PH WARNED OF POSSIBLE BANKRUPTCY WITH BBM, UNITEAM

March 21, 2022 JUST IN

BAGUIO CITY (March 20, 2022) — Former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo today said that Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and his UniTeam party’s lack of a clear platform of governance is troubling.
According to Guinigundo, the country’s next president will inherit several problems, foremost of which is the Philippines’ outstanding debt of 12 trillion pesos that the Duterte administration has amassed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Marcos, Jr. has yet to bare his plans in solving the government’s huge fiscal deficit, addressing the mounting debt of the country, and details of a fiscal consolidation plan that could inspire confidence in foreign and local businesses that the Philippine government will not go bankrupt,” Gunigundo said.
According to data, the country’s debt ballooned to P12 trillion in 2021 from P7.7 trillion in 2019. In the latest forecast of the Nomura Global Research and their team of economists, the Marcos, Jr. and Sara Duterte tandem has earned low marks in the aspects of national experience, business friendliness, continuity/good governance, infrastructure progress, and fiscal discipline.
JP Morgan also warned that the Philippines could face a twin deficit: fiscal deficit and current account deficit. According to experts, twin deficits could crash a country’s economy, especially in the wake of a global pandemic, rising interest rates, rise in fuel prices, and unabated rise in cost and services.
“In the absence of clear programs, it will be very difficult to attract investors in the country—investors that could help create jobs and generate income for the local economy,” Gunigundo explained.
The former BSP governor added that a Marcos, Jr. presidency could signal a return of monopolies and cronyism. This could downgrade the country’s credit rating, that in turn could cause interest rates to soar as the Philippine peso weakens against the dollar in the global market.
“Let us all remember that in the martial law period, government financial institutions, most especially PNB, were milking cows of the Marcoses. We were mired in an unprecedented debt crisis that Filipinos, to this day, are paying through taxes,” Gunigundo elaborated. “If Marcos, Jr. were to merely ape his father’s style of governance, the Philippines will be in a lot hurt in the years to come,” he stressed.
Artemio A. Dumlao