Both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are looking to help the Philippine government reconstruct or rehabilitate ruined public infrastructure by fast-tracking US$280 million worth of program loans still in the pipeline.

In local currency, this money translates into more or less 12.8 billion pesos that, according to Philippine Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, may no longer require government to issue so-called Reconstruction Bonds.

"We need not focus on 50 billion pesos reconstruction bonds if there are other options readily and immediately available," he said on Monday.

According to Teves, the World Bank headquartered in Washington DC and the Manila-based ADB offered to speed up the process of some of the slowest-moving program loans now in the pipeline and realign these to fit the spending requirements needed in the aftermath of typhoons "Ondoy" (international code name: Ketsana) and "Pepeng" (international code name: Parma).

The World Bank cited US$200 million worth of slow-moving but previously approved program loans whose proceeds could be used to repair or construct new public infrastructure.

The ADB cited its own batch of slow-moving loans worth of US$80 million that could be fast-tracked for much the same purpose.

"These loans can be reprogrammed to support our reconstruction and rehabilitation effort," Teves said.

According to him, the World Bank and the ADB presented to him a set of options that will allow government to "get funding from a source that will allow us to immediately start the reconstruction/rehabilitation process going."

Typhoons "Ondoy" and "Pepeng" left billions of pesos worth of public infrastructure ruined in their wake and making more imperative for government to spend far more than it originally intended this fiscal year.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2009)