How FAiTH works: Web portal on foreign aid

MANILA - Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma on Monday explained how a new government web portal allows the public to monitor foreign assistance to the country in response to calamities. Coloma said the website tracks how foreign aid coming in for Yolanda survivors is being spent. "We are launching it - the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub or FAiTH. Let me clarify that as well, the government is able to account fully for all the money it directly receives kasi there are donations, assistance channeled to private institutions and Red Cross," he said in an interview on ANC's Headstart. "At the end of the whole exercise we could have a total map of the total amount of aid and how they have been channeled," he said. He said that by law, US corporations cannot directly donate to foreign governments because there is lobbying and conflict-of-interest concerns. While rehabilitation efforts continue, Coloma said the government eventually wants to encourage the thousands who fled the devastation to return to their home provinces once the situation has stabilized. ANC Dateline Philippines, November 18, 2013