Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Thursday debunked Malacanang’s claim that the Arroyo administration did not rack up debts totaling P2.4 trillion from 2001 to 2005.

Escudero said the government is actually paying its creditors about P1.67 billion daily to pay off its current debt of P4.8 trillion and which he foresees will increase further as it continually borrows even more to make up for shrinking revenues.

“Our daily debt service bill alone of P1.67 billion is more than enough to fund the budget of the Philippine General Hospital for 2009,” Escudero said, adding “it is enough to construct 757 school buildings with four classrooms each and will wipe out the country’s 40,000 classroom shortage in approximately two weeks.”

Escudero said the statistics of the Bureau of Treasury has showed that P612.7 billion of the total national government budget was allotted for debt servicing, noting that At least P340.5 billion is used to cover the principal, while P272.2 billion is allotted to cover interest payments.

The total debt, he said, is “far bigger than the debts of the previous three administrations.”

Citing news reports, Escudero said that National Treasurer Roberto Tan has confirmed plans to raise over $2 billion in foreign commercial borrowings next year, higher than earlier planned, to finance a bigger-than-expected budget deficit.

“The Palace should look harder. On the BSP website, they will find that total gross domestic and foreign borrowings from 2001 to 2005 totaled to P2.439 trillion,” he said.

He also cited records from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas which attested that the Arroyo administration doubled the country’s national debt from P2.8 trillion in 2001 to P4.8 trillion last year. “It is ironic that while our debts have soared, more of our people are going hungry and leaving by the thousands every day regardless of our credit ratings,” he said.