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Press Release
29 May 2006
LACSON WANTS CLOSER LOOK AT DEBT APPROPRIATIONS
Lest Congress let a criminal act slip through in the P1-trillion budget for 2006, it should take a closer look at the provision for debt servicing instead of approving the automatic appropriation.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the debt burden, while not a high-profile issue, robs Filipinos of much-needed basic services especially if the debts were acquired with onerous conditions.
"The debt burden should be a major cause for concern. How much of the P1 trillion this year will go to paying our debts? How much of the debt was acquired under questionable circumstances? How much of the debt can be described as graft-ridden? The people are being punished for such onerous debts," he said.
Citing figures reaching him, Lacson said the government will be paying more than P700 billion this year, including P340 billion for automatic interest payments in the P1-trillion budget; and another P382 billion for the principal amount, through “off-budget” items.
He called for an inventory of the debts, which will be the basis for forming short-, medium- and long-term strategies to make sure the debt will not burden the people.
"We need to craft strategies for the short, medium and long term to make sure people are not deprived of much-needed basic services," he said.
As of December 2005, the Bureau of Treasury said the national debt has ballooned to P4.02 trillion, including P1.87 trillion owed to foreign creditors and P2.15 trillion to domestic creditors.
Figures from the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) show that as of end-February 2006, the central government has a total debt of P3.964388 trillion, including P1.796472 trillion in foreign debts and P2.167916 trillion in domestic debts.
Of the P2.168-trillion domestic debt, P642.894 billion is considered short-term; P887.271 billion considered medium-term; and P637.751 billion considered long-term.
The government has also guaranteed P575.247 billion of the debt, including P48.146 billion in foreign debts and P527.101 billion in domestic debts.
In addition, Mr. Martin has told his fellow commissioners that he plans to launch a separate proceeding soon to determine whether to further relax agency media ownership rules, the sources said.
Mr. Martin’s proposals come as particularly welcome news to broadcasters, who have been lobbying vigorously for media ownership deregulation and for rules to insure that all of their digital programming streams are available to cable subscribers. The cable TV industry is strongly opposed to Mr. Martin’s proposed carriage obligation.
The proposals also signal that Mr. Martin, who has been stymied on key issues by an agency that has been deadlocked politically with two Republican and two Democratic commissioners, plans to move more aggressively now that a third Republican commissioner is coming on board.
Last year the FCC, under then-Chairman Michael Powell, rejected a proposal that would have forced cable providers to carry the multiple broadcast programming streams. But Mr. Martin, who cast the sole dissenting vote at the time, told reporters earlier this year that he would try to overturn the Powell-era decision if he thought he could win the support of a majority of the agency’s commissioners.
Two of the commissioners who voted against the rule during Powell’s chairmanship-Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein-are still at the agency.
Since the 2005 vote, one new commissioner, Republican Deborah Taylor Tate, has joined the agency. Robert McDowell, another Republican, received Senate confirmation for a third Republican seat late last week and is expected to officially join the agency as soon as this week. The new lineup offers Mr. Martin the possibility of a 3-2 majority.
With a Republican FCC majority coming into line, Mr. Martin is also planning to launch proceedings as soon as next month to determine how the agency should respond to a 2004 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that threw out a Powell-era effort by the FCC’s Republicans to loosen rules that bar owners of daily newspapers from buying broadcast stations in their markets and limit how many stations a company can own in an area.
Mr. Martin tried to get the ball rolling against the media ownership restrictions last year but dropped the effort because he couldn’t reach a consensus at the agency-deadlocked politically with two Republicans and two Democrats-on how to proceed.
