Year--------National Government Debt
(in millions of pesos)
2000--------------2,166,710
2001--------------2,384,917
2002--------------2,815,468
2003--------------3,355,108
2004--------------3,811,954
2005--------------3,858,231
2006--------------3,851,506
2007--------------3,712,487
2008--------------4,220,903
Sept. 2009--------4,338,411
Notes:
2000-2008 data are taken from the Freedom from Debt Coalition website while that of Sept 2009 was taken from the National Statistical Coordination Board website.
I typed www.google.com in the address bar of Internet Explorer. Then I typed the phrase 'Philippine debt 2009' in the Google search. I was then directed to the official website of Bureau of Treasury. I downloaded the pdf file for the national government debt data, and hey, I told to myself, I owed about 45,000 pesos as of 2008! What the heck is this? I searched again over Google, then I opened the data file for the year 2009 in NSCB website. The total Philippine debt is amounting to 4.34 trillion pesos as of September 2009! Now let's do some computations here. The projected population made by the National Statistics Office is 92.23 million by the year 2009. Using the latest data from NSCB, we could come up with an average debt of 47,000 pesos every Filipino, including those babies who were born as of December 31, 2009 11:59 midnight! That's burdensome!
Perhaps we begin to ask ourselves: kaya pa ba nating bayaran ang ganitong kalaking utang? I know na napakalaking sakit sa ulo para sa gobyerno ang ganitong sitwasyon. The government is alloting a big percentage of funds to debt servicing. Pag hindi naman kasi magbayad, hindi naman tayo pauutangin ng World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other rich foreign countries like the United States. The bad thing is, this big percentage of the total govenment budget is just for the payment of interest. Parang 5-6 din kasi ang mga to. Habang patagal ng patagal na hindi mo nababayaran yong capital na inutang mo, eh pataas ng pataas nanam ang babayaran mo. Pati interest lalagyan pa ng interest. Kawawang Juan!
Now I begin to think how we could possibly pay this 4.3 trillion pesos. One option would be: All Filipinos should make a 'FINANCIAL SACRIFICE.' Inimbento ko lang to ha? Hehehe. What do I mean by this? Ibigay sa gobyerno ang lahat (pwede ring 50% lang, hehehe) ng ari-arian ng lahat ng Pilipino mapa-lupa, gold jewelries, businesses, cash, etc. Lahat ng may monetary value. This should be applied to everyone, poor or rich! Sigurado akong maraming aangal especially the rich ones. Ano kaya ang masasabi dito nina Lucio Tan, Heny Sy, Zobel de Ayala, Gokong-wei, at iba pa. Yong mga senador at kongresista naman at lahat ng nakaupo sa gobyerno including the President herself, ibigay yong pork barrel at sweldo nila sa gobyerno. Pwede ding 50% lang di ba? I think feasible naman to. Tiyak wala na tayong utang by 2011.
Pangalawa and the more feasible thing that the government can do: ERADICATE CORRUPTION! We may be tired of hearing this word again and again. Kahit ako, nasusuka na. Kaliwa't kanang korupsyon sa gobyerno ang gumugulantang sa lipunang Pilipino taon-taon. Nariyan ang NBN-ZTE Deal na hanggang ngayon ay walang napaparusahan. Nandyan yong Cyber project ng DepEd. Fertilizer scam. Overpricing ng mga government supplies na pinupurchase. Spending too much on rifles, guns, and other weapons at iba pang gastos just to purge the guerilla groups which for me is not effective. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
When would our country learn? It's time for us to choose a leader who has the political will to eradicate corruption, to uplift the economy of our nation, to remove erring officials without fear. Sana by May 2010, we would translate our hopes into action by choosing the right candidates.
