Political Tidbits
Business offers P100-B infra fund
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:13:00 12/04/2008
Filed Under: Economy and Business and Finance, Agrarian Reform
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was interviewed by former President Clinton in his Clinton Global Initiative forum in Hong Kong the other day on what she thought was the reason the Philippines was doing relatively well in the current global crisis. Ms Arroyo said that what helped the Philippines escape dire consequences of the global rice and oil crises earlier this year and the financial meltdown abroad was the availability of revenues that came from painful reforms of the past several years. She stressed that the biggest challenge is not really what steps to take, but generating the resources needed to carry out those steps. In other words, having the funds.
The subject is timely, for last Sunday evening on our dzRH radio program, Cecile Alvarez and I had as guests two prominent business leaders who revealed the business community’s proposal to augment government’s funding resources, so that much of it could be freed for social services that are badly needed by the poor.
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters and the Employers Cooperative of the Philippines, and Ambassador Donald Dee, chairman emeritus of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, revealed that the business community would make a P100-billion fund available to support the government’s infrastructure program. This would stimulate the economy since raw materials will be sourced locally and jobs will be generated, while at the same time, the projects will be self-liquidating. By investing in infrastructure projects, the business community aims to help free the national budget for social services. The only thing businessmen are asking from the government is to guarantee their investments. I would add that it would be necessary to closely monitor the projects to prevent corruption.
Ortiz-Luis noted the excess liquidity in the banking system, while Dee stressed that if we used domestic resources well and aggressively, we would not go into recession. In a modern economy, Ortiz-Luis stressed, recession begins when nobody wants to spend. The two business leaders remain optimistic that the economy would grow 3-5 percent, though Ortiz-Luis admitted that if the crisis abroad worsens, it would be difficult to predict growth beyond the first quarter of next year. Dee said that in order to survive, the Philippines should concentrate on exports of food and services such as business process outsourcing. Despite US President-elect Barack Obama’s promise to bring back jobs exported abroad, US businesses will continue to seek services abroad and all he can do is give them tax breaks.
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The extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is being debated in Congress, and both sides are passionate about it. Those who argue for extension feel that CARP should be given another chance to finish its payment program to landowners and collect from farmer-beneficiaries as well a new lease on life.
On the other hand, those who oppose extension feel that after two decades, CARP has failed to achieve its original purpose of energizing the rural economy and in fact poverty has grown in the countryside. To them, CARP has been a disaster, beginning with the faulty financial design that gives agrarian beneficiaries 30 years to repay the government’s Land Bank of the Philippines, with repayment running at only 17.8 percent, or less than one in five beneficiaries repaying the bank. They say Land Bank has been engaging in the same sin as Lehman Brothers, lending to borrowers who have no capacity to repay their loans and even resorting to secondary loans. To make matters worse, at the recent hearing of the Senate agrarian reform committee, officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform couldn’t produce reliable records on the program, raising suspicions of anomalies.
What seems to be needed at this point is not a quick decision on whether to extend CARP or not, but an in-depth and objective study of how the program went in the past 20 years and whether it has helped revolutionize the countryside through the structural overhaul of the old feudal system. What’s at stake here is the welfare of our rural population.
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Cecile and I taped two shows to be aired consecutively on Dec. 6 and 14 at 8 p.m. on the growing problem of kidney disorders, how to prevent them and the options open for those with end-stage renal disease. The No. 1 cause of renal failure is diabetes which is quite prevalent. We invited Dr. Enrique Ona, director of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, two Kidney Foundation of the Philippines officials, Miguel Romero, vice-chair and himself a successful kidney transplantee, and Constancio de Leon, vice president for administration, and “Noli Me Tangere II” author and businessman Roger Olivares, who has spent some months here from Atlanta to seek medical help on this problem. Catch these two shows as they are very educational.
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The Jesuit Communications Ministry under Fr. Nono Alfonso, S.J., invites everyone to Imus Bishop Luis Chito Tagle’s Advent recollection on St. Joseph on Sunday, Dec. 14, from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at the Church of the Gesu at the Ateneo de Manila University. For information, text Fr. Alfonso at +63920 9457277 or call Cathy +632 4265971 to 72.
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Angge Soriano, indefatigable bearer of all UPSCA tidings, wishes to remind members of the University of the Philippines Student Catholic Action (UPSCA) of all generations about the grand UPSCA Alumni Homecoming this Saturday, Dec. 6, at 4 p.m. at the School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR) Auditorium on the Diliman campus, which we oldies knew as the Asian Labor Education Center. It should be a great occasion to reminisce about old times, dance the boogie and cha-cha and sing to our hearts content, as the UP Centennial celebration draws to a close. Suggested donation per head is P500. Angge requests a call at +632 3742170 or a text at +63917 8917001 or Beth at +63915 9700552 for a head count.
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