President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said the country would be weathering the worst effects of climate change by ramping up government spending for mitigation and adaptation initiatives with help from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Marcos assured the increased public infrastructures spending during his term would incorporate the elements of sustainability, climate resilience and disaster proofing to address the country’s high vulnerability to climate change.
“It will be implemented in our water supply, in our sanitation, energy and transportation systems, including agriculture and food production and many other essential areas,” the President said during his visit to the ADB headquarters in Mandaluyong City on Monday.
“Our options are limited, we must mitigate, we must adapt, and if we don’t do that we must suffer,” he added.
CPS
Marcos said he is now eagerly waiting for the completion of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) with ADB for 2024-2029, which will focus on investments related to climate change and the country’s workforce.
“Climate change will be the lodestar for our integral national policies and investment decisions,” Marcos said.
For his part, ADB President Masatsuga Asakawa, committed to continue extending aid to the Philippine government for its climate change response.
“The Philippines is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because of its exposure to severe weather events with 70 percent of the population residing along the coast,” Asakawa said.
“ADB is fully committed to helping the Philippines address climate change and it will be a core priority of our assistance going forward,” he added.
Expanded ODA coverage
Aside from climate change, he said the government is also eyeing partnership with ADB in upskilling the country’s workforce.
“Traditionally, ADB has provided assistance to infra, now the scope of the ODA [official development assistance] that we get through ADB has…increased and we are now talking about agriculture, we are talking about reskilling and retraining, we’re talking about climate change and its mitigation and adaptation, and perhaps we will go forward,” Marcos told reporters in a chance interview at the ADB headquarters.
Among the new initiatives they are considering with ADB is a food stamp program to help minimize local hunger incidents, according to the President.
Marcos thanked ADB for consistently extending support to the government.
Asakawa said for this year alone, they expect to extend $4 billion funding to Philippines for its socio-economic agenda.
These projects include the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge Project, the Davao City Public Transport Modernization Program, and the Integrated Floods Protection Resilience and Adaptation Project.
ADB became the country’s top sources of ODA last year after it contributed $10.74 billion for the government projects.
“ADB has always been a steadfast ally for nearly six decades now, ever reliable and unparalleled in its developmental assistance programs that have spanned across many many political cycles,” Marcos said.