The World Bank will eventually give the go-signal for the $232-million road building loan to the Philippines, a senior Cabinet official said Wednesday while a World Bank spokesman contradicted this saying the loan will push through in the “right way and the right time”. Andaya clarified that the loan was not suspended and the World Bank is only waiting for a copy of the results of the investigation on the bidding for the road projects in Negros Occidental and Surigao del Sur. The World Bank board had said it deferred discussing the loan, which was intended for the second phase of the National Roads Improvement and Management Program (NRIMP), because it felt that the Philippine government was not able to fully handle corruption issues in reviewing the loan. Lacson’s statement was in reaction to Andaya’s earlier claim that the government should not be blamed for the World Bank’s refusal to release a $232-million loan for road projects in the Philippines. Andaya said the system being imposed by the World Bank to its borrowers, particularly the Philippine government, opened projects to corruption. Secretary Cerge Remonde, head of the Presidential Management Staff, had denied that corruption in the government pushed the World Bank to cancel the multimillion-dollar loan. Read More