the MCC’s 2022 grants due to a failing mark in the control of corruption indicator of the aid agency’s scorecard.

The Philippines’ scorecard for fiscal year 2022 showed that the country passed in 12 out of the 20 indicators: fiscal policy, inflation, regulatory quality, trade policy, gender in the economy, and land rights and access (in the area of “economic freedom”); political rights, civil liberties and government effectiveness (in “ruling justly”); and natural resource protection, girls’ secondary education enrollment rate and child health (in “investing in people”).

But the Philippines’ scores in access to credit, and business start up (in economic freedom), control of corruption, rule of law, and freedom of information (in ruling justly), as well as health expenditures, primary education expenditures, and immunization rates (in investing in people), garnered red marks. —