Philippines, ADB sign $1.5 billion loan vs COVID

MANILA, Philippines — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced its approval of a $1.5-billion loan to help the Philippines fund its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response program and strengthen the country’s healthcare system.

“This assistance is our largest budget support loan to the Philippines ever and reflects our strong commitment to providing cornerstone assistance swiftly and effectively to help the country mitigate the pandemic’s devastating impact on Filipinos, particularly the poor and vulnerable, including women,” ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa declared in a statement, referring to ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) Program.

“Amid a global pandemic, the most vulnerable are developing countries, especially those with densely populated cities such as the Philippines,” Asakawa said.

“We commend the government for its leadership and clear actions in containing the spread of COVID-19, including scaling up its health response, enforcing an enhanced community quarantine in Luzon to save lives, and rolling out subsidy programs to affected segments of the population.”

ADB noted that Philippines was among the first batch of countries to implement strict social distancing measures through its Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine when it temporarily shuttered schools, government and private businesses in the country’s main island.

“We thank the ADB under the leadership of president Masatsugu Asakawa for swiftly responding to the Philippines’ call for funding support in this time of crisis. We thank the Bank as well for streamlining its operations to quickly deliver its assistance and for tripling the size of its response package from $6.5 billion to $20 billion to help developing member countries combat COVID-19,” Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said.

The new financing is part of ADB’s $20 billion expanded assistance for developing member countries’ COVID-19 response, which was announced on April 13.

It also builds on the $5-million grant approved for the Philippines on March 18 to deliver nutritious food baskets to up to 140,000 vulnerable households in Metro Manila and neighboring areas, in collaboration with the government and private sector.

– With Mary Grace Padin

On March 13, ADB also approved a $3-million grant to help the Philippine government purchase emergency medical supplies and set up a new laboratory that will increase the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity by 3,000 tests per day.

The new laboratory is expected to be fully functional by mid-May.

The new laboratory, to be set up inside the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Regional Hospital in San Fernando City, Pampanga, is expected to increase the country’s testing capacity by 3,000 tests per day.

In a virtual media conference yesterday, ADB country director Kelly Bird said ADB and the Department of Health contracted China-based BGI to supply the equipment. This firm also provided supplies and equipment to the Chinese government during the lockdown in Wuhan.