Govt gross borrowings soar to P2.74T in 2020

THE national government has redeemed over P306 billion in debt in December, dragging its full-year 2020 gross financing below the ceiling.

Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) released over the weekend showed the actual P306.69 net debt redemption was a turnaround of the P41.88 billion gross borrowings in December 2019.

A net redemption of debt means a repayment of government’s domestic loan.

During the month, the government redeemed P465.46- billion in domestic debt, an about-face of the P11.97 billion gross financing a year ago.

External borrowings, meanwhile, accelerated by 430 percent to P158.77 billion from P29.91 billion a year before.

In the whole of 2020, the government’s gross financing ballooned by 169.8 percent to P2.74 trillion from P1.01 trillion in 2019. It, however, fell short of the P3 trillion borrowing program of the national government.

Broken down, domestic financing of P1.99 trillion grew by 188 percent from P693.84 million in 2019.

Borrowings were generated through the issuance of P463.30-billion and P701.74-billion worth of Treasury bills and fixed-rate bonds, respectively. The government also raised P833.63 billion from the issuance of retail Treasury bonds.

External financing, on the other hand, increased by 130.6 percent to P742.41

THE P24.5-billion project intended to beef up water supply in Metro Manila is facing delays in its completion.

WaWa JVCO Inc. — a joint venture company of Enrique Razon’s Prime Metroline Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (Prime Infra) and Oscar Violago’s San Lorenzo Ruiz Builders and Developers Corp.— is the proponent of the Wawa Bulk Water Supply Project in Rodriguez, Rizal.

Once completed, the Wawa water project will deliver 518 million liters per day (MLD) of water benefiting 500,000 households within Manila Water Co. Inc.’s franchise area.

The entity undertaking the Wawa project, however, is experiencing setbacks.

“Just in relation to some of the three clearing permits — the extensive to which we could access the site. Those are being overcome in and in terms of our endeavor to catch up and get back on track,” Jeff Gallus, director of operations at Prime Metro BMD Corp. (Prime BMD), said on Friday.

Prime BMD, a partnership between Prime Infra, the infrastructure investment arm of the Razon Group and Australian construction company BMD Group, is the contractor of WaWa JVCO.

During the webinar entitled “Prime Infra/BMD: The Wawa Weir 2 Project (Wawa JVCo) — Future Water Security for Manila,” Galus said they have a revised completion date “that we are currently working to,” referring to the Tayabas Weir 2, a component of Wawa Dam

“By and large, if we can reach the critical stage that we will need to achieve which is the height of the roller compacted concrete weir before the next wet season then we will be in a good position for the completion of the project,” he said.

“But there’s a fair bit of risk around that and if we can’t then we have to reconsider our methodology and approach so that we can ensure that it can be delivered on time. It’s quite challenging in respect to the relationship between time and of course the wet season,” he added.

The first phase of the Wawa project will supply of 80 MLD of raw water by December 31, 2021 while the second phase will provide an additional 438 MLD of raw water by Dec. 31, 2025.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) already gave its green light to the Wawa Dam project in 2019.

Manila Water in previously signed an offtake agreement with the MWSS and WaWa JVCO to tap raw water supply from the Wawa and Tayabasan rivers, meaning water from the said dam would be sold to Manila Water for the consumption of the latter’s customers.

JORDEENE B. LAGARE