FACT CHECK: Gov’t still settling national debt; 2023 report misinterpreted 

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Videos misrepresent a 2023 news report on the Philippines’ debt payments to falsely claim that the Marcos administration has nearly paid off the national debt inherited from the Duterte administration

Claim: The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has nearly paid off the national debt incurred by former president Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: A Facebook page named “AsiteBsite” posted the video bearing the claim on March 15. The post, now deleted, featured a clip of a PTV news report along with the text overlay: “Grabe utang ni [Digong] si PBBM nagbabayad.” 

(Digong’s debt is huge, [President Bongbong Marcos] is paying for it). 

Another Facebook post shared the video with the text overlay: “Utang ng Pilipinas, halos nabayaran na. (The Philippines’ debt has almost been paid off.) Good job Mr. President!” 

Its caption says, “Si Duterte pinalubog ang Pilipinas sa utang pero si PBBM nagbayad ng utang ng Pilipinas.” (Duterte plunged the Philippines into debt, but PBBM paid off the Philippines’ debt.)

As of writing, the video has garnered 15,100 likes, 3,300 comments, and 7,500 shares.

The facts: The December 2023 PTV news report was taken out of context. The report indicated that 95% of the country’s programmed debt for 2023 was settled, with P1.48 trillion paid out of the P1.55 trillion total debt service for 2023. 

Contrary to the claim, the P1.55-trillion figure does not represent the country’s total national debt but its programmed obligations for 2023. Programmed debt refers to the government’s debt obligations incurred through a specific program over a specific time period. 

Meanwhile, the P1.48-trillion amount refers to the Philippines’ debt payments made from January to October 2023, or 95% of the 2023 programmed debt.

Duterte left office in 2022 with a total national debt of P12.79 trillion. He added P6.89 trillion to the national debt, which was at P5.9 trillion at the end of former president Benigno Aquino III’s term in June 2016. As of December 2023, the country’s total national debt stood at P14.62 trillion, according to the Bureau of the Treasury.

Current national debt: The latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury shows that the Philippines’ debt grew to P16.31 trillion as of end-January 2025.

The country posted a significant balance of payments deficit reaching $4.1 billion, the largest in 11 years, thus contributing to higher Philippine debt. (READ: Philippines ends January with largest balance of payments deficit in 11 years)

Source of the claim: The original source of the video on TikTok and the accounts that reposted the misleading videos have made pro-Marcos content and posts critical of Duterte. 

The misleading social media posts were made in March 2025 amid political tensions between the former allies and the arrest of Duterte over crimes against humanity charges. – Lyndee Buenagua/Rappler.com

Lyndee Buenagua is a third year student journalist based in Baguio and an alumna of Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship of Rappler for 2024.

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