Featured image above shows some of the world health leaders assembled in Manila for the UNITE Global Summit. They warned on the bad impact of the global debt system’s rising payments. From left: Dr. Guillerme Duarte, Executive Director, UNITE; Madam Utaara Mootu, Member of Parliament, Republic of Namibia; Dr. Chhim Sarath, MPH, Bureau Chief, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Asia; Dr. Fernando Ariel Terron, MSc, Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Global Public Health Institute for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Deepak Dhungel, Regional Advocacy and Marketing Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Asia.

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Post-President Marcos’ 2026 SONA, Global Health Leaders, Filipino Advocates Call for Reforms on Debt Servicing, Warn on its Bad Impact on Healthcare, Education, Other Services 

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MARRIOTT HOTEL MANILA, Pasay City, August 04, 2026 (SDN) — Believe it or not, if true, Filipino billionaires, the richest, contribute only a measly 4 percent of the taxes the government collects.

In fact, as the Freedom from Debt Coalition Philippines through Vice President Raquel Castillo had revealed, the 4 percent levy comes from the country’s “big corporations and richest individuals”. She was citing information as source an interview with tax expert Mon Abrea.

The cited interview further showed that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a tax share of only 13 percent.

But ordinary Filipino employees, imagine that, contribute to the government coffer a massive majority at 83 percent.

SDN – SciTech & Digital News a received copy of Castillo’s presentation titled “Debt on the Ground” at the press conference here today, Monday, organized by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Philippines.

Foreign health leaders are in the Philippines for the UNITE Global Summit joined in by Filipino advocates. UNITE is a global network of current and former members of Parliament who dedicate their lives to the promotion of efficient global health policies and legislative action.

Joining the press conference are global health leaders, parliamentarians, and debt justice advocates — foreign and local.

At the press conference dubbed “End the Global Debt Trap: Freedom from Debt Now“, they stressed that debt is not a mere financial issue but also a public health concern, with 3.4 billion people across the world living in countries that use its budget more on payments of debt that on health or education.

It was also mentioned that in the Philippines, more than Php2 trillion, or roughly 30 percent of the national budget, go to debt servicing. This has prompted renewed questions about how much can be invested in services that directly benefit Filipinos.

“Every budget season, Filipinos hear promises of better healthcare, education, and social services. But these goals become harder to achieve when a substantial share of public resources is devoted to debt payments,” Castillo pointed out, indicating that plans, xz ZX do not match what come next.

Her fellow advocate, AIDS Health Foundation Philippines Country Program Manager Dr. Ryan Guinaran, cited debt’s actual impact on people.

“Debt is not an abstract economic issue. It affects the services people receive, the opportunities available to communities, and the government’s ability to respond during times of crisis,” he said.

AHF Asia Bureau Chief Chhim Sarth also at the press conference, chimed in his thoughts.

“No country should have to choose between paying its creditors and investing in the health, education, and future of its people,” Chhim said, adding that “debt must be a tool for development and not a barrier to it.”

One of Castillo’s slides in her presentation showed an image she lifted from an Inquirer.net news report showing the 15 richest Filipinos that landed in Forbes World’s Billionaires List in 2026. with their assets in United States dollar.

They are, in no particular order:

• Enrique Razon, Jr. ($16.5 billion)
• Manuel Villar ($3.1 billion)
• Herbert Sy ($1.8 billion)
• Lucio Co ($1.6 billion)
• Susan Co ($1.5 billion)
• Ramon Ang ($3.6 billion)
• Henry Sy, Jr. ($2.5 billion)
• Harley Sy ($1.7 billion)
• Teresita Sy-Coson ($1.6 billion)
• Tony Tan Caktiong ($1.3 billion)
• Lucio Tan ($3.5 billion)
• Hans Sy (1.8 billion)
• Andrew Tan ($1.7 billion)
• Elisabeth Sy ($1.5 billion)
• Eusebio Tanco ($1 billion)

Taytay, Rizal, Barangay Councilor Chesca Persia, Chairperson of Crisis Response Committee, LakasBayi Feminist Leadership Network.

Castillo said the government should instead levy more tax on the country’s “richest, not the nano-, micro-, and small enterprises and the poor workers.”

In attendance at the press conference, aside from Castillo, held in the five-star’s Grand Ballroom included Dr. Guillerme Duarte, Executive Director, UNITE; Madam Utaara Mootu, Member of Parliament, Republic of Namibia; Dr. Chhim Sarah, MPH, Bureau Chief, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Asia; Dr. Fernando Ariel Terron, MSc, Director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation-Global Public Health Institute for Latin America and the Caribbean; Deepak Dhungel, Regional Advocacy and Marketing Manager, AIDS Healthcare Foundation Asia, and others.

Create Borrowers’ Forum to protect developing countries

Freedom from Debt’s Castillo also mentioned in presentation what she described as “annual tax loss to corporate tax abuse in Philippines by Profit Shifting” in 2025 amounting to US$6.83 billion.

While “tax loss due to offshore financial wealth” calling it as “illicit financial flows” was US$0.16 billion and that these figures were estimated as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and percentage of health expenditures (76.8 percent). (Source: State of Tax Justice 2025, TIN)

Castillo, amidst the figures she presented, recommended a 1 percent “wealth tax” in the Philippines on the “richest 10 percent” stands to “generate an estimated US$30.44 billion that could cover universal social protection needs and more substantial support for NMSMEs”. (NMSMEs stands for Nano-, Micro-, Small- and Medium Enterprises.)

The vice president of the Freedom from Debt group suggested to Congress to issue a resolution on the audit of public debt to determine loans that could be canceled or suspended and shift the public money “from automatic debt servicing” to the needs of the people, moreso “in these extremely difficult times”.

While at it, she said the proposed audit of public money can also determine “illegitimate debts that are used to fund ‘harmful’ projects such as fossil fuel projects; those having grossly disadvantageous provisions; those involving corruption, fraud, or em embezzlement; those that violated the laws governing both the lender and lendee; and those contracted by illegitimate regimes”.

Castillo recommended the immediate cancellation of illegitimate debts and put those debt-freed funds to public service infrastructure and delivery, stop imposing austerity loan conditionalities, and pushed for a United Nations convention that transfers global debt governance away from creditor-led spaces.

She also batted for Congress to revive seven mothballed bills relating to the country’s debt servicing, most of them seeking to stop debt payments.

Castillo noted, perhaps with disappointment about how hard up are poor Filipinos in managing their health and medical needs, saying in 2024 alone, they paid Php615 billion from their own pockets for healthcare, which is 42.7  percent of their health spending, and that 82 percent pointed to increasing costs of health as their top financial worry.

The Freedom from Debt campaign that foreign and Filipino advocates are fighting for might be sum up in three things:

• Establishment of Borrowers’ Forum to empower developing countries to negotiate with lenders.
• Automatic pause of debt servicing in times of public health and climate emergencies.
• Imposition of 1 percent AI Solidarity Levy from artificial intelligence investments to be used for debt relief and essential public services.

On July 14, the Freedom from Debt Coalition, AIDS Healthcare Foundation and other like-minded individuals held a press conference at a hotel in Quezon City, with the theme that revolved around “Debt Addiction Must Stop” and “Freedom from Debt” as they alleged the Philippines was “addicted to debt”. — EDD K. USMAN (√)

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The author

EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, Manila Business Insights, Panorama Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, and others, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (®)