Drilon laments Philippines’ failure to access MCC grants

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday lamented that the Philippines was deemed ineligible for the grants offered by Washington-based Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for 2021 which could help fast-track the country's recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the Philippines did not make it through the annual selection process this time as it got a failing mark on corruption, rule of law, freedom of information, health expenditures, immunization rates, and access to credit.

“Another missed opportunity. We missed a great opportunity to get funding aimed at reducing poverty and strengthening good governance,” Drilon said in a statement.

Citing information from the MCC, the senator said a country must pass at least 10 of the 20 indicators in the scorecard—including the Political Rights or Civil Liberties indicator, and the Control of Corruption indicator—to be considered eligible for the assistance.

“It saddens us that the government’s inability to curb corruption has affected our access to critical grants such as the MCC. This underscores the need to combat corruption. Otherwise, we risk losing several funding, grants and incentive programs that can help alleviate poverty in the country,” he said.

Drilon underscored that during the Noynoy Aquino administration, the MCC extended a $434-million aid to the Philippines which was used to modernize the Bureau of Internal Revenue to strengthen tax collection, provide development projects to far-flung poor communities, and rehabilitate a critical secondary national road on Samar Island.

He added that the previous MCC-funded projects were able to generate additional domestic tax revenues since 2013.

Senator Joel Villanueva also regretted that the country was disqualified to access MCC grants next year.

“This is very unfortunate as we need all the help we can get given all the challenges we are facing right now. The Millenium Challenge Fund has been very helpful to us. Their assessment may serve as a challenge for us to do better especially in governance,” he said in a message to reporters.

President Rodrigo Duterte recently created a mega task force to investigate corruption in the entire government.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, heading the ad hoc inter-agency body, said the probe will focus on catching the “big fish.” — Dona Magsino/RSJ, GMA News