Even before the President had issued the memorandum, the DoF had worked on a policy of rejecting deals which have strings.

Department of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III says aid with strings had long been shunned.

In accordance with the administration’s policy of independence from foreign dictates, Department of Finance (DoF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has informed the Senate yesterday that the government had long rejected foreign grants with “neo-colonial” provisions.

Dominguez revealed that such a policy was in place even before President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the suspension of negotiations with 18 countries who sponsored and voted in favor of the United Nations’ (UN) resolution seeking an investigation into the President’s flagship war on drugs.

This came after Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked the Finance chief about grants the Philippines had lost in the aftermath of Mr. Duterte’s order, through a memorandum, to suspend all financial and technical assistance deals with the 18 countries.

Dominguez said even before the President had issued the memorandum, the DoF had worked on a policy of rejecting deals that have strings that will hold the Philippines hostage to impositions.

“Sometime in 2017 or 2018, there was a grant I was asked to sign from the European Union with basically a term that stated, we will give you this grant but if you will not behave, we will take this away. So, we said, ‘No we do not accept that.’ We do not accept that wording anymore,” he told the senator.

He explained the DoF asked the EU a grant which would give the Philippines the right to cancel with the specific stipulation: “I will give you the grant until it is illegal for me to give it to you.”

He added the EU has agreed to the Philippines’ conditions after months of negotiations.

“So, we are now in a situation where we don’t have a neo-colonialist wording in our grants anymore,” he said.

Asked about the effect of the implementation of Mr. Duterte’s memorandum, Dominguez told the panel that the Philippines had suspended around P3.2 billion worth of foreign grants.

The grants were identified as the 21 million euro or P1.2 billion Bus Rapid Transit Program from France implemented by the Department of Transportation and the $46 million or P2 billion climate change studies loan agreement from Germany.

“The 21 million euros from France… we already found a substitute for that. It would be a soft loan, and we can get very similar terms from another multilateral agency. As to the $46 million from Germany, we are still looking for a substitute,” he specified.

“Yes, these (aid) are suspended while the relationship (between the Philippines and involved countries) are being examined,” Dominguez admitted.

Recently, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council has adopted an Iceland-initiated resolution that seeks a probe on the administration’s drug war after member-countries voted 18-14 last 11 July in Geneva, Switzerland.

A memorandum dated 27 August was issued by the Office of the President ordering the suspension of all negotiations or signing of loan and grant deals with the countries who voted in favor of the said resolution.

The 18 countries that backed the resolution were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Northern Ireland and Uruguay.

Meanwhile, the Senate panel has approved the DoF’s P56 billion proposed budget for 2020, which included the automatic and unprogrammed appropriations, as well as the budgetary support to government corporations.

The DoF’s budget is eight percent or P1.59 billion lower than the 2019 General Appropriation Act.

Under the 2020 proposed fund, the Bureau of Treasury incurred the biggest cut with P1.277 billion, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) had a P360 million reduction, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) gained P136.392 million in additional budget.

DoF’s expenditure plan is already submitted for plenary debates and deliberations.

“The Department of Finance, the government’s executive arm in the formulation and administration of fiscal policies, serves at the forefront of the country’s push towards development and sustainability,” Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said in sponsoring the DoF budget.

He noted the vision of the government and all its programs will not be realized if the country has no money, and that the DoF is in charge of making sure that the government is sufficiently funded.

“As we can recall, the budget impasse that occurred last year had an impact on our economic growth,” Go explained. He added that with the efforts of the DoF, under Dominguez’s leadership, government income in the form of taxes, customs duties and dividend collections from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC) improved across the board in the first half of this year. Moreover, dividends remitted by 53 GOCC reached P61.3 billion, the highest level ever recorded for a half-year period.

“I fully support the DoF under the more than capable leadership of Secretary Carlos Dominguez. I commit to work hand-in-hand with the DoF in ensuring the viability of our fiscal policies and keeping it, the BIR, the BoC and all its other attached agencies corruption-free,” according to Go.