THE COMMUNIST PARTY of the Philippines (CPP) criticized the Duterte regime for refusing to cancel foreign debt servicing amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

De­part­ment of Fi­nance Sec. Sonny Do­mi­nguez stubbornly declared that debt moratorium has never crossed their minds, even as their programs are failing and their aid allocation insufficient. He stated this after the Inter­na­tio­nal Mo­ne­tary Fund suspended the debt payment of 25 countries affected by the pandemic.

The CPP said that Do­mi­nguez’s position proves the anti-people policies and priority of the regime. Instead of prioritizing the welfare of the people who were hardly hit by the crisis, the regime’s is hell bent on preserving its high credit rating in order to get more loan contracts in the future. This year, the regime allocated a total of P285.8 billion for foreign debt servicing. The largest amounts will be paid to the Asi­an Deve­lop­ment Bank (P37.7 billion) and World Bank (P23.8 billion), and the governments of Japan (P22.4 billion), Chi­na (P1.2 billion), and the US (P950 million).