He says this is the solution to the country’s huge loans.

Senator Manuel B. Villar Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on finance, has a solution for the country’s balloning foreign debts: Senate Bill (SB) 1928.

Villar said SB 1928 is a way out of or a proverbial light in the country’s long tunnel of debts.

“Through this, I hope to act once and for all the calls for debt relief in the country.”

“Piled up debts have been like a monkey on the country’s back for decades now. It’s time to get this big monkey, so to speak, off our back once and for all. My proposal, as embodied in Senate Bill 1928, may very well be the solution to ease our country’s debt woes,” Villar, president of the Nacionalista Party, said.

SB 1928 seeks “to create a council for debt relief to review bilateral and multilateral loan agreements and treaties entered into by the Philippine government and invoke the relevant privileges that would facilitate cancellation of odious debt and or restructuring of debts to ease debt payments.”

“Some of the debts incurred by the Philippine government can be categorized as odious debts. If so, there are certain provisions or privileges in such debt contracts that can lead to the cancellation of such debts. With thorough review of the loan agreements that we have entered into, we can avail of such privileges,” Villar said.

Odious debts can be any of these: Debt incurred without the consent of the people of the country, debt which cannot have benefited the public in that country, and debt where the lender must have been aware of the two preceding conditions.

“Our debt statistics are really a cause for immense alarm already. We are wallowing in huge debts. Thus, a big bulk of the country’s yearly budget goes straight into debt service payments instead of being used to provide for the health and education requirements of the people. This year, 40 percent of the country’s expected revenues will again be used for debt servicing.”

Once passed, Villar’s Debt Relief Bill will pave the way for the creation of a Council for Debt Relief, which shall be composed of debt negotiators from the public and private sector headed by the Secretary General of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

Its members would include an international finance expert, a development economist, a banker, a corporate lawyer, and two government representatives from the Department of Finance and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Marriane Go, Manila Bulletin, February 27, 2005