00:00Let me start by saying I foresee no halt to U.S. assistance to the Philippines, number one.
00:07Number two, when President Trump took office, I think the review that we did of foreign assistance across the board
00:14took into consideration all sorts of factors.
00:17One thing that President Trump very clearly had elaborated during the electoral campaign
00:23was that he wanted to make sure that U.S. taxpayer dollars were being spent effectively.
00:27Fair enough.
00:28And, you know, part of the transition to a new, more focused foreign assistance program,
00:35not just in the Philippines but around the world, I think is a reflection of that.
00:39You know, any time we spend foreign assistance monies, we very rigorously monitor and evaluate how those funds were spent
00:46and the results that we expect to get from them.
00:49And that will certainly continue even in this post-transition, this new mode that we're now delivering foreign assistance.
00:55That will continue to be absolutely a crucial part.
00:59We still take very seriously our responsibility to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars, you know,
01:04with the highest degrees of integrity and accountability.
01:07So on, in terms of flood control, I'm going to actually kind of pivot a little bit, you know,
01:16what the United States is looking to do with some of our foreign assistance monies is to help working hand-in-hand
01:23with our counterparts in the Philippine government, prepare for disaster assistance and response.
01:29This could mean pre-positioning supplies in parts of the Philippines that are particularly prone to, you know, cyclones or typhoons,
01:36working with local communities to, you know, do training and other sorts of capacity building
01:42so that when natural disasters do hit, they're ready to respond quickly and effectively to the benefit of the people in those communities.
01:50So that will, in fact, be a part of what our new foreign assistance section will be focused on.
01:58In terms of, you know, flood control, look, as we're working on, you know, the Luzon Economic Corridor,
02:04I can't tell you at this point in time we have any specific projects specifically focused on that topic,
02:10but in terms of overall improvement of infrastructure along that corridor, you know, I think considerations about vulnerability to natural disasters
02:20is a key part of making infrastructure more resilient.
02:24So I wouldn't rule that out as being something that is at least part of the equation going forward with those sorts of programs.
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