The Treasury sold 9 billion pesos of 7-year treasury bonds at a regular auction, which attracted bids of 32.73 billion pesos.

The average rate on the 7-year paper, with coupon of 5.0 percent, fell to 4.504 percent at the auction from 5.017 percent when the debt paper was first sold in August last year.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan told reporters the government may cancel a scheduled T-bill auction on Feb. 20 to make way for a retail T-bond sale on Feb. 21.

Manila will open the sale of 15-year and 20-year retail treasury bonds next week, aiming to raise at least 40 billion pesos from its first retail bond offering this year.

The Philippines, which relies heavily on local and foreign borrowings to fund its budget deficit, has more than 80 billion pesos of retail bonds falling due in February.

It raised a record 110 billion pesos from its last retail bond offer in October 2011. It also sold 104 billion pesos of similar bonds in March last year.