ACTUALLY, YOU HAVE A POINT THERE...
my highschool classmate (we are actually debating this in our highschool yahoogroups!) and nikita raised some valid points regarding lozada and the whole NBN senate hearing. lozada may be dubious at some points and they should should investigate him further and the veracity of the information he dishes out should be checked.
he's really not a saint and shouldn't be regarded as holier then thou but still look at the merits of what has transpired so far.
but here is my reply to my classmate's points:
what gets my goat? there are bigger projects out there that are overpriced/padded. one source told me that the highway interconnecting tarlac-subic-clark is one. the northrail is another. and that would add to more foreign debt.
yes, we may be reducing our COMMERCIAL foreign borrowings (for the peso's sake and to take advantage of the low interest rates) but we're still availing of the "official development assistance" extended by multilateral and bilateral lenders for things that we sometimes do not need. and the government doesn't have a cap for that. it's like having a credit card: once you start, you can't stop.
and due to our "good credit standing" they're extending the the credit lines. gaaaah.
i used to write about our national debts. for a year. sheesh.
he's really not a saint and shouldn't be regarded as holier then thou but still look at the merits of what has transpired so far.
but here is my reply to my classmate's points:
actually (insert name of classmate) you have a point there. hindi naman mapupunta sa ZTE si lozada kung hindi rin naman siya madumi, as proven by the documents uneartened by miriam. inamin naman ni lozada eh.---
if lozada is fake, then let the authorities deal with him. tingnan nila kung alin dun ang totoo o hinde. but the real point here is there is a US$300-million scam out there and somebody ought to explain something about it and it shouldn't push through. we ought to find out the truth.
the point here is that the NBN program isn't supposed to cost almost US$300 million and there are documents to prove that. that's the point of the whole inquisition, if you may have forgotten that already. ang masakit pa nito dapat build-operate- transfer lang siya na naging project loan na. people who worked for NEDA should know about the implications of BOT na naging loan. and i tell you the government cannot shoulder anymore foreign loans at this point that we're doing fiscal consolidation.
ang isa pang pinopoint out ni lozada is that most foreign loans (ODAs, we call it) are not granted on a needs basis but rather on the NEED OF THE SUPPLIER/CONTRACTOR to do business. we do not need NBN and yet we are going to shoulder almost US$300 million of debt for something that could not feed us. the department of finance has been adamant about this and i can't remember if it was teves or a usec who told us reporters that these kinds of loans should stop. just look at the NBN deal: the lender is the chinese gov't and the contractor is a chinese company with close ties with the chinese government.
in short, mangungutang tayo para kumita sila sa atin. pansinin nyo ang mga ODAs natin kung sino ang lender and contractor. kaya we still have at least P3 trillion of debt that we're trying to pay for year in and year out and we just refinance our debts or roll over our debts but still we're still digging a hole for our own shit where we could wallow in. ang principal and interest payments natin halos the same levels na. jos ko nakakdismaya ito isulat sa araw araw for a whole year na ginawa ng dyos but that's the reality. nakakasama ng loob.
kaya nga lalong nakakagalit na the first family is adding to our debts and ganito din pano tayo ninakawan ni marcos for 20 years.
sorry haba na. masyado na ako naging emosyonal.
what gets my goat? there are bigger projects out there that are overpriced/padded. one source told me that the highway interconnecting tarlac-subic-clark is one. the northrail is another. and that would add to more foreign debt.
yes, we may be reducing our COMMERCIAL foreign borrowings (for the peso's sake and to take advantage of the low interest rates) but we're still availing of the "official development assistance" extended by multilateral and bilateral lenders for things that we sometimes do not need. and the government doesn't have a cap for that. it's like having a credit card: once you start, you can't stop.
and due to our "good credit standing" they're extending the the credit lines. gaaaah.
i used to write about our national debts. for a year. sheesh.
