DOF inks €60.5-M worth of agreements for Mindanao projects

The Philippines inked two financing agreements with the European Union for peace and infrastructure projects in Mindanao cumulatively worth €60.5 million.

At the exchange rate of P55.7976:€1 as of July 10, the agreements were equivalent to P3.375 billion.

In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the two agreements were inked by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III in late June and early July.

"This EU assistance will certainly help the Duterte administration achieve its goal of just and lasting peace and development in southern Philippines, and in supporting genuine autonomy in the Bangsamoro region," he said.

The agreements included €35.5 million for the Mindanao Peace and Development Program (MINPAD)-Rise Mindanao which was signed on June 26.

According to the DOF, the MINPAD-Rise Mindanao project had a total cost of €149.5 million. It would be co-financed by the EU with the government of Germany for an indicative amount of €4 million, and the World Bank for an indicative amount of $130 million.

Another agreement was the €25-million Support to Bangsamoro Transition (SUBATRA) program inked on July 1, accounting for 96 percent of the estimated total project cost of €26 million.

The remaining €1 million will be financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID or Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo).

"SUBATRA is expected to boost the capacity of the Bangsamoro executive branch in formulating and implementing transitional policies, and strengthen the BARMM Parliament's ability to exercise its legislative, oversight and representation functions during the transition," the DOF said.

To recall, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signed a landmark pact with the government in 2014 to end a separatist insurgency that killed some 150,000 people.

The agreement led to the creation of the Bangsamoro, which was overwhelmingly approved in a January 2019 vote.

Power to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) was formally turned over in February 2019. — DVM, GMA News