Time to Move

“ The road may be rough, the weather may forget us But won't we all parade around and sing our songs, A magic kingdom, open-armed…”
- from “Bandwagon” by R.E.M.

A new movement against illegitimate debt was launched during the last weekend in Quezon City . It is aptly called People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!). This movement held its first assembly and also launched its People's Petition calling for the creation of an Independent Citizens' Debt Audit Commission.

This column thinks that this is a timely undertaking given the country’s worsening debt situation. No thanks to the sitting fake president! Further, last year was a year when a lot of anomalous big projects were exposed – projects that end up jacking up the country’s debts. Well, it’s not as if there was a year that I can remember when there was a shortage of corruption-tainted debt-creating “projects”.

What made 2007 stand out as the “Year of the Corrupt Trapo” is the boldness by which corruption was done. Just think about the ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the World Bank textbook scam, the Cyber Education Project (CEP). And we can add to that the Austrian Medical Waste Loan. Not all of these projects were initiated in 2007 but it was that year when these anomalies came to light.

It is distressing to note that after these sham projects were exposed, it was met with rage from the public alright, but only took a few days or weeks for the anger to die down. What is ironic is that this anger always ends up building our mounting apathy. We seem to say “Well that is how it is. What’s new?” And every time this kind of event happens we retreat back to our shell and say “I said so. Those trapos (traditional politicians) will always be trapos.”

These actions undertaken by a broad network of social movements, civil society leaders, people's organizations, communities and personalities in organizing the PAID! movement and calling for a debt audit are clearly meaningful steps to the right direction.

Here are excerpts from the group’s manifesto:

"More than just the burden of payments, there is the fundamental injustice. While citizens are forced to pay, much of these debts were contracted without full public transparency and accountability, and without full compliance with democratic processes, and did not benefit the people.”

"Many loans were accompanied by unfair terms and harmful conditionalities. A significant number has been tainted with deception and fraud, or used for questionable purposes such as financing of ill-designed, unnecessary, and even inoperable programs, or repayment of earlier loans for onerous projects such as the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant."

It is high time that we start asking questions. Now, is the time that we demand transparency and accountability from the government.

How much is the country’s outstanding debt and exactly how much are we paying annually? Who contracted the loans and what were the loans for? What procedures were followed? Were these procedures in compliance with the principles of transparency, accountability, due diligence, democratic decision-making?

How were the loans used? Were the funds actually spent for the intended purposes? What were the terms and conditionalities accompanying these loans? What were the effects of the loan-financed projects and policies on communities and on people’s lives?

What were the environmental impacts of these loans and projects? What are the accountabilities of creditors? What are the effects of automatic and continuous payments of these debts today on the lives of the Filipinos?

Answers to these questions are what Independent Citizens' Debt Audit would like to be presented and revealed to the Filipino taxpayers and consumers. It is these questions that PAID! seeks to be answered as it calls for the creation of a Congressional mechanism to audit the country’s debt.

This audit, as PAID! envisions, should go beyond mere accounting as it should examine past and present government policies, transactions and contracts that have contributed to the accumulation of public debts. This action shall be a step for the review and rationalization of laws and regulations relevant to borrowings, public guarantees and debt payments.

One of the main organizers of this movement is the debt watchdog Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). During the 13th Congress, FDC was successful in getting the joint resolution on debt audit passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. However, it was stalled in the Senate due to the inaction of some legislators.

Now, let us get this moving once again. Let us start talking about this issue as this involves the future of the country. Let us start knocking in unison so the halls of Congress will be filled with our calls. To paraphrase a landmark manifesto: We have nothing to loose but the chains of indebtedness.

(Send your comments and reactions to: for text messages to 0919-348-6337; for e-mails to ianseruelo@gmail.com.)