Build Better More becomes the new reason for ‘Bongbong Borrows More’
BAHALA na si Batman, that’s our government’s debt policy.
In an earlier column titled “Utang pa more?” published here on Aug. 7, we sounded the alarm on our outstanding debt, which would be in the vicinity of 17.35 trillion by the end of 2025.
Now comes the DBM, after presenting the “new, improved” NEP for 2026 which the president in his 4th SONA wants Congress to “be aligned” with when it passes next year’s budget, stating that we should be increasing the debt by 9.77 percent so that by end 2026, we will be in hock by 19.057 trillion.
That’s almost 2 trillion pesos more, which confirms what we wrote in that “Utang pa more?” article.
As expected, and as I keep writing, our present leadership will bow out of its term leaving us a legacy debt of some 22 to 23 trillion.
Of next year’s outstanding debt, domestic debt will reach P13.281 trillion, while external debt will grow to P5.775 trillion, for a ratio of 30 percent foreign and 70 percent domestic borrowings.
This year’s NEP, for the consideration of our “shameless” legislators and their favorite contractors, is almost half a trillion pesos (467 billion) more than last year’s.
Truth is, the NEP already contains allocations for “pet” projects which district engineers submitted to their bosses and eventually integrated in the president’s budget or NEP.
But three years running, BbM has little to show by way of major infrastructure. The Build, Build, Build program of his now-imprisoned predecessor left many unfinished projects owing to the two-year pandemic that laid the economy flat broke. Most if not all of those that BbM is now inaugurating with much fanfare are part of Duterte’s BBB.
And time is not on BbM’s side, with only a year and a half, at most two, to jumpstart projects under the Build Better More flagship, unless of course, it’s thousands more of flood control projects.
So to finance this year’s 6.79 trillion budget, and next year’s which likely would be more than 7 trillion, BbM’s administration will have to borrow more. Build Better More becomes the new reason for “Bongbong Borrows More.”
His imprisoned predecessor left him a legacy debt of 12.79 trillion on account of 4.57 trillion borrowed from 2020 when the pandemic started, until the end of 2022. Prior to the pandemic, the Duterte government borrowed only 2.27 trillion from 2017 to 2019, the three years when he jumpstarted Build, Build, Build.
PNoy left a legacy debt of 5.95 trillion, given his parsimony over people’s money, yet many projects were done, especially under the stewardship of Rogelio Singson in the DPWH.
DBM’s Amenah Pangandaman says “our interest payments are increasing because we borrowed a lot during the pandemic (when) our economy was closed.” True, but the debt continues to grow exponentially under BbM.
4.56 trillion in debt, with little to show after three years?
What do we see for that? Thousands upon thousands of flood control projects, coupled with ayuda here and there, as if the pandemic has not stopped. What makes all these small-time projects worse is the massive corruption that characterized them. Just listen to Mayor Magalong.
In fine, a pandemic of utang, lista sa tubig baha, for the next government to shoulder.
Bahala na (si) Batman. B n B.
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Meanwhile, NUP chairman and now Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno wants Congress to pass an enabling law that would create a Constitutional Convention presumably of elected delegates (tiba na naman ang Comelec!), so as to correct the “ambiguities” in the 1987 Constitution.
In fine, let us “cha-cha” to define “forthwith” with precision. So Escudero or any future Senate President need not re-define Webster.
This writer has been very critical of the 1987 Constitution whether in this space or in TV interviews, not only because of its many ambiguities and leaving enabling acts to be “as provided by law,” where the legislators are dynasts, contractors and even idiots.
But if we must amend the 1987 basic law, let us re-write it so that it creates a better political system more attuned to the country, not necessarily following other countries’ models, certainly not that of the US of A sprinkled with Western European practices such as the party list system which has been perverted by the greedy, thanks to a long-retired Justice Antonio Carpio whose ponencia laid the predicate for the tactics of our worse than traditional politicians.
Cha-cha 4 “forthright”? Ihahabol para sa 2028?
