IT is conventional wisdom to think that the state must operate in the same way as households and businesses. If it earns more than it spends, it generates savings that can be spent another day. If it spends more than it earns, it ends up in debt which then needs to be managed wisely, otherwise, impending financial doom. When it comes to undertaking its functions then, the state has to deal with the same problem of monetary scarcity. At the heart of every necessary social and developmental initiative is the issue of funding.

Curiously, it is also uncontroversial to believe that the state is the only source of the Philippine peso, the country's fiat currency that functions as the dominant means of exchange, unit of account and store of wealth within its borders. Largely all economic activities that result in the mobilization of materials and labor in the country require this money.