By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

BORROWING money through revenue bonds is one of the ways that the cash-strapped government can pay land compensation claims, Finance Secretary Eloy Inos said in an interview yesterday.
He said due to the government’s shrinking revenue base, it cannot float another government obligation bond.
“But we may be able to do a revenue bond which would have to be paid from revenues of specific projects,” Inos said.
A number of landowners whose property was acquired for public use have threatened to file lawsuits due to the government’s failure to pay them.
The government, which is still paying for the $40 million bond floated two years ago for land payments, still has to compensate 327 landowners.
Of the $40 million, only $52,000 remained as of Dec. 2006.
Public Law 13-17 was signed by then Gov. Juan N. Babauta in July 2002 authorizing a public debt of $40 million to settle land compensation claims against the government.
Inos said the government has to appropriate about $10 million every year to pay for its general obligation bonds.