|
Philippines Development Assistance
Official development assistance (ODA) includes grants and
loans at concessional rates from official donors, both bilateral
(individual country) and multilateral (e.g., the World Bank and
the Asian Development Bank). In the early independence period, 90
percent of aid was bilateral grant aid, almost entirely from the
United States. By the 1960s, however, there was growing
assistance from multilateral organizations and Japan, 85 to 90
percent of which was in the form of loans (see
table 17,
Appendix). During the 1970s and 1980s, concessionary loans became
the dominant mode of assistance from all sources, averaging in
excess of 80 percent of the total (see
table 18, Appendix).
Following Aquino's accession to the presidency in 1986, ODA
increased, primarily from the United States, Japan, the World
Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. In the first three years of
the Aquino government, 1986 to 1988, concessionary loan
commitments increased 60 percent above the last three years of
the Marcos regime, 1983-85, from an average of US$764 million to
US$1,233 million per year. Grant-aid commitments increased even
more, jumping 150 percent from an average of US$195 million to an
average of US$486 million.
In November 1987, a bipartisan group of four members of the
United States Congress proposed a major multinational aid
initiative--a "mini Marshall Plan"--to help the Philippines
address the manifold economic problems that were the legacy of
the Marcos regime, support economic reform in that country, and
help ensure the return of the Philippines to democracy. The
initial proposal suggested US$5 billion in additional aid over a
five-year period, along with a substantial increase in private
foreign investment. By the time the program was announced, the
goal of the Multilateral Aid Initiative had risen to $10 billion,
mainly, but not always, divided equally between ODA and private
investment.
At the request of Japan, the Multilateral Aid Initiative--
also referred to as the Philippine Assistance Plan--was set up
under the Consultative Group, a group of international agencies
and countries established in 1971 at the request of the Marcos
government to coordinate assistance programs to the Philippines
and chaired by the World Bank. The Multilateral Aid Initiative
was clearly meant to precipitate a substantially larger flow of
aid than had been committed to the Philippines in the two years
since Marcos had fled the country.
The first Multilateral Aid Initiative pledging session, held
in Tokyo, July 3-5, 1989, resulted in aid commitments of US$2.8
billion, plus US$600 million in debt relief by the Japanese. In
the Philippines, the extent of "additional" aid was cast as a
measure of international support for the Aquino regime. The
country had received official development assistance commitments
of about US$2.4 billion in 1988. Given that figure and estimates
of the size of aid projects that were then under discussion
between the Philippines and potential donors, estimates of new
funds generated at the Tokyo pledge session ranged from US$250
million to US$1.5 billion to the full US$3.4 billion. The
government, accordingly, received criticisms or plaudits as one
judged the extent of success in generating new funds.
In 1990 there was no pledging session, reportedly because of
the suspension of the IMF agreement in March 1990. A second
session was held in Hong Kong on February 25 and 26, 1991, with a
total of US$3.3 billion pledged. The Philippine government
reported that by the end of 1990, the full amount pledged at the
Tokyo session had been committed; however, actual disbursements
were only US$839 million. Donor government representatives at the
Hong Kong session expressed support publicly for the enactment of
economic policies that Aquino advisers had worked out with the
IMF, as well as concern over the resistance of the Philippine
Congress to their implementation. The size of pledges and the
willingness to comment on internal Philippine policy issues
indicated that the donor nations hoped that the Philippines would
be able to undertake a viable economic program but were concerned
that it would be unable to do so.
Data as of June 1991
|
