The Philippines failed to qualify for a grant from the US aid agency Millennium Challenge Corp. after getting a failing mark in the “control of corruption” requirement.
In the MCC’s Fiscal Year 2022 scorecard released November 9, the country passed 12 of 20 indicators: fiscal policy, inflation, regulatory quality, trade policy, gender in the economy, land rights and access, political rights, civil liberties, government effectiveness, natural resource protection, girls’ secondary education enrollment rate and child health.
However, the country’s scores in access to credit and business startup, control of corruption, rule of law and freedom of information, as well as health expenditures, primary education expenditures and immunization rates remained in the red.
To be eligible to receive MCC funding, countries must pass at least 10 of 20 indicators, as well as both categories that are considered ‘hard hurdles’ for eligibility – the political rights or civil liberties indicator, and the control of corruption indicator.
Failure to pass the control of corruption indicator is the reason why the Philippines failed to qualify.
As with most of the country’s recent failures upon evaluation by international organizations, Malacañang was quick to downplay the MCC decision.
“If foreigners think it is lacking, so be it. But our policies here in the Philippines are independent of what other countries will say,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said at a press briefing.
MCC’s scorecards are a key component in its competitive selection process that determines which countries are eligible to develop a five-year grant agreement known as a compact. This year, MCC created scorecards for 81 countries – 28 of which passed and 53 failed. MCC has made all the FY22 scorecards publicly available on its website.
Failure to pass muster for grants like the MCC that impose standards has become nothing new for the Philippines. As early as 2016 the MCC board of directors had already deferred voting the reselection of the country for the new MCC compact due to roughly the same concerns. An angry President Duterte then responded that the MCC should “eat its money” as the Philippines apparently did not need the aid agency to survive.
With the latest failure and the still unrepentant stance of Malacañang, it would seem that our government is not interested in rising to international standards, even just to qualify for aid grants.*
