Angara welcomes debt relief package

Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday a debt relief package from the United States would boost the country’s economy and ease the strain on the national budget.

"The increase in the 2002 budget will be P45 billion and this small amount has to be shared by all sectors," he said. "A debt relief package will free billions of pesos and this can be directed to pump priming the economy and fresh investments."

Angara said "not much is left for fresh investments" although next year’s budget has been increased by more than P80 billion from last year.

Of the proposed P780 billion, P620 billion would be spent for debt servicing, internal revenue allocation for local government units, and salaries of government employees, he added.

Angara said President Arroyo could also get the US to help end the unfair global trading practices, which are hurting agriculture in the Philippines.

The government would have to invest heavily on strategic projects to jumpstart the economy, he added.

Angara said the US could lead efforts to ease the protectionist measures that had been unfairly directed at developing countries.

The recently concluded Doha round of the World Trade Organization "merely contained" a pledge to ease export subsidies being poured by developed countries into their farming sectors, he added.

Angara said developed countries had been pumping more than $350 billion yearly to keep their farming sectors "afloat" and export products even at a loss.

Angara said the following inequities must be redressed by developed countries:

• Tariff distortions;

• Domestic product subsidies;

• Baseless sanitary and quarantine standards that have blocked the entry of agricultural exports from countries like the Philippines.

Earlier, James Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the US would consider helping the Philippines reschedule its more than $50 billion debt.

"If this is something that the Philippine government needs and wants, it certainly is going to be given very careful consideration," he said.