Bush urged to lead debt campaign

WASHINGTON D.C. — US President George Bush was urged yesterday to lead the Philippine-initiated campaign to grant billions of dollars in debt relief to the world’s 100 poorest nations, including the Philippines.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. made the appeal here in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, an influential think-thank whose conservative advocacies are shared by Republicans.

He said the Philippine proposal to convert half of the debtor-nations’ annual debt payments into equity in development projects obviously has a security dimension and would help achieve US objectives in fighting international terrorism.

"Our debt-for-equity idea is as much an anti-terrorism measure as it is an anti-poverty proposal," he said. He said he has sent two letters to Bush about the Philippine suggestion.

However, he lamented that while the initiative has elicited positive responses from European leaders like Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder, there has been no word yet from US officials.

"We hope the Heritage Foundation could help us push this along for the world’s poor nations," he said.

De Venecia is scheduled to meet today and tomorrow with officials of the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund (IMF), Eximbank, African-American Bank, and other financial institutions to push for the Philippine debt relief initiative. — Jess Diaz