Japan gives RP close to P1-B in grants, equipment for PNP

The Japanese embassy in Manila announced yesterday a grant of close to P1 billion to the Philippines, including anti-crime equipment to the Philippine National Police (PNP).

The announcement coincided with the working visit of President Arroyo in Japan, her fourth since assuming office in January 2001.

"These developments form part of Japan’s cooperation with the Philippines, which is expected to reach another milestone with the ongoing visit of President Arroyo," the embassy said.

The embassy furnished Malacañang yesterday with its announced list of assistance to the Philippines, which includes an emergency assistance package for SARS control, Mindanao evacuees, anti-terrorism measures and IT education.

For the country’s anti-terror drive, Japan will provide the PNP with a grant-aid of approximately P400 million for the establishment of Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

"This new system is expected to contribute to the reduction of crime and improve the security situation in the country," the embassy said.

To combat SARS, the embassy announced that Japan will soon provide a P4-million grant of equipment to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

The equipment will convert eight existing isolation rooms to "negative pressure rooms" to effectively control the spread of the SARS virus and other highly infectious diseases.

The embassy said this is in addition to the earlier assistance of P20 million worth of medical equipment provided for SARS treatment and control to several major institutes in the Philippines.

The Japanese government also recently approved the P584 million second phase of the Personal Computers for Public Schools Project under the Non-Project Grant Assistance scheme.

"Japan decided to continue supporting the Philippines’ efforts towards human source development in the field of Information Technology, which is regarded as an imminent issue for the Philippine economy," the embassy pointed out.

This program provides over 10,000 personal computers with printers and peripherals to 900 public high schools, 250 local government units and 103 Department of Trade and Industry regional and provincial offices all over the country, with focus on the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

For the first phase of this program, Japan gave 20,000 PCs to 1,000 Philippine high schools.

And lastly, the embassy said Japan will soon fund two projects for "internally displaced persons" (IDP) in Mindanao to be implemented by non-government organizations.

Interviewed by the government-owned Radyo ng Bayan yesterday, Ambassador to Japan Domingo Siazon Jr. said Japan is the country’s single largest donor of official development assistance (ODA).

As of April this year, he said, 58 percent of all ODA commitments come from Japan, which do not include the Japanese money being poured in the Philippines through the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.

"If we include those Japanese monies, it would be more than 60 percent," Siazon said.

Siazon said Japan has as much as $7 billion of these ODAs in the pipeline but due to severe budgetary deficit problems of the Philippine government, peso counterpart funds have not been available to implement a large bulk of these Japanese-assisted projects in the country.

Siazon also noted that Japan absorbs 15 percent of our total exports while 20 percent of Philippine imports come from Japan. He said in 2001 and 2002, Japan was one of the biggest foreign investors in the Philippines.

"So this relationship is quite important to us. Plus we have about 180,000 Filipinos in Japan," he added.

Siazon, who was the DFA secretary during the term of deposed President Joseph Estrada, however refused to comment on the rebuke made by the Philippine government against Japanese Ambassador Kojiro Takano for his critical remarks about the situation in the Philippines before the Foreign Correspondents’ Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) last week.

"Ambassador Takano himself said our two countries have excellent relations. I don’t want to comment on his personal views and the President has already spoken and the DFA has taken action already," Siazon said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye earlier said that while the diplomatic incident involving Takano was not in the agenda of the President’s Tokyo visit, the issue might crop up in the course of bilateral talks between her and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Mrs. Arroyo is scheduled to meet with Koizumi later today before she flies back to Manila at 9:30 tonight.