PH still waiting for bulk of Yolanda pledges – Abad

MACTAN, Cebu – The overall pledges that the Philippines received for Yolanda rehabilitation already surged to 73 billion but the government has not yet received bulk of it, almost three years after the country’s deadliest typhoon hit Central Visayas.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said as of September 11, the total amount that was pledged for Yolanda rehabilitation already stand at $1.64 billion dollars or about 73.3 billion. Of the total, 45 billion is cash pledge, while the rest is non-cash pledge.

While this amount seems enough to fast track the rehabilitation of the Central Visayas region, Abad said the country has not yet received even half of these pledges.

“The problem is a significant portion has remained pledges and those that may have materialized have not been released directly to the Philippine government. And then, quite a number are donations in kind, they send hospital facilities or beds, medical equipment or medicine,” Abad said in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers’ Meeting held here in Cebu.

Abad said that out of the 73.3billion pledges, only 17.2 billion has been received by the country, of which only 1.2 billion was directed to the Philippine government and the remaining went to non-government organizations (NGOs) and multilateral institutions.

“For those who are asking the government to explain, we only have 1.2 billion in cash. The ones that need to explain are not just the government but the NGOs and multilateral institutions. People are barking up the wrong tree,” he pointed out.

Abad also emphasized the pledges that have not yet been received by the country.

“You also have to ask, where are the pledges? Photo opportunities were complete when they [the pledgers] came here… We are put in such a bad light. Whatever happened in the nice photo ops?” he further said.

According to the data uploaded in the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub, the largest pledges came from Japan, United Kingdom, and Germany.