The European Union (EU) has extended a new grant worth 24.5 million Euros (approximately US$ 28.8 million) to the Philippines to help strengthen the government’s ongoing peace and confidence-building initiatives in the Bangsamoro autonomous region and assist in the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi City in Mindanao.

On behalf of the Philippine government, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III signed on Aug. 11 the Financing Agreement (FA) for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme (MINPAD)-Peace and Development in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MINPAD-PD BARMM) transmitted by the EU to formalize the grant for the project.

Mr. Pierre Amilhat, the Director for Asia, Central Asia, Middle East/Gulf and the Pacific of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development had earlier signed the FA on behalf of the EU.

Under the agreement, EUR5 million of the grant shall be exclusively dedicated to the recovery and rehabilitation of areas devastated during the 2017 siege of Marawi City, while about EUR3 million will be allocated for the BARMM’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the autonomous region.

The PD BARMM project will be jointly implemented by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) and the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) within five years or 60 months after the execution of the FA.

“This third grant from the EU this year underpins this major economic bloc’s unwavering commitment to the attainment of genuine and lasting peace and development in Southern Philippines along with the speedy recovery of conflict-devastated Marawi City,” Secretary Dominguez said upon the signing the FA.

“We cannot thank enough the EU and our other development partners for their ceaseless support for government efforts to spell peace in Mindanao and enable the island to achieve its full growth potentials on the Duterte watch,” he added.

The FA signed by Secretary Dominguez for the PD BARMM project brings to EUR85 million the total amount of grants provided by the EU so far this year for the government’s peace and development initiatives in Mindanao.

Last month, the EU extended two grants amounting to a combined EUR 60.5 million (about US$67.9 million) to the Philippine government to assist in its ongoing peacebuilding and development efforts in Mindanao with a focus on strengthening the institutions of the newly formed Bangsamoro autonomous government, creating jobs and improving community-based infrastructure in the island’s agricultural communities.

These grants were for the Mindanao Peace and Development Programme-RISE Mindanao (MINPAD-RISE Mindanao), for which the EU provided a EUR35.5 million grant, and the Support to Bangsamoro Transition (SUBATRA), which received a grant of EUR 25 million.

Under PD-BARMM, a contribution of EUR 4 million from the EU is foreseen for the multi-donor Bangsamoro Normalisation Trust Fund (BNTF). Other donors like the World Bank, United Nations, the Australian government and other EU member-states are expected to contribute to this trust fund. The total of EU and trust fund contributions would be about EUR 35.1 million.

The EU will provide the biggest share in the PD BARMM project with its EUR24.5 million grant, while the other donors will contribute and indicative amount of EUR10 million. Other potential grant beneficiaries will provide the remaining EUR 600,000.

According to the Department of Finance (DOF), the project aims to improve the “social cohesion and resilience of the communities in the Bangsamoro region” and contribute to the development of a “peaceful, cohesive, secure and inclusively developed Mindanao.”

On top of assisting in the early recovery, relief and rehabilitation of conflict-hit areas in the BARMM, the project is expected to improve and expand the mechanisms for dialogue and mediation among diverse groups in the region by way of improving their capacity to take part in the government’s peace- and confidence-building initiatives in Mindanao, the DOF said.

On the EUR3 million allocation for BARMM’s COVID-response efforts, the DOF said the EU has already received proposals from the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and the French humanitarian organization Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) on addressing health-related issues in the region.

The EU also confirmed that after the conclusion of the FA, separate contribution agreements will be negotiated between the European Commission and the World Bank as third-party administrator of the BNTF, the DOF said.

The BNTF, a multi-donor trust fund that was established after the ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), aims to finance, coordinate and oversee the delivery of assistance from international partners and other donors in the implementation of programs that would help decommissioned combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) return to the mainstream of society and henceforth lead peaceful, productive lives in the South.

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