MANILA, Philippines -- Why pay for something Filipinos cannot use when the same money can be used to pay for local health services?

This is the question raised by civil society groups to the government as they sought the reallocation of loan payments for questionable debts to fund basic social services like health care.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) questioned the government’s continuing loan payments for some 26 unused medical waste incinerators from Austria.

The P503-million loan was used by the Philippine government to buy 26 incinerators from Austria in 1997.

The medical waste incinerators eventually became useless equipment following the ban on medical incinerators with the passing of the Philippine Clean Air Act in 1999.

The two groups have classified the loan as an illegitimate debt since the Austrian incinerators were exempted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) from its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

HCWH added that the circumstances surrounding the loan was also dubious. For example, the Philippine government undertook a P503-million loan from Bank Austria to bankroll 26 incinerators from Austrian manufacturer VAMED.

Ten percent of VAMED’s shares, however, are owned by Bank Austria, which shows a clear conflict of interest.

The HCWH also called the loan as a “toxic debt” because the incinerators were bought without the proper checks on its toxic emissions and hazardous ash residues.

For example, the group said, when VAMED conducted an emission test on one of its incinerators at the East Avenue Medical Center, the carbon monoxide level was found to be at 88 mg/m3 (milligram per cubic meter), exceeding VAMED’s own upper limit at 50 mg/m3.

Despite the anomalous circumstances under which the loan was undertaken, and for a project that eventually became useless, local taxpayers will carry the burden of the loan for another six years, according to the HCWH and FDC.

“For the harmful and useless incinerators, we now have to pay roughly $2 million in principal amortization and interest payments until 2014,” said Ronnel Lim, program officer of HCWH.

Lim said instead of allocating money for interest payments of such useless projects, the government should realign the money to the delivery of social services, particularly in health care.