By Mario Casayuran Senator Imee R. Marcos on Monday strongly suggested that the government should call for the temporary suspension in the payment of the country’s debts to increase cash aid for individuals and companies affected by the enhanced community quarantine due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Senator Imee Marcos (Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) As chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, Marcos said that a debt moratorium is a third measure that the Department of Finance (DOF) could adopt, besides the budget realignments and international loans it has already announced, to continue funding the government’s social amelioration program while the true duration of the lockdown remains uncertain. Marcos said the budget for interest payments on the country’s debts in the General Appropriations Act of 2020 (GAA or national budget) amounts to P451 billion. This could be used for cash aid by the government under the Bayanihan Heal As One Act, she explained. Marcos said that off-budget payments of P582 billion to amortize the principal amount could also be reserved for cash aid. More cash aid will be needed if the advance of the global pandemic results in extended lockdowns throughout the world and continues to limit business operations and people’s means of earning a living, she added. Marcos explained that a debt moratorium is in line with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) call for international cooperation in handling the backlash of the COVID-19 crisis, adding that not even the world’s biggest economy, the United States, could deal with the global pandemic on its own. “Dapat bigyan ng palugit ang mga bansang mas maliit ang ekonomiya at mas mahina ang pamamaraan para sa pagpapagamot ng kanilang mamamayan, lalo na ang mga bansa sa Asya at Africa,” she said. (Countries with small and weak economies, especially those in Asia and Africa, should be given debt payment extensions in order for them to give the needed medical aid to their citizens.)