JDV: Spain to extend $40 M in development aid to RP

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. announced yesterday that Spain is giving the Philippines $40 million in development assistance over the next three years.

De Venecia was informed of the aid package from Spain by Ambassador Lani Bernardo. The Speaker is in Spain together with a group of congressmen from Pangasinan, his home province.

Speaking at the regional parliament in Madrid, De Venecia proposed a Catalonia-Philippines industrial and manufacturing park here and a special zone for Spanish small and medium-scale enterprises as their entry point in the Asia-Pacific markets.

Regional president Pasqual Maragall and Ernest Benach, president of the regional parliament, received the visiting Speaker and his party of congressmen in Barcelona at the regional palace.

De Venecia recalled that Barcelona was closely linked to Manila during Spain’s more than three centuries of occupation of the Philippines. Two of the greatest Filipino revolutionary heroes, Jose Rizal and Marcelo del Pilar, who published La Solidaridad, imbibed Western democratic ideals while in Barcelona to pursue political reforms at home, he said.

He said the Spanish government has made the Philippines a "priority country" for development.

He invited major construction companies and housing developers in Madrid and Barcelona to participate in housing programs here, where the housing backlog has ballooned to three million to four million and is still growing.

"A housing program for the poor is one of President Arroyo’s priorities," he said.

Earlier in Madrid, De Venecia met with leaders of the ruling Socialist Party and Partido Popular and appealed for support for his debt-for-equity advocacy to finance anti-poverty programs in the Philippines and other heavily indebted nations.

He said Spain could convert up to $150 million in debt to Manila into equity for such projects as reforestation, education, agriculture, irrigation, and tourism.

He extended the gratitude of the government to Spain for looking after the welfare of some 40,000 Filipino employees and entrepreneurs there. — Jess Diaz