Abandon the Laiban Dam
A Position Paper of the Freedom from Debt Coalition
August 2009

The Freedom from Debt Coalition rejects the rationale proffered by the MWSS for pursuing the Laiban Dam project. We oppose the Laiban Dam Project itself, firmly believing that the framework and principles on which the proposed project is based are fundamentally flawed. While affirming adequate water supply distribution as both a strategic prerequisite to economic growth and a state obligation to be ensured and demanded, we stand by the principles of equity, sustainability, and human dignity. Every framework or blueprint for securing adequate water supply must be guided by such principles, and it is the blatant neglect of such principles that renders the Laiban Dam absolutely unacceptable. Below is a detailed explanation of FDC\'s opposition to the Laiban Dam.        

The Need for a Debt Moratorium
Increasing Fiscal Spending, Ending Fiscal Dictatorship

Position Paper of the Freedom from Debt Coalition on the Proposed 2009 National Government Budget

Submitted to the House of Representatives
06 October 2008

Presented by FDC Secretary General Milo Tanchuling to House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. Junie Cua.

30 September 2008

The National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) is a Philippine government corporation currently operating the country’s critical power transmission grid created in 2001 by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA). Previously an integral part of the state-owned National Power Corporation (NPC or Napocor), the TransCo assumed all of Napocor’s substation and transmission assets since March 1, 2003.

The grid, which needs about $850 million over the next five years for upgrades and expansion, was valued at P138 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2006 – a “crown jewel” indeed. TransCo’s assets include approximately 21,319 circuit-kilometers of transmission lines including a submarine cable system, 93 substations, and approximately 24,310 million volt amperes substation capacity, and a broadband-ready fiber optics network.

But the value of TransCo goes beyond simply its monetary value. With EPIRA already facilitating the privatization of the three major sectors of the power industry – generation, distribution, and supply – the government’s direct ownership, management and control to TRANSCO is the last line of defense for the Filipino people against the specter of privatization haunting the power industry.

Towards an Alternative Public Finance System

By James Matthew Miraflor
Researcher, Debt and Public Finance Campaign
Freedom from Debt Coalition

The 1987 Constitution accords the Philippine Congress what had been dubbed as “the power of the purse”. This is supposed to be a testament of freedom and the principle of checks and balances, in marked divergence from the Marcosian authoritarian power over the budget.

In practice however, legal restrictions prevent the legislature from effectively exercising this power. Ironically, most of these restrictions are inherited from a Marcosian statute – the Presidential Decree 1177. President Corazon Aquino resurrected the public finance infrastructure created by the dictatorship, and inherited the same undemocratic system of budgeting from Marcos. Some of the provisions of the Revised Administrative Code of 1987 were actually copied directly from PD1177. Thus, the integrity of our budget institution as it stands is rendered highly vulnerable to rent-seeking prospects for an overtly powerful president, ironically in a period of liberal democracy.

The Post-EDSA regimes are usually contrasted with the undemocratic rule of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. An important testament to this claim of post-EDSA democracy is the so-called “power of the purse” – the power to allocate national resources – granted to the legitimate proxies of the people, the elected members of House of Representatives. This is supposed to be a marked divergence from the Marcosian authoritarian power over the budget, a power that was eventually wielded for crony-patronage and dreams of grandeur.

The governance style of the current regime, however, seems to discredit this claim of fiscal democracy. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s current practice of line-vetoing budgets, realigning approved budgets, impounding her opposition’s pork, and heavy borrowing and taxation, seem go against the congressional prerogative. Instead, the way she manages the country’s coffers is instructive of how our democratic budget process can be abused and mutated into a virtual financial tyranny of one person. But is Arroyo the only one guilty?

Position Paper presented to the Committee on Natural Resources
House of Representatives, 14th Congress

Freedom from Debt Coalition
August 13, 2008


The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) urges the honorable members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources to conduct a thorough review and investigation of the MWSS privatization, believing firmly that for the past ten years, impacts of the said privatization thus far run counter to the aims set forth in RA 8041 to “address the nationwide water crisis which adversely affects the health and well-being of the population, food production and industrialization process” and in turn defeats the people’s right to water.

The Debt-Induced Economic Crisis  
Debt Conditionalities behind the Oil, Power, Food, and Agrarian Reform Quagmires  

By the Freedom from Debt Coalition   

The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) believes that the policy of relying on foreign financing that rendered our country vulnerable to damaging conditionalities. In fact, FDC believes that the oil, power, food, and agrarian reform crises we are experiencing now are direct results of these conditionalities. These conditionalities were attached from loans meant to rescue the government from fiscal quagmires which lenders took advantage of to make the government swallow painful, industry-wide “reforms” acquiescent with the paradigm of neo-liberal globalization – that of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization.

