PCIJ E-Bulletin #28.2008

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W H A T ' S N E W @ www.pcij.org
13.August.2008


---------------[ Special Report )------

Till Debt Do Us Part?
Gloria's Inglorious Record: Biggest Debtor, Least Popular
by Alecks P. Pabico

GENERATIONS of Filipinos have grown up amid rallies denouncing the
country's constantly ballooning foreign debt. In her eighth and latest
State of the Nation Address, however, President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo boasted that her administration has managed to retire debts in
great amounts, "reducing the drag on our country's development."

But our latest report shows that the Philippine debt stock has, in
fact, grown at a faster rate under the Arroyo administration. In her
first six years in office alone, Arroyo has incurred about P3.53
trillion in foreign and domestic debt, more than double the combined
total borrowings recorded in 14 years under the administration of her
three predecessors.

Arroyo has also resorted to prepaying maturing debts, resulting in
P3.8-trillion payments to foreign and domestic lenders, more than
double the combined debt-service payments of of her three predecessors
from 1986 to 2000.

To be sure, Arroyo is only following in the footsteps of the post-
Marcos governments before her by dutifully complying with the
Marcosian law on automatic appropriation. Its disastrous implication,
however, is that debt service has continued to be a national economic
priority. More than anything, the huge amounts flowing out of the
country in debt-service payments explain the spending compression ---
the underfunding of education, health, and public infrastructure ---
in the last seven years.

As Dr. Walden Bello, president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition sums
it up succinctly: "It requires no special intelligence to realize that
the massive amounts of money that have gone to paying our creditors to
service our constantly mounting external debt was money that could not
go to development."

Read on at http://pcij.org
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SEE ALSO:

Misplaced Government Spending Worsens Woes
by Jaileen F. Jimeno and Karol Anne M. Ilagan

IN her State of the Nation Address last week, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo reported on the economic gains her administration
chalked up in 2007. Her speech, however, ignored the bleak data that
government statisticians have collected in the last six months.

This latest report looks at solutions proffered by the Arroyo
government to our current economic problems, and why various groups
are warning that things can only get worse before they can get better.

Read on at http://pcij.org/i-report/2008/economic-crisis.html
Post your comments at http://i-site.ph/dailypcij/?p=16

SIDEBAR: 'Dubious' Oil Price Hikes Hurt the Poorest Most
Read on at http://pcij.org/i-report/2008/economic-crisis3.html
Post your comments at http://i-site.ph/dailypcij/?p=16