MANILA, Philippines--AFTER RAISING $1.5 BILLION FROM A BOND sale last week, the national government will again tap the international capital market next month by floating as much as one billion euros to settle its maturing euro-denominated obligations.

Roberto Juanchito Dispo, executive vice president of First Metro Investment Corp., said yesterday that the government might sell anywhere between 500 million and one billion euros worth of global bonds to finance about 600 million euros of obligations that will fall due in February.

FMIC, which served as underwriter for some government bond issues in the past, may be tapped again for the planned bond sale in February.

?Government bond issues this year may be the same as last year?s,? Dispo said in a briefing on FMIC?s economic and market outlook for 2010. He said the government?s total commercial borrowing requirement for this year would likely be the same as or close to the $3.25 billion in 2009.

Besides financing its maturing loans, the government needs to borrow to cover a yawning budget deficit.

FMIC expects the budget gap to settle a little below P300 billion this year, or 3.5 percent of the country?s gross domestic product (GDP).

Meantime, the government is also looking at undertaking a $500-million yen-denominated bonds through private placement as Manila and Tokyo get close to signing a deal.

?A private placement is advantageous in that it can be done more quickly because you are dealing with institutional buyers,? National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan said.

Such buyers ?have international research coverage and, in terms of documentary requirements, a private placement becomes less stringent compared to a public offering,? Tan added.

Still, Tan said that while the Bureau of the Treasury was ready to support a public placement if ?the pricing parameters are settled,? he said a public offer was still part of the government?s options.

Tan said the government and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation have not yet secured the final go-ahead from both sides and that, with the needed paperwork still not done, the issuance of the so-called samurai bonds was not likely to happen this January.

?We are not in a hurry,? he said. ?We want to do this as efficiently as we can.?

The National Treasurer said that while the government earlier signed with JBIC an agreement for a guarantee on an issuance of up to $1 billion, the planned float would be ?at least $500 million.?