On high public debt and attaining endless prosperity
ENERGY, INFRA AND ECONOMICS - Bienvenido Oplas Jr. - The Philippine Star
September 25, 2025 | 12:00am
I want to comment on four economic events last week in the country. One, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s order that PhilHealth’s P60 billion excess funds reverted to the National Treasury will be returned to the state-run health insurer. Funds will be sourced from the savings of other agencies like the DPWH.
Two, revenue collections by regional offices of the BIR and BOC, especially in Cebu. Three, release of TIEZA annual report 2024, and four, the Philippines – United Arab Emirates (UAE) “Government Experience Exchange Forum” last Sept. 17.
On the PhilHealth fund, I think a better option is to use it to retire some public debt, or avoid borrowing the same amount for next year. Raise the funding cut from more agencies up to possibly P100 billion and pay more debt.
Our public debt has reached P17.56 trillion as of July 2025, from only P8.22 trillion in 2019 prior to the lockdowns of 2020-2021. Our interest payment alone from our rising public debt would be: P763 billion in 2024, P848 billion in 2025, P950 billion in 2026, P1,071 billion or P1.07 trillion in 2027 and P1.18 trillion in 2028.
These are equivalent to an average of P2.1 billion/day in 2024, P2.3 billion/day in 2025, P2.6 billion/day in 2026 and P3.2 billion/day in 2028. Huge, principal amortization not included yet.
Whatever savings from cutting the budget of certain agencies – pay the debt. Whatever new revenues from government privatization like the CBK hydropower plant – pay the debt.
We should aspire to flatline it, then decline the debt, no economic crisis now to justify endless expansion of deficit and borrowings.
Last week’s visit by Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto, DOF undersecretaries in BIR and BOC Cebu plus a Philippine Economic Briefing in the city. I think it was a good move by the Secretary because more business activities are happening in Cebu and other big regional centers, better revenue administration should be done there in order to avoid raising new taxes elsewhere. The morale of the frontline revenue collectors should be boosted.
From the photos in DOF’s Facebook page, I saw BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno and his Deputy Commissioner Agaton Uvero flanking Secretary Recto plus many other officers of BOC. The BOC is tasked to collect P1.06 trillion this year or nearly P3 billion/day while the BIR is tasked to collect P3.23 trillion or about P8.8 billion/day.
Three, a weird bureaucracy called the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) collecting a mandatory P1,620 travel tax for each Filipino travelling abroad unless they get exemptions like OFWs, or half amount. Last year I travelled abroad three times and this year, twice so far, HK-China last March then Spain last week, all work related so my sponsors who paid for my plane tickets have paid P8,100 so far to TIEZA.
In 2024, travel tax collections hit P7.79 billion, P3.9 billion went to TIEZA bureaucracy and their chosen projects, the balance went to the Department of Education and the National Culture and Arts (NCCA), zero or little relationship to travel and tourism improvement in the country.
I think the travel tax is based on envy, because some Filipinos can afford to travel abroad for business or vacation, government should go after their money via travel tax. And since it is taxation based on envy, it will lead to spending based on politics and patronage.
I do not think other ASEAN countries tax their own people when they travel abroad. People traveling abroad create goodwill to destination countries, which can attract the people of those countries to visit the Philippines as well. That travel tax should be abolished.
Four, the Philippines-UAE meeting led by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). My travel to Spain last week to attend the Tholos Forum 2025 in Valencia, my sponsor got me Emirates Air so I landed first in Dubai to get a connecting flight to Madrid. That was the second time I travelled via Dubai Airport and saw Dubai City from the air.
UAE is a very prosperous and rich economy. They produce and export lots of oil and gas and are not ashamed of fossil fuels, optimizing its use and sale to modernize their economy and give their citizens a very high standard of living. UAE even added nuclear energy for their power generation, Dubai is so bright at night. The airport is huge, lots of open spaces and seats, lots of toilets with unlimited clean water. They have dual departure lounges for passengers, one on the level with so many shops and restaurants, then another lounge below when passengers would be ready to board the plane.
From the DBM Facebook page, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin delivered the keynote speech and emphasized the role of governments to push for peace and prosperity.
DBM Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman mentioned the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries “to cooperate on enhancing government performance, strengthening institutional capacities, and improving performance measurement systems in governmental bodies and entities.”
UAE Assistant Minister for Cabinet Affairs for Competitiveness Abdulla Nasser Lootah reaffirmed his government’s commitment to supporting the Philippines especially in ensuring excellence in public service delivery.
UAE is proof that ever-rising and endless prosperity is possible, and desirable. They have the tallest building in the world, the largest fanciful real estate project in the sea, huge electricity supply from both fossil fuel and nuclear.
Endless prosperity is something that we should aspire for our country. Sustained high growth, focus on more production of goods and services and less on income redistribution, and government avoiding waste and corruption.
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