Philippines to ease France's concern on handling foreign aid

The Philippine government will coordinate with France on how the Southeast Asia country could properly address the latter's concern on its handling of foreign aid, a senior Philippine government official said Tuesday. In a news briefing, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that the Aquino administration was "somewhat surprised" to learn that France included the Philippines among the 17 "non- cooperative states and territories" in terms of handling foreign aid. "We're looking to get more details on this particular report... and we're trying to get a better handle on what it really is and what the observations are," she said. "So the Finance Secretary is getting more information on that so we can properly address it," Valte said. France released Monday a blacklist of 17 countries that do not help investigate foreign aid fraud, banning the use of their banks to help distribute development funds. The other countries that France blacklisted were Switzerland, Botswana, Brunei, Nauru, Guatemala, Lebanon, Panama, Costa Rica, the United Arab Emirates, Dominica, Liberia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.