Under the Lead Inspector General framework, the Inspectors General for the Department of Defense, Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development conduct oversight of and report on the overseas contingency operation "Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines" (OPE-P).
This quarter, ISIS–East Asia (ISIS-EA), the Philippine faction of the terrorist group, sought to capitalize on the Philippine government’s deployment of military assets to assist with the response to the coronavirus disease–2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While ISIS-EA carried out its most deadly attack in 15 months, levels of violence in the Philippines were similar to previous quarters. During the quarter, the number of IDPs from the 2017 siege of Marawi remained unchanged at approximately 70,000, according to the United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. While the Philippine government’s Task Force Bangon Marawi continued to quote December 2021 as the target date for completion of IDP transitional shelter construction, USAID’s implementers reported that construction had slowed significantly due to COVID-19–related travel and work restrictions.
USAID reported that it had approved more than $22 million for the COVID-19 response in the Philippines as of the end of the quarter, making the United States the largest international donor for the response, according to WHO data.156 Except for $4 million in International Disaster Assistance funding, nearly all of this $22 million in announced funding had been obligated by the end of the quarter. However, only $605,000 (3 percent) of this funding had been disbursed by the end of the quarter. Although a majority of COVID-19 cases and 67 percent of deaths were in Metro Manila, USAID reported that Mindanao faced greater difficulty in responding to the pandemic than other parts of the Philippines due to weak health systems, limited testing capacity, and displaced populations with limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene.