Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III again reassured the public that the Philippines will not fall into a “debt trap” to any country as the government expands its infrastructure investments through concessional loan financing from its development partners.
In a speech before members of the Rotary International District 3800 during their district conference Friday at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City, Dominguez said none of the pipeline projects funded with official development assistance from countries like Japan and China allowed the appropriation or takeover of domestic assets in the event of a failure to pay, which would never happen.
He said the government’s borrowing program remained “very conservative in the sense that we only borrow to invest in projects that will generate economic gains which are greater than the borrowing cost.”
He said no infrastructure project was funded through ODA without first going through a rigorous system of reviews and approvals by the Cabinet and the President.