We received last week a very encouraging report from our Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. about the Philippines having qualified to the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). This piece of good news was immediately relayed to President Arroyo by Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Willy C. Gaa, through his immediate superior Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto Romulo. As the point man in Washington, Ambassador Gaa has been leading the Philippine government campaign to get into this US government grant facility being made available to poor and developing countries.
I was still covering Malacanang Palace when the Philippines first considered seeking and applying for this grant assistance known as the MCA. The idea of creating the MCA was first conceived in 2002 by the administration of US President George W. Bush who intended this as a kind of bilateral development fund. For this reason, a US government corporation, called the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) was established in January 2004 and is principally tasked to run and administer the MCA fund. The MCC thus operates on the principle that US government aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom and investment in people. It is supervised by US State Department Secretary Condoleezza Rice who is noted as one of the most influential to President Bush from among his Cabinet members.
Before a country can become eligible to receive assistance, the MCC looks at their performance on “independent and transparent” indicators. Countries are selected on a “competitive” basis. Through a set of 16 indicators, the MCC measures a country’s “effectiveness at ruling justly, investing in people, and in fostering enterprise and entrepreneurship.” The Bush administration has stated their belief that development aid works better in countries with good economic policies, such as free markets and low incidence of corruption.
Once a country being considered for MCA meets the set criteria, the MCC selects it as eligible for Compact Status. It goes through a final review by the MCC Board to determine the amount the country would be receiving under its Compact Assistance Agreement. The most recent MCC Compact Agreement was signed last month with Tanzania in which this poor East African country would be receiving as much as $689 million in grants from the MCC. At this stage, the Philippines got so far to the grant of Compact Status during that MCC board meeting in Washington.
The MCC’s granting of Compact Status to the Philippines for the MCA grant increases the possibility of a meeting between President Arroyo and President Bush during her projected visit to Washington in June.
For almost six years of waiting, the Philippines finally qualified to the MCA. It was only last year after the MCC team found “clear and convincing” the Philippine government compliance with some of the criteria. The visiting MCC team last year was separately briefed by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez as the head of the independent constitutional body running after the corrupt and grafters in the Philippine government while Department of Budget and Management Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. discussed the implementation of the transparency measures in the procurement system to reduce, if not totally eliminate areas of corruption.
MCC chief executive officer (CEO) Ambassador John Danolovich called up Ambassador Gaa last week at our Philippine Embassy in Washington to notify him about this most welcome development. The Ambassador was most ecstatic to hear from no less than the CEO of MCC about their satisfaction to the commitment of the Philippine government in fighting corruption even amid highly publicized controversies and scandals being hurled against the Arroyo administration. If it is any consolation, the truth and the realities on the ground in the Philippines are obviously winning over hearsays and baseless attacks generated by the harshest critics of the President.
In his report, Ambassador Gaa informed the Chief Executive that the Philippines has to maintain and continue to improve its MCC scores to increase chances for an early Compact Agreement and to get a higher amount of grants. Ambassador Gaa has set meetings with the MCC Board headed by Alan Larson of Covington, MCC’s first CEO to discuss with him how best to proceed in getting a Compact Agreement signed at the soonest possible time.
In fact, a team from the MCC is due to arrive in Manila next week to do preliminary survey for the eventual Compact Grant. American Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney has already alerted the Palace on the special areas of concern that would be looked into by the MCC and this include the much reported “extra-judicial” killings in the assessment of the human rights situation in the Philippines and continuing anti-corruption drive.
We got this kind of good news one week before we observe Lent. But we need not be too seriously somber while we Catholics observe our traditional Holy Week. I would like to share with you a few moments of quiet laughter with this Lenten joke:
“Each Friday night after work, Bubba would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak. But, all of Bubba’s neighbors were Catholic. And since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Friday. The delicious aroma from the grilled venison was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their priest. The Priest came to visit Bubba, and suggested that he converts to Catholic.
After several classes and much study, Bubba attended Mass... and as the priest sprinkled holy water over him, he said, ‘You were born a Baptist, and raised a Baptist, but now you are a Catholic. Bubba’s neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma of grilled venison filled the neighborhood. The priest was called immediately by the neighbors. And, as the priest rushed into Bubba’s yard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold him, he stopped and watched in amazement.
There stood Bubba, clutching a small bottle of holy water which he carefully sprinkled over the grilling meat and chanted: You wuz born a deer, you wuz raised a deer, but now you a catfish.” Peace be with you. Happy Easter to all!
