The Philippine government announced Saturday that it successfully raised one billion dollars in 25-year global bonds amid a growing need for rehabilitation funds after two destructive storms.

This marks the third international global bond issue for the Philippines this year and the first 25-year bond offer since January 2007, the finance department said in a statement.

"We are very pleased to have been able to extend the republic's maturity profile while at the same time achieving the lowest yield for a new 25-year benchmark US dollar global offering by the Philippines," finance secretary Margarito Teves was quoted as saying.

"Positive investor reception for this transaction allowed us to resume our long-term borrowing strategy to achieve our funding objective in support of our fiscal programme," national treasurer Roberto Tan also said.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., HSBC and UBS AG acted as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the transaction.

The bond offer comes after the government announced that it would have to raise revenues sharply to pay for relief and repairs after tropical storm Ketsana and typhoon Parma struck one after another from September 26.

The two storms caused massive flooding in the capital Manila and surrounding areas as well as killer landslides in mountainous areas in the north, resulting in almost 800 deaths and at least 21.6 billion pesos (463 million dollars) in damage to agriculture and infrastructure.

President Gloria Arroyo's economic aides have expressed concern this week that storm damage may cause the budget deficit this year to shoot past 300 billion pesos.

They see reconstruction costs and slower economic activity as putting pressure on Manila's full-year budget deficit target ceiling of 250 billion pesos, or 3.2 percent of the projected gross domestic product for the year.

earlier related report

Philippine communists declare short disaster ceasefire

Communist insurgents in the northern Philippines have declared a week-long ceasefire in areas that were devastated by tropical storm Parma, the rebels said in a statement seen here Friday.

The ceasefire is "to assist in relief, retrieval, and rehabilitation efforts for the victims of the recent disasters," said the statement posted on their website Philippinerevolution.net.

The ceasfire, which began on Thursday, applies to northern areas of Luzon that suffered major landslides and floods as Parma pounded the region with rain for a week from October 3, killing at least 419 people.

This follows reports that the insurgents had declared a similar unilateral ceasefire in areas affected by tropical storm Ketsana, which hit further south on Luzon on September 26, causing huge floods and killing at least 354 people.

The Philippine military earlier said it was suspending offensive operations against the communists in disaster-hit areas to focus their attention on relief and rescue efforts.

Just three days before Parma struck, the insurgents set fire to road-building equipment in the north after a construction company refused to pay their extortion demands, police said then.

The New People's Army and its political leadership, the Communist Party of the Philippines, have been waging a 40-year campaign to seize power.

The military estimates there are currently about 3,000 communist soldiers.

Peace talks with the communists have been suspended since 2005, when the government refused to ask the European Union and the United States to remove the party and the armed wing from their foreign terrorist watchlists.

The military said last month that the communist insurgency had claimed more than 3,000 lives over the past eight years.

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