Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye today said that all the records and documents on the country’s debt problem were "intact" and "open to public scrutiny."

"We encourage the Senate to bring these to public view to ease speculations and at the same time, inform and educate the public about the serious financial challenges we are facing," Bunye said in a statement.

He added that the looming fiscal crisis could be averted through the joint efforts of the executive and legislative branches of the government, with the support of the public.

A good starting point to averting the crisis is knowing the full extent of the problem, Bunye explained.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration has been accused of incurring more debt than the two past administrations.

But Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya, chairman of the House appropriations committee, said that the country’s debt was caused primarily by the depreciation of the peso.

On top of the steep plunge of the peso against the US dollar, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration had to assume the "duty to pay off a national government debt of P2.18 trillion, plus trillions more tucked into ticking, government-guaranteed undertakings such as the build-operate transfer projects and independent power producers (IPPs)," Andaya added.

Pointing out that the President’s critics were barking up the wrong tree, Andaya said that when former President Fidel Ramos assumed office, the exchange rate was P27.10 to a US dollar.

When former President Joseph Estrada left office, the exchange rate was P49.50 to a US dollar, Andaya said, compared with the prevailing rate of P56.095 to a US dollar.

Andaya also said that the borrowings of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is $23.96 billion and three-fourth of it was used to pay previous debts. The administration of former President Corazon Aquino incurred a debt of P26.93 trillion, he said.

"In the war against the deficit, truth has become among the first casualties. True, the bucks stops with the President but the borrowing started a long time ago," Andaya stressed.

"This debt pile-up is now crashing on the poor President as inheritor of obligations of previous Malacañang tenants," Andaya added.