DOF eyes P30b bond float for Marawi rehabilitation

August 10, 2017

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has directed the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) to study the possible issuance of P30 billion-worth of debt securities to help fund the planned massive rehabilitation and reconstruction  effort for Marawi City.

Dominguez said the “Marawi” bonds would appeal to the “patriotic” sense of duty of citizens who would like to help rebuild the lives of their fellow Filipinos in Marawi, according to a statement by the finance department on Thursday.

“These are what you would call ‘patriotic’ bonds to help augment the funds that the government has set aside for Marawi’s rehabilitation,” Dominguez said at a recent DOF executive committee (Execom) meeting.

Dominguez asked National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon at the Execom meeting to study the tenor or length of maturity of the bond, which could possibly be for 20 years.

In a separate statement,  Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government will release at least P15 billion to rehabilitate Marawi in the next two years. The allocations would form part of the proposed budget of the Marawi reconstruction masterplan spearheaded by the  Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“The initial fund of P5 billion for 2017 will be sourced from the 2016 and 2017 NDRRM (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council) fund with a combined remaining balance of around P7.4 billion, and the 2017 contingent fund with a balance of almost P3.35 billion, both as of July 2017,” Diokno said in his statement.

For the NDRRM fund for 2018, P25.5 billion has been allocated, of which P10 billion had been allotted for the Marawi recovery and rehabilitation program, according to Diokno. DMS