THE Senate, asserting congressional review power over the national purse, moved to require the government’s economic managers to update Congress and render a report on the status of the country’s debt and finances twice a year.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto, in filing Senate Bill 1483, asserted the need for early enactment of the measure passed by the senators as “the government piles up debts without congressional review.”
Recto said, “A law requiring the country’s lead economic managers to make a biannual appearance before a joint committee of Congress to report on the country’s debt and finances has become more urgent,” adding: “Kung may Ulat sa Bayan ang Pangulo, kailangan may Utang ng Bayan report din ang mga tao niya [If the President has a Report to the Nation, his economic manager must also render a Report on the Country’s Debt].”
The Senate President Pro Tempore pointed out that with the “national debt meter” moving up without lawmakers knowing the details, it was all the more necessary to enact into law the Senate-approved bill mandating four Cabinet men to make two “national fiscal status” reports before a House-Senate oversight panel in a year.
Recto also noted that “not fully included in the debt picture are contingent liabilities arising from sovereign loans or guaranteed obligations in PPP projects, and embedded in various kinds of joint ventures.” He stressed the need to have “a reliable, running estimate on how much these costs, otherwise we may be blindsided.”
Under the Recto bill, those required to render what he dubbed the State of the Debt Address, or Soda, are the secretaries of the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as well as the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director general and the Bangko Sentral governor.
In a statement, Recto prodded Congress to “take an active stance in closely monitoring the enlargement of the public debt,” adding that “our eyes should be on the debt needle.”
The senator cited what he described as “the alarming trend of finding foreign financing, signing the loan papers, and passing, as a matter of fait accompli, the loan repayment to Congress—instead of first securing appropriations for a certain project or program.” He gave as example the conditional cash tranfers or the 4Ps program. “People don’t know that $1.75 billion, in five loan packages, were borrowed for such. What simply reached Congress is the request to allocate for debt servicing. It’s like we were just told, ‘Oh, by the way, we borrowed this amount, so pay this,’” Recto said, in a mix of English and Filipino.
He aired concerns that “there is always the temptation of going on a borrowing spree and letting the succeeding administrations pay for it. If that is so, future income is mortgaged and budget space is constricted.”
According to Recto, while the most important debt indicator—the debt-to-GDP ratio—has been going down, from Presidents Arroyo to Aquino to Duterte, or from 52.4 percent in 2010 to 42.1 percent last year, “we should not let up in our oversight because loose loan approvals will create payables the next generation will amortize.”
He recalled that the national government debt was pegged at P4.582 trillion as of June 2010, when then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stepped down from office. “It was P5.94 trillion in June 2016 when it was Benigno S. Aquino III’s turn to leave Malacañang. This has climbed to P7.15 trillion by end of last September.”