RP to get US$100m WB loan

RP to get US$100m WB loan

MANILA: The Philippines will likely borrow US$100 million from the World Bank for a poverty alleviation project, the presidential palace said here Saturday.

The presidential statement said that government economic planners merely need to approve the budgeting for the project before Manila obtains the loan for its funding.

The Social Welfare Department will begin the project, called "Arms Joined to Fight Poverty" (Kalahi), this year and it will last until 2008, the palace statement said.

It will involve organizing rural and urban poor communities and mobilizing them for development projects. It will also give them more participation in governance.

As part of the project, villages will be given grants of as much as 300,000 pesos ($5,885) for anti-poverty projects, the palace said. -- AFP