Business and Economy
DOF eyes P30-B bond float for Marawi rehabilitation
MANILA, Aug. 10 — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has directed the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) to study the possible issuance of PHP30 billion-worth of debt securities to fund the planned massive rehabilitation and reconstruction effort for Marawi City.
Dominguez said the “Marawi” bonds would appeal to the “patriotic” sense of duty of citizens, who would like to help rebuild the lives of their fellow Filipinos in Marawi.
“These are what you would call ‘patriotic’ bonds to help augment the funds that the government has set aside for Marawi’s rehabilitation,” Dominguez said at a recent DOF executive committee (Execom) meeting.
Dominguez asked National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon at the Execom meeting to study the tenor or length of maturity of the bond, which could possibly be for 20 years.
In a separate statement, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government would release at least PHP15 billion to rehabilitate Marawi in the next two years. The allocations would form part of the proposed budget of the Marawi reconstruction masterplan spearheaded by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
“The initial fund of PHP5 billion for 2017 will be sourced from the 2016 and 2017 NDRRM (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) fund with a combined remaining balance of around PHP7.4 billion, and the 2017 contingent fund with a balance of almost PHP3.
35 billion, both as of July 2017,” Diokno said in his statement.
For the NDRRM fund for 2018, PHP25.5 billion has been allocated, of which PHP10 billion had been allotted for the Marawi recovery and rehabilitation program, according to Diokno.
