Twenty years after EDSA, the Filipino is deeper in debt, poorer and hungrier. The Ultra stampede that killed 71 persons clearly illustrates the sordid state of the Filipino people, suffering years and years of neglect particularly under the Arroyo administration.
As of November 2005, the National Government’s outstanding debt stands at Php 3.9 trillion. Twenty years ago, the country’s debt stood at Php 472.5 billion. On the aggregate, this represents a more than 725-percent increase or an annual average growth of 36 percent.
It is the Arroyo administration that holds the distinction of being the country’s highest single borrower. From 2001 to 2005, this administration has incurred an additional debt totaling to a staggering Php 2.4 trillion or more than half of our current outstanding debt.
In fact, the Arroyo administration has so wantonly abused government’s authority to borrow that new debts acquired during her five-year stay in Malacañang exceeds by Php 900 billion debts incurred by the three administrations after EDSA combined. The combined total borrowings of the three administrations only total Php 1.5 trillion.
This unchecked acquisition of new debts is gravely scandalous and exceedingly immoral. It becomes even more deplorable since these new debts have only marginally trickled down to the broader majority. The Arroyo administration has not used these borrowings to propel economic growth and development.
The table below shows that under the Arroyo administration expenditures for capital outlay - for productive public investments and services consistently declined in under her term. The national government’s capital outlay as a ratio of gross total borrowings has dwindled to only 10.5 percent in 2005 from a ratio of 27.2 percent in 2001.
Clearly, when it comes to actually spending for programs and interventions, there is little room within the Arroyo administration for growth and anti-poverty initiatives. There is little room, almost no room, for productive and long-term investments in education, health, and social infrastructures.
Sources: Bureau of the Treasury; Proposed National Expenditure Program
In Million Pesos | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | TOTAL under GMA |
Gross External Borrowings | 68,482 | 200,267 | 240,122 | 199,533 | 217,908 | 926,312 |
Gross Domestic Borrowings | 206,358 | 235,989 | 290,283 | 383,780 | 396,819 | 1,513,229 |
Gross Total Borrowings | 274,840 | 436,256 | 530,405 | 583,313 | 614,727 | 2,439,541 |
Capital Outlay | 74,793 | 70,728 | 81,274 | 63,240 | 64,469 | 354,504 |
Capital Outlay as a % ofBorrowings | 27.21 | 16.21 | 15.32 | 10.84 | 10.49 | 14.53 |
What is the reason behind the enormous increase in the country’s debt when it is clear that it not used to finance programs and projects for growth and development? Where did all the money go? Will the Filipinos further suffer having to shoulder an ever-increasing debt burden caused by more and more debt payments?
We are not blind to how the Arroyo administration has opted to dispense borrowed and scarce public resources. From rewarding her allies and buy political support from persons in the bureaucracy, in Congress, local governments to celebrated cases of graft and corruption like the Fertilizer scam, Northrail, Diosdado Macapagal Highway, it is becoming clearer and clearer to us that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is putting her political and private interest above the people.
This should stop.
Twenty years ago in EDSA, Filipinos came together put aside their many differences to topple a dictator who first put our country under a vicious debt cycle. Twenty years after, we continue to pay dearly for the debt blunders of this dictatorship. Let us not let yet another administration to push us further down. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has betrayed the spirit of EDSA.
In EDSA the Filipino people committed themselves to never again, to never again allow a dictatorship rule but more importantly to never again suffer a government that exists for a few and is unresponsive to the need of the majority particularly to the poor.
The Freedom from Debt Coalition condemns in the strongest possible term how the Arroyo administration is using debt as an instrument to finance her main occupation - her administration’s political survival. We recommit ourselves to the spirit of EDSA and we say to the Arroyo administration, never again.