Alliance vs ‘illegitimate’ foreign debts formed

Various groups have banded together to press for the cancellation of payment for “illegitimate” foreign debts.

The groups formed an alliance called People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!), with the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) as lead organization.

“We believe majority of the debts we are paying are illegitimate. However, our government continues to honor and pay these debts to the great prejudice of our people,” FDC vice president and PAID! convenor Lidy Nacpil said.

FDC data showed that as of December 2006, the country’s foreign debt stood at $118.19 billion or roughly P5.902 trillion.

In a statement, PAID! said it aims to mobilize an independent and grassroots effort to pressure the Arroyo administration and the international lending community into canceling what it calls “illegitimate loans.”

Projects funded from “illegitimate” loans, PAID! said, are the Austrian Medical Waste Project, the World Bank-funded Textbook Project, the Chinese-funded North Luzon Railways Project, the German-funded Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Modernization Program, and the World Bank’s Small Coconut Farmers Development Programs.

The group also considers illegitimate the loans intended for the national broadband network project, and the cyber education project.

PAID! members include Ecowaste Coalition, Youth Against Debt, Global Call to Action Against Poverty-Philippines, Kaalagad, Micah Challenge, Teachers Dignity Coalition, Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralita sa Lungsod, Akbayan, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Health Care Without Harm, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, and Partido ng Manggagawa. Individual members are Harry Roque and Marian School of Quezon City Academic Supervisor Antonio Calipjo-Go.

“While basic ethical norms demand that debts must be paid back, it is no less a fundamental tenet that no one should pay loans he or she has nothing to do with, much less really benefited from,” Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said in a statement.

PAID! said its campaign would also involve pushing for congressional investigation and audit of public debt and initiating an independent citizen’s debt audit process.     –  Evelyn Macairan