2 weeks Ago By N/A (Derco Rosal)
The Marcos administration’s debt payments declined by over 80 percent in February as it suspended its multi-billion-peso principal payments to domestic creditors, offsetting the relatively negligible increase in interest payments. Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that the Philippine government's total debt financing only amounted to ₱52.2 billion in February 2025, a reduction of ₱241.
4 billion compared to the ₱293.6 billion recorded in the same month last year. The major contributor to the decline was the sharp drop in amortization payments.
Specifically, amortization fell to ₱3.7 billion, starkly contrasting the ₱245.8 billion that the government paid in February 2024.
This is equivalent to a ₱242.1 billion over 98 percent drop. Notably, the government’s payments to domestic lenders declined significantly by nearly 100 percent of its multi-billion-peso payments in February 2024.
It only paid ₱121 million in February, steeply dropping from ₱243.6 billion it settled a year earlier. The government’s subtle increase in its principal payments to foreign creditors could not discount the massive deflation in domestic payments.
Foreign creditors received ₱3.6 billion, up by ₱1.4 billion from ₱2.
2 billion last year. Meanwhile, the government’s interest payments increased to ₱48.4 in February from ₱47.
8 during the same month a year ago. This translates into a ₱600 million or just over one percent increase year on year. Domestic payments climbed while interest payments to foreign creditors decreased.
From ₱34.4 billion worth of payments to domestic lenders last year, the government paid ₱42.1 billion in February, higher by ₱7.
7 billion or over 22 percent. Broken down, ₱20.7 billion of the payments went towards fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds), ₱16.
9 billion to retail T-bonds, ₱4.4 billion to Treasury bills (T-bills), and ₱32 million to other national government obligations. On the other hand, its payments to foreign debt sources—₱6.
4 billion—declined by ₱7.1 billion or over half of last year’s ₱13.5 billion.
Further, the government posted ₱339.6 billion in gross borrowings in February, nearly half of a year ago’s financing, but ₱ 126.5 billion higher than the gross debt in January.
Specifically, the government’s borrowings increased by more than 59 percent, from ₱213.1 billion in January..
