The Senate today adopted a resolution concurring to the ratification of the Article of Agreements of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), an international financial institution.
Senate Resolution No. 241, sponsored by Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman Alan Peter Cayetano and co-sponsored by Senator Loren Legarda, who chaired the Senate Subcommittee on the AIIB ratification, was passed on third reading with 20 affirmative votes, one negative vote and zero abstention. Senator Risa Hontiveros cast the lone negative vote.
The Senate resolution said that any institution “that will promote human development, accelerate economic and social progress, and further good relations with neighboring nations should be embraced and supported.”
The AIIB describes itself as a “modern knowledge-based institution, which will focus on the development of infrastructure and other productive sectors in Asia, including energy and power, transportation and telecommunications, rural infrastructure and agriculture development, water supply and sanitation, environmental protection, urban development and logistics, etc.”
“The Agreement considers the importance of regional cooperation to sustain growth and promote economic and social development of the economies in Asia and thereby contribute to regional resilience against potential financial crises and other external shocks in the context of globalization,” the resolution said.
The resolution also stated that the Agreement “realizes that the considerable long-term need for financing infrastructure development in Asia will be met more adequately by a partnership among existing multilateral development banks and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.”
The AIIB is formed by 57-founder member states like China, India, Russia, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The Philippines signed the Articles of Agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank last December 31, 2015 in China.
President Rodrigo Duterte himself ratified the Agreement on 19 October 2016, and accordingly submitted it to the Senate for concurrence, in accordance with the 1987 Constitution.
The resolution concluded that during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations last November 10, 2016, at least eight executive departments and agencies – the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Justice, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Bureau of Treasury, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the National Economic Development Authority – have all expressed their endorsement of the concurrence to the ratification of the Agreement.