MANILA - The government is planning to borrow as much as P280 billion from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support reconstruction efforts in areas damaged by recent storms.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the amount would come from the country's unavailed loans to the World Bank and the ADB. He said both multilateral lenders are currently reviewing their loan portfolio for the Philippines to determine which could be used for the government's reconstruction efforts.

"We were given the figure of P280 billion, but they are still finetuning which among these previously approved loans could be rechanneled for this purpose," Teves told reporters. He said about P200 billion would come from the World Bank, while the remaining P80-billion loan will be extended by the ADB.

State-run National Development Corp. is planning to sell P50 billion in reconstruction bonds in 5- to 10-year maturities to fund rebuilding after storms "Ondoy" and "Pepeng" (international code names Ketsana and Parma, respectively) hit the Philippines in the past weeks.

But according to Teves, the P280-billion loan would be easier to draw than the P50-billion reconstruction bonds, providing more options for the government.

"So I would say there are options that we could not focus on the P50 billion reconstruction bonds. There are other options that could be readily available, instead of waiting for these reconstruction bonds," Teves said.