The Philippines’ trade secretary assured that the Philippines would not fall into a “debt trap” as it pushes for an ambitious P8 trillion plan to build infrastructure around the country.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez noted that only 20 percent of the total budget for the Philippines’ infrastructure program under President Rodrigo Duterte will come from loans.

‘Yung ‘Build, Build, Build’ and financing that growth and the infrastructure program, we are not really not talking of loans na heavy,” Lopez told reporters in a press conference in Beijing on Sunday.

“It will be budgeted, as explained to us by Secretary Diokno. And in fact, in terms of loans, ang pino-project doon, 80 percent local, domestic loans. And only 20 percent ang foreign loans.”

Concerns have been raised about whether the Philippines would be incurring unsustainable debt with its infrastructure push and China’s launch of the Silk Road Initiative, which seeks to improve connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa through infrastructure investment.

In a Forbes opinion piece, Corr Analytics founder Anders Corr has warned that the Philippines might fall into “debt bondage” if the Southeast Asian’s infrastructure push will be fueled by high-interest rate loans from China, the most likely lender.

Corr said, given China’s prevailing interest rates, the current Philippine national government debt of approximately $123 billion could rise to over a trillion US dollars in 10 years.

“The only way to stop such unjust debt is for the terms to be entirely transparent to the Philippine public in advance, for full cost-benefit analyses to be done by an independent authority on each deal, and for the Philippine Congress to vote on whether each deal proceeds. Failing that will lead to virtual Philippine debt bondage to China,” Corr said.

“At any likely interest rate, the Philippines will have trouble repaying $167 billion in debt, plus interest, to China. The Philippines will have to give political and economic concessions to China in order to repay annual interest, or renegotiate such a large quantity of debt.”