By NG Seruela
The Department of Finance (DOF) said on Monday (June 14) that the country’s high debt level is ‘sustainable’ and there is still money to vaccinate the entire adult population including teenagers.
In President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s Talk to the People, DOF Secretary Sonny Dominguez said that despite the high debt level of the country, it is still manageable in the coming years.
He explained that the country needed to borrow money since the economy is failing due to the lockdowns implemented that started in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that due to the virus, the Philippines spent ₱4.23 trillion.
“Now what did we do? We had to borrow money because humina nga ‘yong economy natin kasi mga lockdowns tapos bumaba pa ‘yong collections natin kasi humina ang business. So our borrowings went up from 1 trillion to 2.7 trillion in 2020 and will be around 3.1 trillion in 2021.”
He mentioned that the department is “expecting to spend ₱4.7 trillion” for the COVID-19 government response in 2021.
Dominguez said that the total revenue of the country in 2019 is ₱3.14-T, then it went down to ₱2.86-T in 2020. However, the DOF estimated that the revenue for 2021 will be ₱2.88-T.
The DOF Chief asserted that the high level of debt is temporary and once the economy has recovered, the revenues will also return.
“It is not a permanent situation. Once we open the economy, our revenues will go back. And once we beat COVID, our expenditures for COVID are also going to go down. So we’re going to become normal again, probably in 2022, probably in 2023. We are going to become normal like in 2019 where our deficit is much lower,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sec. Dominguez assured that the country’s money is “enough” for the vaccines. He explained that the Philippines can buy 140 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Now 140 million doses of vaccines can vaccinate 70 million Filipinos. Now 70 million Filipinos are the entire adult population. So we have enough money to vaccinate the entire adult population,” he guaranteed.
“Now, if we have to vaccinate children from 12 to 15…We estimate that it will cost another ₱20 billion but we have enough reserves to cover that amount of money. So we have enough.”
Dominguez concluded that the Philippines has enough money to vaccinate 85-M Filipinos both adults and teenagers.
“So we don’t have to worry. The money is there and we will certainly be able to vaccinate the entire adult population plus the teenagers.” –rir
