A budget watchdog on Monday called on Congress to suspend payment for P8-billion worth of debts, which it described as “illegitimate." The Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) identified nine national government debts which were allegedly “fraudulent, wasteful and useless." The FDC said the financial obligations for these projects should be suspended:
Austrian Medical Waste Project Social Expenditure Management Program 2 Secondary Education Development and Improvement Project Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Modernization Project Power Sector Restructuring Program Power Sector Development Program Angat Water Supply Optimization Project Procurement of Search and Rescue Vessel from Tenix Defense Property Ltd. and Pampanga Delta Development Project “Kailangan suspendihin habang iniimbestigahan ‘yung kaso para malaman natin kung may anomalya talaga riyan, kung mayroon talagang panloloko o panlilinlang na nangyari. Kapag napatunayan iyon, dapat ipanawagan natin na huwag nang bayaran," FDC project coordinator Jofti Villena said on Monday. Villena said the allocations for the interest payments of these debts should instead be used to fund social services for next year. She added that her group has already talked with some lawmakers to raise the matter during plenary discussions on the proposed 2012 budget. The national government allocated P723 billion from the P1.816-trillion budget for next year for debt servicing. “Pwede kasi na ang perang ito ay mapunta sa edukasyon, sa state colleges and universities na alam naman natin na sobrang binabaan na ang budget, or sa health or subsidy for agriculture," she said. Around 30 members of the FDC and other labor groups staged a protest in front of the Batasang Pambansa gates in Quezon City on Monday— a day before the lower chamber starts plenary debates on the national budget on Tuesday. Suspension of debt payments In a separate statement, FDC vice president Lidy Nacpil said suspending these debt payments “can be done" since Congress did it in 2008, only to be vetoed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “Lagi na lang sinasabi ng gobyerno na wala o kulang ang budget, pero may iba pang paraan. We urge Congress under the Aquino administration to suspend these illegitimate debts and re-channel said amount to social services," she said. Meanwhile, Villena said President Benigno Aquino III needs to exercise strong political will to spare Filipinos from carrying the burden of paying these “useless" debts. “Nitong mga nakaraang panahaon, ang ginagawa ni PNoy ay nirereview niya ang mga maanomalyang kontrata. Kung mayroon siyang political will na magreview ng mga proyekto, dapat ang Kongreso ay nandoon din sa ganoong direksyon," she said. Fraudulent Villena cited the supposedly “fraudulent" purchase of 26 incinerators to burn medical wastes from Austria during the early 1990s. The incinerators, she said, turned out to be “substandard" after they were bought by the Philippine government. “Ikinalat iyan sa public hospitals pero nagkaroon tayo ng Clean Air Act, ipinagbawal na ang incinerators, plus natuklasan na ang mga incinerators na ibinenta ay hindi nakapasa sa standards ng World Health Organization," she said. She added that the national government incurred the loan just to purchase “dirty" technology from another country. “Pinautang nila tayo para bilhin din natin ang dirty technology nila. May fraud," she said. - VVP, GMA News 
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