As advocates of the Jubilee 2000 Debt Campaign, we, the Philippine Jubilee Network, the Philippine Jubilee 2000, the Freedom from Debt Coalition, the People�s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network (Agrarian Reform NOW!), and the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC), join hands and raise our voices to proclaim the universal Jubilee call to the G-8 donor countries and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), for the condonation of global debt that continues to enslave the world�s poor nations and peoples.� At the opening of the ADB�s 32^nd Annual Board of Governors� Meeting, we appeal for the member-countries to include the discussion of the whole debt concern in the Bank�s paramount agenda.

OUR CONCERNS

Each year the Third World pays the West three times more in debt repayments than it receives in aid. Poor countries are estimated to owe above $2 Trillion to rich countries and IFIs like the ADB, WB and the IMF.

Billions of people in the world�s poorest countries have in fact been enslaved by this debt burden. These debts have enriched lenders but left children malnourished and families living in desperate poverty. As of 1996, 43% and 26% of populations in South Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific, respectively, live below the international poverty line of $1 per day. As of 1992, South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific regions both have some 270 million undernourished populations. Serious environmental destruction in the Third World has worsened since the 1970s since the poorer countries abused their natural resources to earn hard currency, which mostly went to debt repayments.

For instance, in the Philippines, the total debt (public, private, domestic and external debts) as of November 1998 stood at P2.69 Trillion or US$ 67.21 billion. The domestic and foreign public sector debt was pegged at P1.993 Trillion ($49.8 Billion). Today, each Filipino owes at least P26,376 ($659) in public debts, not including local government debts. This year the Philippine government will remit 20% (P120.7 Billion) of the 1999 budget to interest payments of its foreign debt alone.

Many of these global external debts are UNPAYABLE because they have in fact increased despite 20 years of structural adjustment prescriptions.

Many of these debts are ILLEGITIMATE because they originated in large measure from decisions made by dictatorial governments not elected by the people or by governments that were formally democratic but plagued by corruption. IFIs, as well as donor governments themselves, have begun to recognize this fact. In many Asian countries, public external debt has been channeled to support crony corporations or to subsidize private sector investments.

Worse, many of these debts are IMMORAL. Governments use a high percentage of their national budgets for debt repayment, affecting social programs --- low allocation on social services (i.e., health, education), cut jobs and wages for workers in government industries and services, cut-back on food subsidies, encourage privatization of public industries, take over small subsistence farms for large-scale export crop farming instead of staple foods. Cash-strapped Third World economies are forced to over exploit their natural resources to increase exports but affect their ecological equilibrium. More and more, life-support systems are threatened, and with it, the very future of our children. The increasing number of overseas Asian labor often leads to problems of social disintegration of families and communities, and the lack of adequate protection of overseas workers.

Systematic corruption, capital flight and �fiscal havens� form part of the legal problems in dealing with external debt. Debts accumulated for various reasons: interest rate hikes, borrowing sprees when loans were readily available and aggressively marketed by IFIs and private banks, poor advice from external economists and investors, corrupt governments that misdirected funds, failed projects, economic mismanagement, war and famine.

OUR CONVICTION

The year 2000 has been proclaimed as the Great Jubilee year by Pope John Paul II. In his words, the Pope said that the Jubilee is an appropriate time to give thought to reducing substantially, if not canceling outright, the international debt seriously threatening the future of many nations. Hence, the new millennium should give fresh hope to the impoverished people of the world.

For development organizations worldwide, especially in Asia, the idea of debt condonation and restoration of. land rights resonates loudly. Debts of developing countries remain a crushing burden on both citizens and governments. Meanwhile, generations of landlord servitude has caused nothing but bondage to its tillers. These two problems spring from the inequitable distribution of wealth and resources within and among countries. Hence, the vision of freedom and equity implicit in the Jubilee call fits squarely with genuine development goals.

The Jubilee calls for debt forgiveness, returning the land to its rightful stewards and freedom from all forms of enslavement. More than a Christian concept, it is an inter-faith call for true development and peace in our societies. The Jubilee calls forth a culture of life, human rights and peace across all societies and communities.

It is clear why it is necessary to end the debt burden for impoverished countries to allow them to begin anew. In any known religion or way of life, it is wrong for people living in misery to use their resources to repay their debts while they need it more to survive. When chronic foreign debt drains the economic resources of a people, forced repayment is considered unacceptable. Yet it is within the power of the world�s creditors to break the chains of debt as the right and only thing to do.

OUR CALL

It is in the spirit of the Great Jubilee that we join hands with the Third World and South countries to urge the leaders of the ADB and other creditor institutions and governments present in the ADB-AGM to undertake the following:

• The immediate cancellation of ALL unpayable, illegitimate and immoral debts by impoverished, indebted countries. Although, the World Bank and the IMF do not consider the Philippines among the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) of the South, debt is still a life and death issue for its people.
  

• �Unconditional� debt relief calling for a stop to the imposition of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) or using it as conditions for debt relief, because of their immoral and fatal effects on the poor. With the ADB, conditions similar to the SAPs are recognized with the sectoral loans it gives out.
  

• Adopt Debt Swaps for Development as a more equitable option to direct debt repayment to donor institutions and governments by indebted countries. Such proposals in the Philippines include Debt Swaps for Agrarian Reform, for Education and Social Services.
  

• Establishment of more effective and participatory mechanisms to ensure that the citizens of borrowing countries are adequately consulted on all processes of future loans taken out in their name and debt relief negotiations. Genuine democratic and participatory processes should be in place that uphold public transparency and accountability of donor governments and financing institutions to those who feel the debt burden most in its debtor countries.
  

• Establish a ceiling for the service of external debt to a minimum percentage of the annual budget of each country.

To the ADB and other Creditors of the World,

Join us in the Jubilee Call:����������������������� Give HOPE to the Poor!

����������������������� ����������������������� ����������������������� BREAK THE CHAINS OF DEBT!

To all concerned individuals, especially Filipinos, the Jubilee 2000 cry is a universal task. Each of us can make a difference by appealing to all creditor countries and institutions to free the world�s developing countries from the enslaving burden of debt because it is a matter of universal justice and compassion.

We enjoin everyone to reflect on the unbearable poverty that many of our people live in, and to work for ways to give over a billion people a debt-free start at the turn of the millennium.

Finally, we challenge each individual to live the essence of the Jubilee call for personal renewal and conversion that the Great Jubilee may truly bear fruit with its vision of freedom from all forms of enslavement.

Philippine Jubilee Network, the Philippine Jubilee 2000, the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), the People�s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network (Agrarian Reform NOW!), and the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC)

�

The Great Jubilee Year

�Every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, let the trumpets blow loud and long throughout the land. For the fiftieth year shall be holy, a time to proclaim liberty to all enslaved debtors, a time for release for all who live there. It shall be a year when each of you returns to the land that belonged to your ancestors and rejoins your clan. Yes, the fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you��

Leviticus 25: 8-11