IT seems there’s no reason to worry as to how the Philippines can pay its P11-trillion outstanding debt.
Apparently, it’s not a major concern, according to a top Palace official.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque today warded off public apprehension over the huge debt that the country has incurred for the past 15 months.
He said in a press briefing that the Philippines has the capability to pay whatever it owes.
Despite heavy borrowings to finance its COVID-19 response and infrastructure drive, the presidential spokesperson hinted at the economic managers as being “very conservative” even as he claimed that the national debt as of May is well within a category he aptly referred to as “mid-range,” as compared to lower-middle income countries like those in Latin America.
“Malaki pong tingnan ‘yan, but we are in the mid-range. At wala naman pong problema ‘yan pagdating doon sa ating kakayahan na magbayad,” Roque told Palace reporters.
The national debt was at P5.948 trillion at the end of June 2016, or about half of the current loan.
In the wake of a bloated obligation, the Bureau of Treasury earlier said that the total debt would have been higher if not for the peso’s performance from April to May, as the local currency appreciated against the US dollar from P48.156 as of end-April 2021 to P47.723 as of end-May 2021.
Of the total debt stock, 28.5 percent were foreign borrowings while 71.5 percent were domestic borrowings.
The country’s domestic debt reached P7.9 trillion in May, which was P103.37 billion or 1.3 percent higher compared to the end of April.
Foreign debt, meanwhile, decreased by P23.56 billion to P3.155 trillion due to the P28.58 billion impact of local-currency appreciation against the US dollar and the net repayment of foreign loans amounting to P0.22 billion.
Mathematical computations showed that the current outstanding debt means each and every Filipino now owes P99,000 to the lending institutions from where funds were borrowed by the government.