The Bureau of Treasury said on Friday that it will raise only a portion of the $1 billion authority to sell dollar and euro-denominated retail bonds to Filipinos abroad next month.

National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan, said the government will set aside some of the $1 billion overseas Filipino workers (OFW) bonds for future issuance of the national government.

“The $1 billion is too much. Around $500 million is the proposal, but we have yet to decide on it. We will study first the demand before we can give the exact amount,” Tan said.

“We hope can launch some of it next month, and the remainder, perhaps next year,” he added.

On Thursday, President Arroyo has authorized the treasury bureau to sell up to $1 billion OFW bonds.

But Tan, said the government has yet to get an authority from the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Central bank data showed there are 92 million OFWs sending home a record $17.3 billion last year, and their remittances account for at least 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

The OFW community would be encouraged to buy the bonds whose proceeds will help underwrite the country's multi-billion pesos infrastructure buildup program and plug the projected higher budget deficit.

In January, the government had raised $1.5 billion through the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, making it the first Asian sovereign debt issuer in 2010.

To complete government's commercial borrowing programmed for the year, the Department of Finance also raised roughly $1.1 billion in February, through the sale of Samurai bonds.

The Philippines requires a huge amount to fund this year to finance the government’s budget deficit, which is seen to reach P293.2 billion.

For the first three months of the year, the finance department is aiming to end the period with P110.9 budget deficit, or 7 percent lower compared with the P119.6 billion deficit in the same period last year.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves had said spending would be higher this year due to rehabilitation of areas damaged by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng last year.