The Philippine economy has to grow in order to reduce its rising debt, which the Bureau of Treasury reported last week to be P12.03 trillion as of January.

Of the total debt stock, 30.4 percent was sourced externally

while 69.6 percent were domestic borrowings, the Bureau of Treasury said.

''The first goal is to grow the economy because if our growth rate is higher than the rate of increase of interest payments, the economy will advance,'' said National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon in Saturday's virtual ''Laging Handa'' public briefing.

''Primarily, (we have) to make sure that we reopen the economy and then we become resilient,'' she added.

She said this is why it is very important the country is under Alert Level 1, especially the National Capital Region and surrounding areas.

''What we want to see if the whole Philippines is under Alert Level 1 because this will help the country cushion the impact from the Ukraine crisis,'' she said.

Edillon said in terms of spending, the government ''will focus on expenditures that will improve our productivity.''

To make the economy grow further, investments must be attracted, added Edillon.

''We are crafting a Strategic Investment Priority Plan because we feel that investments will propel us to a higher growth rate,'' she added.

In terms of generating revenue, she said the Department of Finance is doing everything to simplify taxation. ''For example, if taxation is complicated, persons somehow lose interest to payment because the process is complicated,'' Edillon explained.

Edillon said if the process of taxation is simplified, '' we plug the leaks.''. ''This is part of the package we are coming up with on the revenue side,'' she said. DMS