6/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly unfinished portion consisted in the purchase and installation of electro-mechanical equipment and materials, which were available from foreign suppliers, thus requiring US Dollars for their importation. The monthly billings and payments made by SOB[54] reveal that the agreement between the parties was a periodic payment by the Project owner to the contractor depending on the percentage of accomplishment within the period. [55] The payments were, in turn, to be used by the contractor to finance the subsequent phase of the work. [56] However, as explained by VPECI in its letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the payment by SOB purely in Dinars adversely affected the completion of the project; thus: 4. Despite protests from the plaintiff, SOB continued paying the accomplishment billings of the Contractor purely in Iraqi Dinars and which payment came only after some delays. 5. SOB is fully aware of the following: … 5.2 That Plaintiff is a foreign contractor in Iraq and as such, would need foreign currency (US$), to finance the purchase of various equipment, materials, supplies, tools and to pay for the cost of project management, supervision and skilled labor not available in Iraq and therefore have to be imported and or obtained from the Philippines and other sources outside Iraq. 5.3 That the Ministry of Labor and Employment of the Philippines requires the remittance into the Philippines of 70% of the salaries of Filipino workers working abroad in US Dollars; … 5.5 That the Iraqi Dinar is not a freely convertible currency such that the same cannot be used to purchase equipment, materials, supplies, etc. outside of Iraq; 5.6 That most of the materials specified by SOB in the CONTRACT are not available in Iraq and therefore have to be imported; 5.7 That the government of Iraq prohibits the bringing of local currency (Iraqui Dinars) out of Iraq and hence, imported materials, equipment, etc., cannot be purchased or obtained using elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/45413 9/17