Japan continues to provide financial help as Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda signed five grant contracts of about P30 million last Nov. 22 under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

This is after they committed an estimated amount of P70 billion last October to assist the current administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

The five contracts include the construction of a two-story dormitory building for the Philippine School for the Deaf (PSD) in Pasay City; a health center in Paracelis, Mountain Province; a one-story, four-classroom building for Don Felix Roles Elementary School in La Castellana, Negros Occidental; a two-story, four-classroom building for Sto. Nino Elementary School in Kidapawan City; and the procurement of agricultural equipment for the farmers of Anao, Tarlac.

Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda signed contract for the construction of crisis center in Cotabato City. Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines

Prior to this, GGP also provided assistance for the Bangsamoro peace process in 2006, the construction of crisis centers for children in conflict with the law (CICL) in Cotabato City in 2018, and the activation of mobile clinics in Zamboanga City last April.

Japan is known for giving development assistance to big-ticket projects such as transportation systems and public spaces.

But in 1989, it launched the GGP to help reduce poverty and improve the lives of the marginalized, especially in Mindanao. It aims to give the vulnerable communities access to their basic rights by funding small-scale projects on health care, education, and agriculture.

To date, Japan remains the country’s top official development assistance donor with about 543 grassroots projects implemented all over the country.

Header photo courtesy of the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines

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