THE government should match the money sent by Filipinos overseas to boost the country’s ability to survive a crisis, former Social Security System chief Corazon de la Paz-Bernardo said.

“The steady growth of OFW [overseas Filipino worker] remittances should be complemented by a public investment program that is hinged on improving a major infrastructure base such as road and even mass-transport systems,” said de la Paz-Bernardo, currently president of the International Social Security Association (Issa). She spoke during a forum on government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) on Wednesday.

THE Philippines remains confident that despite failing the corruption test of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), the MCC will still extend the $500-million grant intended to finance several development projects, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Neda Acting Director General Augusto Santos said on Wednesday, “They met with me two weeks ago to discuss the process and the projects being considered for funding. They even asked for the detail of some personnel of Neda from the infrastructure staff to assist in the project.”

AMERICAN businessmen are keen on investing $351.3 million in the biofuels, aquaculture, and food-and-beverage sectors in the Philippines, according to officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

In a report, Agriculture Undersecretary Berna Romulo-Puyat and Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. president Marriz Agbon said biofuel producer Alan Group is interested in putting up a 360-million- liter-per-year crude jatropha oil processing plant costing $312.5 million.