Debt payments slashed to P76 billion

In August, the Marcos administration managed to slash its debt service by a significant 88.5 percent, settling P76 billion in obligations. This was a drastic drop from the P664.72 billion spent on debt payments in the same period last year. The bulk of the reduction came from amortization payments, which plummeted by 98.3 percent to P10.5 billion.

The rest of the debt service, P65.62 billion, was spent on interest payments, marking a slight increase from the previous year's P63.12 billion. Most of the interest was paid to domestic creditors, with the government paying up P56.12 billion in August, a 21 percent increase from P46.38 billion in August 2025. The interest was distributed across various government securities.

Compared to the previous year, the government settled 43.3 percent less interest owed to foreign financiers in August. Over the eight-month period from January to August 2026, debt payments fell by 6.4 percent to a total of P1.44 trillion. For the eight-month period ending in August, the government paid 20.9 percent less in amortization at P756.32 billion than in the same period last year.

Interest payments, however, rose by 17.5 percent to P686.48 billion. By the end of August, the government had paid off 70.5 percent of its total debt service for the year 2026, which totals P2.05 trillion. The government plans to allocate P995.61 billion for interest payments and P1.05 trillion for amortization in fiscal year 2027. As of the end of August, the country's total debt reached a record P19.61 trillion.