Indebtedness

FIRST PERSON

- ALEX MAGNO

If Vice President Sara Duterte intends to sustain her verbal war of attrition against the Marcos administration, she should improve her grasp of fiscal policy issues.

Recently, in the course of a global tour to rally support from overseas Filipinos, Sara touched on the country's mounting indebtedness. With our outstanding debt now exceeding P16 trillion, Sara railed: "At 'yan ang mamanahin ng future generations of Filipinos... Budget na hindi mo alam kung saan ginastos."

Raising concern over our country's mounting debt is valid. But it will not be accurate to suggest that the large debt burden is entirely the responsibility of the current administration. The P16-trillion public debt is the balance of all the nation's borrowings since independence.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte oversaw the largest chunk of our public borrowing. His administration added P6.84 trillion to our indebtedness.

To be fair, a large part of the Duterte debts was incurred to fund our effort to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and save Filipino lives. In the emergency procurements that happened while the pandemic raged, however, some issues may be raised about propriety and transparency.

A second major segment of the Duterte debts went to fund the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure programs. Building infrastructure is a necessary investment to enable future growth that will, in turn, enable our economy to outgrow the debt.

When President BBM took office, he inherited P12.79 trillion in debt obligations. Half of that is attributable to borrowings undertaken during the Duterte years.