Five more senators join call to enact debt cap to cut budget deficit

Senators Joker Arroyo and Ralph Recto were joined by five of their colleagues yesterday in the move to put a cap on government debts.

The snowballing move came following the revelation by Recto, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, that the government is now paying about P1 million a minute to service its foreign and domestic debts.

A similar move was initiated in the House by party-list Representatives Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza.

Senators Tessie Aquino-Oreta, Manny Villar, Noli de Castro, John Osmeña and Robert Barbers all voiced support to finally put an end to the regime of unlimited borrowing by the national government to finance its budget deficit.

Oreta called on her colleagues in the House and the Senate to use the legislature’s power of the purse to regulate the administration’s borrowing binge. She noted that government borrowing has only placed the economy in the red instead of taming the burgeoning budget deficit.

Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said that a debt cap would encourage more fiscal discipline in the government and better collection by revenue agencies.

De Castro, meanwhile, said that the limitless authority of the finance secretary to contract debt is the main reason for the continuing large share of debt servicing in the national budget.

"Many administrations were not bothered at all by securing very big loans because they would not be the one to be paying for them — these loans would be paid by the succeeding administration," he said.

Osmeña said that he had always been for a debt cap.

"The problem was, Congress removed the debt cap in 1997. The ceiling was already reached and revenue collection was low, so Malacañang asked that the debt cap be removed. Now, it should be returned," he said.

Barbers said that with a debt cap, finance officials would stop preparing the national budget based on unrealistic projections. He said that once a debt cap is reached, the government could not borrow additional funds without securing authority of Congress.

Recto noted that the gross national debt ballooned from P2.8 trillion by end of 2001 to P3.3 trillion by end of 2002.

"Our debt increased by around P1 million a minute, P57.1 million an hour, and almost P1.37 billion a day," he said.