The auction committee rejected all bids for the 91-day T-bills after they averaged 5.101 percent, which is higher than last week’s rate of 4.961 percent.

Total tenders for the three-month notes stood at P1.155 billion against an offer of P1.0 billion.

Total tenders reached P17.795 billion or five times the weekly offer of P3.5 billion, with investors’ interests most notable on the longer-dated government securities.

National Treasurer Omar Cruz told reporters after the auction that the committee had decided to increase its award of six-month notes to P1.4 billion from its original offering size of P1.0 billion given strong interest.

The 354-day rate averaged 7.399 percent compared to 7.611 percent previously. Tenders reached P7.63 billion against an offer of P1.5 billion.

"You can see that the (market’s) appetite is in the 182-day tenor because this is where they can gain more," Cruz said, citing the differential between the yields of the 91- and 182-day T-bills.

Asked whether the rates of the benchmark 91-day T-bills have reached bottom, Cruz said "I don’t think so because there is still liquidity and the supply of government securities has been limited."

Meanwhile, Cruz said he will make an announcement about the govern-ment’s domestic borrowing program for the first quarter.

"We are trying to reconsider our borrowing program for the first quarter. We have to reconfigure our auction program again in light of favorable developments," Cruz said. He declined to elaborate.

Last week, the national government raised .1 billion from its first global bond offering for the year.

"Obviously, the peso’s appreciation (also) has had a positive effect on us," Cruz said.

The Bureau of Treasury earlier lowered the size of the weekly T-bill offer for January and February to P3.5 billion from P4.5 billion in the last quarter of 2005. In March, the auction will held every two weeks with the offer reduced further to P3 billion.