ADB approves $200m loan to support the Philippines' poor amid COVID-19

The Asian Development Bank has approved a $200 million loan to support the Philippine government’s effort to provide emergency cash subsidies to vulnerable households amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The loan, under the Social Protection Support Project–Second Additional Financing, will contribute to the $726 million required to provide emergency subsidies to 4Ps households in April and May 2020. 

The government was last month authorised to implement a COVID-19 emergency subsidy program that provides cash payments of PHP5,000 to PHP8,000 ($100 to $158) per month for two months to 18 million low-income families nationwide. This large program includes 4.3 million poor households covered under the country’s conditional cash transfer program.