The Philippine government's debt service payments experienced a dramatic increase of over 700% in February, driven primarily by a massive surge in principal repayments, according to recent data from the Bureau of the Treasury.
Latest figures reveal that debt service payments skyrocketed by 725.7% to P430.6 billion in February 2026, compared to P52.15 billion during the same period last year.
The overwhelming driver of this increase was amortization, or principal repayments, which exploded by nearly 10,200% to P381.71 billion. Domestic repayments accounted for the vast majority of this jump, surging an astonishing 312,700% to P378.51 billion. In contrast, external amortization actually decreased by 10.61% to P3.2 billion.
This February spike continues a pattern observed in January, when domestic amortization also surged by approximately 2,000%. Economists have noted that these increases are largely attributable to timing factors related to the maturity of domestic borrowings and the government's refinancing schedule, rather than indicating underlying structural concerns.
Meanwhile, interest costs showed only modest movement, increasing by 0.9% to P48.9 billion. External interest payments jumped 85.79% to P11.85 billion, but this was partially offset by an 11.8% decline in domestic interest payments to P37.08 billion.
For the first two months of 2026, the government has already disbursed P568.3 billion to creditors, representing more than a quarter of the P2.005 trillion ceiling allocated for debt service expenditures this year. Of this total program, P950 billion is earmarked for interest payments, while P1.05 trillion is designated for principal amortization.