TOKYO—Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has broached the possibility of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) extending its support to the Philippines’ localized climate adaptation and mitigation projects.

He met here recently with Shinichi Kitaoka and Akihiko Tanaka, the outgoing president and current president, respectively, of JICA, after the signing of the 30 billion yen loan agreement for the second phase of the COVID-19 Crisis Response Emergency Support Loan (CCRESL 2) facility.

Dominguez is the designated representative of President Rodrigo Duterte to the Philippines’ Climate Change Commission (CCC).

Tanaka expressed his openness to Dominguez’s proposal and said JICA would be willing to explore climate projects in the Philippines targeting specific localities and addressing specific climate change-related threats

He also reaffirmed Japan’s commitment to the Mindanao peace process, and assistance in the development of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Kitaoka, for his part, said Japan is proud of its partnership with the Philippines, as it has led to substantial progress, especially in the areas of infrastructure cooperation and the Mindanao peace process.

Dominguez and the JICA presidents also looked forward to the implementation of the Subic Bay Regional Development Master Plan, which was finalized recently with the assistance of a JICA survey mission team.

The masterplan will serve as a blueprint to maximize the economic development potentials of Subic Bay and its surrounding areas.

JICA is supporting the implementation of 27 ongoing loans to the Philippines with a total commitment of $10.02 billion.

Of these 27 ongoing loans, 16 support the flagship infrastructure projects under President Rodrigo Duterte's “Build, Build, Build" program.

Japan’s financial contribution to the Philippines’ nation-building efforts under the Duterte administration has reached 1.38 trillion yen, well over the 1 trillion yen mark committed by then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2017.

The Philippines’ largest provider of official development assistance (ODA) is also Japan, which has committed loans and grants amounting to around $10.449 billion, or 38.11 percent of the country’s total ODA portfolio, as of June 2021. DOF