United States’ MCC funds 5-year compact grant to
PH govt
By Jennifer P. Gaitano
BUTUAN CITY, Mar. 30 (PIA) – The United States
of America’s (USA) Millennium Challenge Corporation is funding a $434 million,
five-year compact grant with the Philippines that is expected to benefit
millions of Filipinos.
The partnership is focused on reducing poverty
through economic growth and comprises three projects: 1) rehabilitating 222
kilometers of a key road in Samar; 2) empowering local communities to identify
and implement small-scale infrastructure projects; and 3) improving the
effectiveness of government revenue collection and reducing opportunities for
corruption by streamlining and computerizing tax administration at the Bureau
of Internal Revenue (BIR).
With the intention to establish the Revenue
Administration Reform Project under the compact, this will address the need to
raise tax revenues and reduce tax evasion and revenue agent-related corruption.
It focuses on increasing the efficiency and sustainability of revenue
collection through a redesign and computerization of business processes at the
BIR.
Another project is the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa
Kahirapan – Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Service (KALAHI-CIDSS),
which will improve the lives of people in the rural areas by targeting communities
where poverty exceeds the national average through implementation of
mall-scale, community-driven development projects.
Through KALAHI-CIDSS, local communities and
citizens become partners in the development process and learn how to identify,
design, implement (using local labor), and sustain projects at the municipal
and barangay levels. In partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), it builds on and supports DSWD’s participatory planning,
implementation, and evaluation methodology.
Also, the Secondary National Roads Development
Project is designed to reduce transportation costs through the rehabilitation
of an existing 222 kilometer road segment in Samar. By bringing about savings
in vehicle operating costs and time for both passengers and goods, and by
reducing road maintenance costs, the investment will increase commerce in and
between the provinces of Samar and Eastern Samar, and ultimately increase
incomes.
Moreover, the said project incorporates enhanced
safety measures in the final road designs including paved shoulders,
construction of sidewalks and curbs where pedestrian activity is higher,
improved gateway treatments to indicate where lower speeds are required, and
increased use of road narrowing, median islands, and traffic humps to slow
traffic speeds.
The compact projects are expected to have robust
and demonstrable impacts on incomes of Filipinos – particularly the poor – and
on overall economic growth.
Meanwhile, the KALAHI-CIDSS project is expected
to benefit over 5-million people by 2030; the road project is expected to
directly impact nearly 300,000 people while spurring overall economic
development in Samar; and the Revenue Administration Reform Project is also
expected to have broad impacts throughout the economy, thus making nearly all
citizens project beneficiaries. (JPG/PIA-Caraga)
