MANILA – The country’s chief finance official has assured that the flagship projects under the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program to be funded by South Korea will be “totally” corruption-free.
Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez made this commitment as South Korea offered to double its overseas development assistance (ODA) to the Philippines from USD500 million to USD1 billion.
“It is the Korean people’s money that the government is allocating to us. So it’s our duty to make sure that those funds are totally corruption-free when they are used,” Dominguez said in a media briefing in Seoul, South Korea.
“What we are doing is, we are monitoring this project very carefully, we are getting COA (Commission Audit) involved in the audit of these projects,” he assured.
Dominguez said no less than President Rodrigo Duterte is the country’s top graft-buster, firing government officials including his own appointees who are linked to corruption.
“So in this way, we feel that the government employees as well as the private sector will be very careful in the use of government funds and funds from the taxpayers of other countries,” Dominguez said.
In his “extremely” productive meeting with South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Kim Dong-Yeon, Dominguez personally assured the Korean official that all projects will be scrutinized to avoid waste of funds.
“I assured Deputy Prime Minister Kim our strict monitoring of these projects to make sure that none of the Korean taxpayers’ money is wasted in corruption and that all the ODA-supported projects will bring lasting benefits to the Filipino people,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez said USD172.64 million of the USD1 billion ODA from South Korea will be used for the New Cebu International Container Port Project.
On the other hand, other projects to be funded under Korea’s ODA include the USD50-million project preparation facility for the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), a USD100-million financing for the new Dumaguete airport development project, and a USD41-million project for the implementation of an electronic receipt system for the monitoring of taxes paid by Philippine retailers.
He said the government plans to use the remaining USD636-million balance to fund two to three more flagship projects under the “Build, Build, Build” program.
Dominguez said 35 of the 75 flagship projects proposed under “Build, Build, Build” program have already been approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
The USD1-billion ODA was part of the USD4.9 billion worth of investments that Duterte got from his three-day official visit from South Korea.
Duterte’s first trip to South Korea has resulted in the signing of four other government-to-government (G2G) agreements. These are:
1. Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) of the Philippines and the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea;
2. Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) of the Philippines and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on Trade and Economic Cooperation;
3. Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation on the Expansion of Renewable Energy Deployment between the Department of National Defense (DND) of the Philippines and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of Korea; and,
4. Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Transportation (DOTr) of the Philippines and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) of Korea Concerning Cooperation in the Field of Transport.