California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with a group of Filipino-American experts on urban planning, will visit the Philippines next week to assist in the ”heavy lifting” of the Philippine government’s reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.
Executive Director Butch Meily of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation, which serves as partner of the Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission (SNPRC), announced the scheduled arrival of the California-based experts on reconstruction and rehabilitation along with the Hollywood action hero-turned-politician.
He said in a press briefing last Thursday that Schwarzenegger and company ”will be spending days” in Manila to share with their counterparts their practices and strategies in addressing damages brought by catastrophes.
In the same briefing, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said the California governor would ”assist in the heavy lifting” task of the SNPRC to address the damages from the devastating typhoons last year as well as to attract humanitarian assistance to fund the government’s rehabilitation efforts.
Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo, also the head of the Commission’s Secretariat, said they are hoping to mobilize $877.58 million (P40 billion) in foreign funding for the rehabilitation efforts.
Of the amount, $590 million will come from the Japan International Cooperation Agency; $3.58 million from the Instituto de Credito Oficial-Deutsche Bank; and the rest from the World Bank.
”This will have a big effect to our national account and to the welfare of those who were affected by the typhoons,” he said.
Saludo said they were in dialogue with the Commission on Elections to request exemption from the infrastructure ban during the election period to pursue the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects. National and local elections are scheduled this May 10.
”We hope that the Comelec would see the need for the projects to be pushed through,” he said.
Saludo said the Commission has lined up a total of P9.15 billion rehabilitation projects in the first quarter and P10.4 billion in the second quarter this year.
He said at least 20 reconstruction projects are expected to be implemented before Mrs. Arroyo’s term expires on June 30 this year.
Source: Manila Bulletin
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