MARAWI GETS EU GRANT

Marawi City gets another grant from the European Union (EU), a 24.5 million Euros (approximately US$ 28.8 million) to the Philippines for its planned recovery and rehabilitation.

On behalf of the Philippine government, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III signed on Aug. 11 the Financing Agreement (FA) for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme (MINPAD)-Peace and Development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MINPAD-PD BARMM) transmitted by the EU to formalize the grant for the project.

Pierre Amilhat, the Director for Asia, Central Asia, Middle East/Gulf and the Pacific of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development had earlier signed the FA on behalf of the EU.

The the grant shall be exclusively dedicated to the recovery and rehabilitation of areas devastated during the 2017 siege of Marawi City, while about EUR3 million will be allocated for the BARMM’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the autonomous region.

The PD BARMM project will be jointly implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) within five years or 60 months after the execution of the FA.

“This third grant from the EU this year underpins this major economic bloc’s unwavering commitment to the attainment of genuine and lasting peace and development in Southern Philippines along with the speedy recovery of conflict-devastated Marawi City,” Secretary Dominguez said upon the signing the FA.

“We cannot thank enough the EU and our other development partners for their ceaseless support for government efforts to spell peace in Mindanao and enable the island to achieve its full growth potentials on the Duterte watch,” he added.

The FA signed by Secretary Dominguez for the PD BARMM project brings to EUR85 million the total amount of grants provided by the EU so far this year for the government’s peace and development initiatives in Mindanao.

Last month, the EU extended two grants amounting to a combined EUR 60.5 million (about US$67.9 million) to the Philippine government to assist in its ongoing peacebuilding and development efforts in Mindanao with a focus on strengthening the institutions of the newly formed Bangsamoro autonomous government, creating jobs and improving community-based infrastructure in the island’s agricultural communities.

These grants were for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme-RISE Mindanao (MINPAD-RISE Mindanao), for which the EU provided a EUR35.5 million grant, and the Support to Bangsamoro Transition (SUBATRA), which received a grant of EUR 25 million.