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WASHINGTON,
D.C.—The Philippines was seen to defy a trend cited at the
close of the annual spring meetings of the International
Monetary Fund/World Bank (IMF/WB) Group, in which
countries that initially had high hopes of meeting the
phased objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
program were feared to fall short instead.
The
Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) seeks to reward
developing countries like the Philippines with larger
and more effective funding, provided they implement
sound political, social and economic policies and
observe strict governance standards.
According to Minister and Consul Carlos D. Sorreta at
the Manila Embassy here, the Philippines took to heart
the lessons learned by 16 other developing countries
that had gone ahead earlier to earn compact status, and
it should not fail now that it has attained the status
itself.
“We have
gone on to learn from the 16 countries and how they got
to sign actual compact agreements,” he said.
These
were the erstwhile MCC compact-eligible countries that,
like Manila, earlier hurdled measurable goals and
standards and have now actually drawn from the
multibillion- dollar fund.
Manila’s
compact-eligible status allows it to draw preliminary
program proposals for funding by the Millennium
Challenge Corp. (MCC), Finance Secretary Margarito Teves
said in an interview.
Teves
will meet with MCC vice president John Hewko when his
four-man compact-development team visits
Manila
next month.
Hewko
was to pass judgment on the government’s planned
multisectoral consultation with the private sector and
various interest groups so as to come up with plans and
programs for funding by the MCC.
Sorreta
said this was the due-diligence phase of the program in
which the MCC will scrutinize each proposal with
exacting yardsticks.
It
should also prove difficult given that many other
countries that made the MCC grade are after the funding
themselves.
“We have
to maintain our MCC score or improve it because everyone
else wants the funds for themselves,” Sorreta said.
The
score pertained to specific standards by which countries
were graded in terms of ruling its people justly,
investing in them and giving them economic freedom.
Manila
passed all hurdles under ruling justly, but had “fail”
marks in investing in its people, particularly in
spending for their health and primary education.
Under
economic freedom,
Manila
was given red marks for fiscal policy, with a score of
negative 1.68 versus peer median score of negative 1.34.
Manila
had initially enjoyed an MCC largesse for $21 million;
this as used to improve governance in the Bureau of
Internal Revenue.
An
actual compact agreement should prove larger, possibly
in the hundreds of millions of dollars. |