On May 12 this year, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) submitted to and presented before the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) its position paper titled “10 Reasons Why Electricity Bills Are High.” In the said paper, the Coalition explained the confluence of factors causing high electricity rates—from bad governance to corruption to mismanagement to rent-seeking to framework concerns. Recognizing the complexity of the issue, FDC attempted to identify these factors as the Coalition’s contribution to gaining a fuller understanding of the problem of unabated expensive electricity.

In this paper, FDC aims to offer, vis-à-vis the plethora of proposals by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and other interest groups, what it believes to be more sustainable, democratic, and pro-consumer solutions to the Philippine electric power quagmire.

The Neglected Generation

By the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) and the Youth Against Debt (YAD)

When classes formally opened last Tuesday, the entire nation was once again subjected to the same old problems besetting our education. From shortages of classrooms, teaching materials and instructors, up to unregulated tuition and other school fee hikes; students, parents and educators once more bore the burden of the yearly school blues like a deadbeat ritual imposed to an exhausted populace.  

Yet amid the political rhetoric and empty populism of our national leaders, little to none is (being) said about the grave wrongdoing of our government to education— the blatant non-compliance to international standards on social spending by the past and present governments. 

The Movement Continues
The Continuing Struggle of the Debt and Development Movement in the Philippines

By the FDC Debt and Public Finance Campaign Team
May 2008

After MERALCO, the country’s largest electricity distributor and supplier, announced last April an increase in its generation charges by 51.88 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh), rumors of a brewing government takeover began spreading like wildfire. Signals are there, experts say, as shares of both the government and the Lopezes each jumped to more than 30%, with the Lopezes having a slight fractional advantage.

The recent government actions to pin down MERALCO and target the Lopezes, however, only serve to narrow the discourse to a simplistic formula: Electricity rates are high; for which MERALCO and the Lopezes are to blame. Meralco is no doubt an easy and guilty target. But there are more reasons for electricity rates in the Philippines being among the highest in Asia. And the Arroyo government is equally to blame, if not more.

This paper explains why the issue of high electricity prices is a result of a confluence of factors, from bad governance to corruption to mismanagement to rent-seeking to framework concerns. The skyrocketing price of electricity emanates from structural, management, policy, governance and paradigmatic causes. FDC believes that these problems cannot be resolved fully without transforming the electricity industry into one that is more responsive and accountable to the people, and more environmentally sustainable.

Philippine Debt Profile - 2007

• Current Figures on the Debt
• Debt Flow Schematic
• Current NG Foreign Debt Situation

Philippine Debt Through the Years

• Public Sector Debt, National Government Debt, and Contingent Liabilities Trend
• Improving Debt Manageability
• Borrowings, Revenues, and Debt Service
• Arroyo, Debt, and the Fiscal Crisis

Impact of the Debt Servicing
Relevant Laws on the Debt and Borrowings

• Relevant Policies
• Relevant Laws

Hungry and Indebted
The Philippine Food Crisis and the Debt-Hungry Agriculture and Food Agencies (draft)

By the Freedom from Debt Coalition (April 18, 2008)

The story of the state of Philippine agriculture, especially of rice production, is that of riches to rags – from being an exporter in the early 1970s, we had been reduced to an importer, getting our rice mainly from our South-East Asian neighbors like Vietnam. How this relates to the story of increasing liberalization of our trade policies had been elaborated much in several texts explaining the recent food crisis, but little has been written on how our story of agricultural decline is accompanied and even facilitated by the story of worsening debt situation.

This Citizens\' Report was presented during the launching of the People\'s Development Forum held on 25 March 2008 at the Bahay ng Alumni in University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Initial signatories to this report include: ODA Watch; Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC); Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternatives Legal Services, Inc. (IDEALS, Inc.); Social Watch Philippines; Philppine Network of Rural Development Institutes, Inc. (Philnet - RDI); Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM); Management and Organizational Development for Empowerment (MODE); Pambansang Kilusan ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan (PKKK); Sustainability Watch; Partido Kalikasan; and, Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee (JPICC-AMRSP).

The People\'s Development Forum is our alternative to the official Philippine Development Forum, which is jointly organized by the Philippine government and the World Bank.

Statement of the Freedom from Debt Coalition on Senate Bill 1794 amending the Official Development Assistance Act of 1996and on Senate Resolution 179 directing the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs to Conduct an Inquiry, in aid of legislation,on the implementation of ODA Law

Presented at the Joint Public Committee Hearing ofCommittee on Economic Affairs and Committee on Finance

by Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, FDC President
November 12, 2007 at the Senator Tañada Room, 2nd Floor, Senate of the Philippines

Freedom from Debt Coalition\'s partial contribution to Senator Allan Peter Cayetano\'s Blue Ribbon Committee investigation of the ZTE National Broadband Network deal last September 18, 2007.