GMA's borrowing binge blamed for RP fiscal crisis

Why the out-of-control borrowing from her admin, you ask? Because she needed the money to fund her "re-election" campaign in 2004.

So she borrowed, and borrowed, and borrowed...

Gloria debts P1.2T; Erap, P765B; Ramos, P446B
Joker: 'Now she wants us to undo mess?'

By JOAN DAIRO
The total debt incurred by the Arroyo administration in the past three years matched that of the Ramos and Estrada administrations combined, according to information culled yesterday by the Senate ways and means committee chaired by Sen. Ralph Recto.

Records showed that from January 2001 to February 2004, there was a P1.2 trillion increase in national government debt - P738.8 billion in domestic borrowings and P514.6 billion in foreign borrowings.

The increase during the three years of President Joseph Estrada was P765 billion. During the six years of President Fidel Ramos, it was P446 billion.

Data submitted by the Department of Finance showed that when Gloria Arroyo assumed the presidency in January 2001, government debt was P2.186 trillion. By February 2004, it had reached P3.407 trillion or an increase of P1.2 trillion.

Even former allies who embraced, protected and even abetted Mrs. Pidal's family just six months ago (like Joker Arroyo and Ralph Recto) are now distancing themselves from the Arroyo administration. It's every man for himself na raw, at ayaw nilang madamay sa kapalpakan ni Ate Glo.

"Figures given by the DOF confirm the proposition that President Arroyo during the period of three years actually borrowed more than the combined borrowings of President Ramos and Estrada for a period of eight years. That's the picture," Sen. Joker Arroyo noted after yesterday's committee hearing.

Sen. Arroyo blamed former Finance Secretary Isidro Camacho for the borrowing binge of the Arroyo administration. "She did not have a good secretary of finance. The tendency was to borrow for every shortfall that they had in revenue," he said. Camacho resigned shortly before the campaign period for the 2004 election.

Sen. Arroyo chided government for now asking Congress to solve the fiscal crisis. "Don't ask us Congress to undo what you have done."

"This administration's penchant to borrow money is bothersome. What this tells us is that this administration has been ... I don't even know how to use the word," he also said.

He said that because Congress has no control over borrowings, "the executive has borrowed money when it wanted, as long as there were lenders to borrow from. And then they ask us to bail them out for something that they created more than any of the other administrations have created."

The Rats are jumping off the sinking ship.