ADB still willing to fund flood protection projects

Multilateral lender Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment in supporting the Philippines’ despite an ongoing corruption scandal involving contractors, lawmakers, and Public Works officials to siphon billions of pesos of public funds from flood control contracts.

At the sidelines of the Arangkada Philippines Investment Forum in Pasay City, ADB Country Director Andrew Jerries told reporters that “our role is to try to help our developing member countries' governments’ solve problems.”

Jeffries expressed confidence that the ADB, as a funder for many of the Philippines’ foreign-assisted projects, has “all these things in place to make sure our project funds go where they're meant to go.”

The ADB official said the corruption issues in the country “doesn't stop our work, but it makes the processes we have in place all the more important.”

Jeffries even said that the lender “will be likely supporting flood protection [projects] more in the future.”

“We don't have many flood protection projects… it's two river basins in Mindanao and one in northern Luzon,” he said.

The Philippines is currently being rocked by a corruption scandal, with alleged kickbacks being pocketed out of flood control projects by senators, congressmen, contractors, and officials of the Public Works Department.

The alleged anomalies in flood control projects triggered a probe in both Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the creation of an independent fact-finding body by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. — BM, GMA Integrated News