Deputy managing director Agustin Carlsten said the IMF "welcomes new ideas on the debt issue."
However, he said as is the usual process, "we will have to look into the details (of the Philippine proposal."
"We hope to continue collaborating not only with the Philippines but on a broader scale on measures to achieve the (United Nations) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," Carlsten said.
The MDGs aim to cut world poverty in half by the year 2015. Through De Venecia, the Philippines is suggesting that creditor-countries, banks and multilateral institutions like the IMF and the World Bank convert half of their annual debt payment receipts into equity in MDG-related projects for debtor-nations.
The Philippines has a total external debt of about $55 billion, for which it makes an annual payment of roughly $4.5 billion for both interest and principal portions. Of the total debt stock, only $595 million is owed to the IMF. The country has not borrowed from the Fund since 2001.
Upon the invitation of the IMF, De Venecia addressed members of the Fund’s board and explained in detail the Philippine idea.
He said the last time he faced the board was in 1997 after the passage of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Package. He said the second invitation came also after Congress passed controversial tax measures, including the expanded value-added tax.
"It seems that every time we approve tax measures, I get an invitation from the IMF," he told his hosts in jest.
Carlsten and IMF Executive Director Jong Nam Oh informed their guest that they were "pleased and excited" with the debt-for-equity proposal, describing it as an "interesting" idea.
During the question-and-answer session that followed De Venecia’s detailed explanation of the proposal, some IMF project officers expressed concern over the possibility that some of the funds that are proposed to be recycled into MDG projects could be pocketed by corrupt officials.
The Speaker said a feature of the recommended debt-equity program would require applicant-nations to make a strong commitment to fight corruption, promote good governance and observe transparency.
De Venecia was later feted in a lunch tendered by Carlsten, Oh and other IMF officials. The hosts were joined by Takatoshi Kato, one of the two other deputy managing directors of the Fund.
The Speaker later told Manila-based journalists accompanying him that the presence of two of the three IMF managing directors and its executive director shows the importance that the Fund gives to the Philippine proposal.
De Venecia was accompanied in his meetings here with officials of the United States government and lending agencies by Ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario.
In a related development, the IMF board has expressed satisfaction with the economic and fiscal reforms that the country has undertaken.
Cyd Amador, a Filipino who serves as senior advisor to Oh, told journalists that the board discussed the reforms in a meeting on Monday.
"They are pleased with our macro-economic prudence and discipline," she said.
She said although the Philippines exited from IMF supervision in 2001, "we are still under their surveillance and monitoring."