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By Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
Civil society groups are launching today an
investigation into all loan-financed projects and programs allegedly
accompanied by shady deals at the University of the Philippines (UP)
Law Center.
Thirty prominent names from different sectors,
professions and areas of concerns, chosen for probity, credibility
and expertise, will take their oath as members of the Independent
Citizens’ Debt Audit Commission.
The launching of the Commission signals civil
society’s attempts to dig into an investigation of allegedly
illegitimate loan-financed projects and programs.
Said Milo Tanchuling, PAID! co-convener and
secretary-general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, “we consider
as illegitimate any loan that came in tainted with graft and corruption,
overpriced like the national broadband deal, and which resulted in
the displacement of our people.”
“With Rodolfo ‘Jun’ Lozada’s revelation
on the aborted $329-million ZTE-NBN deal, the Philippines’ debt
problem and the continued accumulation of illegitimate debts has
once again been put in the spotlight,” added Tanchuling.
The launching of the debt audit commission comes
three days after the mammoth interfaith rally in Makati City against
the alleged role of the First Family and corruption in the
overpriced national broadband network deal.
The broadband deal would have been financed with
$329.5 million to be borrowed from the Chinese government, and
implemented in partnership with the China’s state-owned ZTE Corp.
The Commission is created in response to a
petition initiated by the People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!)
movement.
The petition has reached the House of
Representatives, which adopted a resolution on the conduct of an
audit of all loan-financed projects as early as August 2007.
However, House efforts reportedly got waylaid by the contentious
deliberations on the 2008 budget, and of moves by administration
allies who masterminded the ouster of former Speaker Jose de Venecia.
Many civil society groups have complained that
many loan-financed projects have only served to displace entire
social sectors and communities, such as the NorthRail and SouthRail
projects that displaced entire communities in Metro Manila and that
Lozada also alluded to as tainted in his testimonies before the
Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Tanchuling said the citizens’ commission aims
to conduct a critical, comprehensive, participatory and transparent
examination of the Philippine public debt and contingent liabilities
based on testimonies and inputs from affected communities, data and
studies.
Different civil society groups have pledged
resource persons and researches prepared by their respective working
groups and technical teams as their share in the Commission’s
work, also intended to formulate policy proposals and
recommendations for action concerning debt issues.
The Commission is charged with recommending
immediate and far-reaching solutions to eradicating the country’s
debt burden and correcting “structural and systemic flaws and
deficiencies” that contributed to the country’s debt
accumulation and domination.
The examination of structural issues shall
not be confined in the Philippine system alone but will also address
the international financial architecture, the antidebt stalwarts
said.
The audit shall examine not only the
responsibility and culpability of the Philippine government and
related institutions, but address the responsibility and culpability
of international financial institutions and other lenders, they
added.
In the past, many civil society groups
have called attention to the need for “selective debt
disengagement,” or refusing to pay debts tainted by graft or have
caused the displacement of peoples.
Beckie Malay, vice-president of FDC (Freedom
from Debt Coalition) and of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction
Movement (PRRM) said there are more ZTE-type debts that not only
continue to evade public scrutiny, but also are being paid with
public funds at the expense of dwindling social spending for
important social services like education and health.
FDC cited the World Bank funded textbook
project, the Cyber Education Project (CEP) and the Austrian
loan-funded Medical Waste project that brought in never-used
incinerators as examples of “fraudulent” and “useless”
loans.
The Arroyo government has been charged
with bloating the national government’s debt to P3.78 trillion or
$81.6 billion, at least three times higher that the total national
debt registered in 1986, after the fall of the Ferdinand Marcos who
bloated national debt after he took over the reins of political
power in 1965.
At the moment, FDC charges that the total
consolidated public sector debt as a percentage to the country’s
Gross Domestic Product (GCP) is 81.9 percent.
“Each Filipino, from the newly born baby to a
dying septuagenarian, is indebted by as much as P43,487, paying
P7,012 annually to service the debt. Every minute, our government,
using our money, is paying a mind-boggling P1.1 million just to
service the debt,” Malay stressed.
Antidebt stalwarts said the citizen commission
will give a push to the highly awaited congressional auditing of
public debt by raising questions beyond the limits of the
parliamentary initiatives, and by putting forward recommendations
sourced from the people.
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