An official of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Monday said the Philippines would not be directly affected by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) freeze.
According to NEDA Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon, the Philippines can always ask other foreign development partners for assistance.
“Iba na rin ang situation natin noon sa ngayon. Dati kasi we even depend on USAID sa school buildings natin,” Edillon said in a press briefing.
(We have a different situation now. Before, we usually depended on USAID for our school buildings.)
“Ngayon hindi na tayo sa ganoon situation (Right now we are not in that situation). So, it’s really more of the technical assistance part, which we can source from other development partners,” she added.
Last month, the US State Department issued a “stop work” order to all existing foreign assistance and paused new aid, following President Donald Trump’s directive to pause and review if aid allocation was aligned with his foreign policy.
The USAID headquarters in Washington was shut on February 4, after billionaire Elon Musk said Trump agreed that the agency — whose programs cover billions of dollars of aid across the globe — should be closed.—LDF, GMA Integrated News
