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Media Advisory

MCC CEO to Visit the Philippines to Celebrate End of Five-Year Compact

For Immediate Release

May 20, 2016

Contact: 202-521-3686

Email: Renee Kelly

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2016 – MCC CEO Dana J. Hyde and MCC Board member and President of the International Republican Institute Mark Green will visit the Philippines May 23-27 to celebrate the end of the country’s five-year, $434 million compact with MCC. During their visit, Hyde and Green will participate in a close-out event with Philippines President Benigno Aquino III and senior government officials to highlight compact accomplishments, visit project sites and talk with local beneficiaries, and meet with development partners.

MCC’s $434 million compact with the Philippines, signed in 2010 and implemented by the Millennium Challenge Account-Philippines (MCA-P), has improved tax revenue collection and administration to reduce opportunities for corruption, rehabilitated a secondary road network in one of the poorest parts of the country, and funded about 4,000 small-scale community development projects in rural, high-poverty areas.

  • The compact’s Revenue Administration Reform Project supported ambitious reform at the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue and has already generated more than $300 million in additional tax revenue since 2013, and these figures continue to grow. The project focused on increasing the efficiency and sustainability of revenue collection through a redesign and computerization of business processes. The project narrows the gap between potential and actual collections by reducing the discretion of individual revenue collection officers, and helps improve the predictability and impartiality of revenue laws and regulations enforcement.
  • Road rehabilitation through the compact’s Secondary National Roads Development Project – including 137 miles of coastal and mountainous roads and 61 bridges on Samar Island – is reducing transportation costs, expanding commerce, and helping to raise incomes for the island’s people. The road not only withstood Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest typhoons in history, it also played a vital role in the region’s recovery.
  • The compact’s community-driven development project, Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (Linking Arms Against Poverty) Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services – known as KALAHI-CIDSS – has funded thousands of projects in basic infrastructure and social services based on needs identified and prioritized by residents across Filipino communities. The project strengthened community participation in development and governance activities at the village and municipal levels, and improved local governments’ responsiveness to community needs.

In the northern part of the country, community tap stands are now bringing clean water to residents of Barangay Malucsad. In the west, solar panels are keeping the lights on after dark for the people of Barangay Banuang Daan. And in the south, a new health center in Barangay Kagbana is saving money and lives. Jaime Banagbanag, a father of six from Kagbana, said the health center brings many solutions at once.

“Before, the sick got even sicker just because of the trip,” he said. “We even had to take out loans just to pay the motorcycle drivers so that people could get to the hospital in time. We don’t have to do that anymore.”

MCC’s Board of Directors selected the Philippines in December 2014 as eligible to develop a second compact, and re-selected the Philippines in 2015. The country’s selection recognizes its impressive gains under the first compact and its continued commitment to good governance.

For additional details on Hyde and Green’s visit to the Philippines, please email press@mcc.gov.

Learn more about MCC’s Philippines Compact.

 

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