Filipinos now have a debt of over P127,000 each, which will be paid in the form of taxes, as the country’s debt grows after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. borrowed another $2 billion from foreign lenders.
This is on top of the P13.02-trillion debt the government has incurred as of end-August.
According to Freedom from Debt Coalition president Rene Ofreneo, the government has been borrowing almost P100 billion a month since the Duterte administration, pushing the national debt to over P13 trillion.
“Yung ating (Our) debt-to-GDP ratio is somewhere around mid-60% already, above the threshold of 60%,” Ofreneo said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
“Ang isyu, kung mangungutang ka, dapat kaya mong bayaran, at kaya mong lagpasan ang growth target mo para mabayaran ang utang,” he added.
(The issue is if you’re gonna borrow money, you should be able to pay it, and you should be able to surpass your growth target to pay your debts.)
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Treasury on Thursday (Oct 6) said that the administration’s latest debt will be used for “general purposes, including budgetary support.”
“The proceeds from the 25-year Global Bonds will be applied to finance or refinance assets under the Republic’s Sustainable Finance Framework,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said.
According to de Leon, the $2 billion bond issue will be issued in 3 tranches:
- $500 million 5 years at 5.17%
- $750 million at 10.5 years at 5.609%
- $750 million at 25 years ESG at 6.10%
“Despite the ongoing weakness in global credit markets amid high inflation and rising US interest rates, the Republic was able to navigate volatile market conditions and successfully price the Global Bonds,” the National Treasurer said.
Earlier, economic think tank IBON foundation said that the debt per Filipino has already amounted to P112,678 if the national debt is divided among 26.3 million families.
In a presentation in July, IBON executive director Sonny Africa said that ordinary Filipinos suffer “disproportionate burden of repaying debt” due to the Duterte administration’s Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) and Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) which transfer the tax burden from large corporations to the poor and middle class Filipinos.
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