AN OFFICIAL of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) of the United States said the Philippines is now qualified to share in the $2.25-billion grant intended for eight countries to reduce poverty.

He, however, cautioned against political turmoil like coup attempts and curtailment of press freedom that may prompt the flow of funds to stop.

John Hewko, vice president for compact development of the MCC, in an interview with the BusinessMirror said there are eight countries that could draw from the compact development funding next year by implementing sustainable programs that focus on health, education and infrastructure and promote investments.

He said the Philippines has to start formulating the proposal that would be reviewed by the Millennium MCC board in December for a chance to qualify for the $2.25-billion grant next year.

The MCC funding is being reviewed annually within its five-year implementation time frame, and each eligible country must pass the hurdles be able to continue drawing from the fund.

“There are no guarantees here, so the countries should continue doing well on the indicators and we need to receive a high-quality proposal from the Philippines that can be implemented in five years,” Hewko said in an interview over the weekend in Makati City.

He stressed that “if a country had a coup and all the press was shut down, and if we see serious declines in all these indicators, like everything started to turn red, then we would consider suspending or terminating our system.”

The MCC has allocated a total of  $ 7.5 billion from 2004 to 2008. The amount of funding ranged from $60 million to $66 million to the $700 million given to each country like Tanzania and Morocco.

US President George Bush asked the US Congress to allocate $2.25 billion for the 2009 compact development program for low-income countries that are MCC-eligible. These include the Philippines, Jordan, Moldova, Malawi, Senegal, Ukraine, East Timor and Bolivia.

Hewko visited the Philippines over the weekend to meet with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, officials of key government agencies, private-sector representatives and civil-society groups to discuss the MCC funding procedure.

“Our singular mission is to reduce poverty through programs that sustain economic growth,” said Hewko. “We work with selected countries that are democratic, that invest in health and education and promote economic freedom.”

He said the Department of Finance through Dante Canlas, now head of the MCC team for the Philippines, may carry out a broad-based consultation with the private sector, civil society and government agencies throughout the Philippines to determine “the principal impediments to growth” and measures that must be undertaken. These will be included in the proposal to the Millennium Challenge.

AN OFFICIAL of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) of the United States said the Philippines is now qualified to share in the $2.25-billion grant intended for eight countries to reduce poverty.

STATE-OWNED Land Bank of the Philippines is raising its P12-billion farm-credit facility by P3 billion to P15 billion in support of growing nonrice crops, a bank official said.

THE European Commission  (EC) and International Organization for Migration (IOM) are jointly funding a project to map out the remittance areas between Europe and Asia, especially focused on the way Filipinos and Indonesians send money back home.

THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is crafting new guidelines on the adequacy of banks’ capital to equate or custom-fit this measure to the size of their operations and the level of risks they typically tolerate.