UN okays RP proposal vs global poverty--JDV

from INQ7

THE Philippine proposal for a global debt-for-equity plan to finance the anti-poverty programs of the United Nations won the unanimous approval of the General Assembly on Dec. 22, Speaker Jose de Venecia announced yesterday.

In a statement sent from the UN headquarters in New York, De Venecia said the plan, if adopted by creditor countries, would convert half of the $2.3 trillion in foreign debt of the Philippines and 101 other heavily indebted countries into equity in mass housing, food production, reforestation, irrigation, education, clean water, anti-AIDS and health care, and other projects.

Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja described the proposal, which was conceived by De Venecia two years ago, as the “year-end triumph for the Speaker and RP government.”

Baja said the next campaign would concentrate on getting the nod of the Paris Club and the G-8 countries—United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Canada, Italy, France and Japan.

In a phone interview, De Venecia said the plan “does not call for debt forgiveness nor moratorium nor debt cancellation nor debt discounts,” or even new money from US, European and Japan governments.

“We proposed only that the rich countries, multilateral institutions and large commercial banks plow back into the economies of debtor-countries 50 percent of the debt-service payments due them,” he said.

Millennium goals

This conversion, he said, would fund the UN Millennium Development Goals, which include halving global poverty.

Under the De Venecia scheme, 50 percent of the Philippine debtservice payment of $1.5 billion a year should not be remitted to creditor countries but instead be converted as their “equity investments” in the country.

Mechanics of the conversion scheme such as the earnings of the equity investments will be drawn up by the Paris Club, said De Venecia.

“The argument for debt conversion is that the poor countries don’t have the adequate resources to finance the antipoverty programs under the UN Millennium Development Goals,” he said.

Philippine debt stands at P5 trillion, five times bigger than the annual national budget.

Late last year, the General Assembly merely “took note” of the proposal, which was supported by President Macapagal-Arroyo and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo.

This came after Ms Arroyo and De Venecia formally presented the debt-conversion strategy at the United Nations in September 2005.

De Venecia also presented the debt-conversion strategy in speeches to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at the time.

The Speaker arrived in New York City on Dec. 22 to receive the news at the United Nations following earlier endorsement of his plan by outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Indonesian President Yudhoyono, Pakistani Premier H. Aziz and Cambodian Premier Hun Sen.

Birthday gift

De Venecia, who celebrated his birthday yesterday by attending Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, said the UN approval was a “birthday gift to him and the Filipino nation.”

In return, he said his staff distributed lunch boxes to 5,000 urban poor families in Metro Manila and Pangasinan during his birthday.

The Spanish government adopted the De Venecia proposal into law a few weeks ago, following endorsements by Romanian and Bulgarian governments and by leaders of the G-77 countries, which now number 132 of the 192 members of the UN.

De Venecia said the Christian Democrats representing 110 political parties in Europe, Latin America and Africa met last month at the Canary Islands and supported his proposal.

Much earlier, 90 Asian political parties meeting in Seoul for the International Conference of Asian Political Parties and representatives of 33 Asian parliaments at the Asian Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Iran endorsed the debt-for equity plan.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Inter-Parliamentary Organization summit in Cebu early this month also adopted the proposal.

De Venecia reported to Ms Arroyo by phone before Christmas and asked the President, Romulo and UN representative in the Philippines Elma Noble to include the proposal in the Asean and East Asean Summit in Cebu next month.

De Venecia, who is invited by the Asean summit to address the meeting of presidents and prime ministers, asked for the Asean’s endorsement of the UN approval. Michael Lim Ubac