Let's Think

A popular online paper interviewed me and archived the interview via podcast. I received many comments and a number of them were from economist and banking industry friends who were disturbed nay flabbergasted by the mere mention of “debt cap”. I was warned it would convert us to a hermit kingdom much like North Korea and we were going to be treated like a pariah and so many other dire warnings. Told most of them to calm down, everything is negotiable at this stage. Get the pun? Our negotiating position would vastly improve if we confer to our negotiating panel the full and unrestricted support of the Filipino people.

Point is we need to engage in critical thinking here. Capping interest payments is not tantamount to heresy especially if some of the loans were secured to pay off behest loans and odious loans. How will we get out of this tragic mess if we are perpetually timid to making difficult moral choices? Renegotiating or restructuring (much more acceptable terms to the cognoscenti) our debts to our advantage needs to be considered. We aren’t getting too far with this meek and obedient pathway. The consequences will probably be not as harsh as the consequences of being a model beggar nation.