President Duterte and Prime Minister Abe locks $9-billion deal to rehab Marawi among others

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe locked hands on a new deal, which included a pledge of nearly $9-billion in aid to the Philippines to rebuild the war-torn City of Marawi, in a Joint Press Statement held at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on the President's official visit to Japan.


According to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a total of Y1 trillion will be coursed through in the next five years to fund infrastructure projects in the Philippines.
  

"We will speedily promote the building of an underground in Metro Manila and improving projects for the North South Commuter Rail and also local city development including the improvement of roads and disaster reduction-oriented quality infrastructure cooperation."

He, likewise added, that the aid will "provide maximum support for the restoration and reconstruction of Marawi City, and we will strengthen support for Mindanao and toward the establishment of an autonomous government, we will respond to the progress of processing."

In response, president Duterte said, "The Philippines and Japan are building a golden age of our strategic partners."

With the Philippines' hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in November 2017, both leaders underscored the need to address several issues, such as maritime security, the North Korea nuclear and missile threats, terrorism, and illegal drugs.

Prior to the leaders' joint statement, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono signed an agreement on the "Exchange of Notes on Yen Loan for the Cavite Industrial Area Flood Management Project." [RTVMalacanang]