A ‘doubting Thomas’ to economic resurrection

I always fall into a state of disbelief every time I hear good news about the economy. Just like when news broke out that the Philippine “economy grew a stunning 7.8 percent.” Well, that could easily be taken as a good thing since that was the way it was reported. But most Filipinos probably reacted with raised eyebrows: “So?”

So what? What now? How does that growth positively affect the millions upon millions of unemployed and poverty-stricken Filipinos? The answer is, it doesn’t. And when asked about this, all Malacañang does is give the lousy excuse that the “trickle-down effect does not happen overnight.” No one is expecting and no one is even asking for it to happen overnight. But it has been three years since the Aquino administration took over Malacañang, but until now the general public has yet to see and feel this “trickle-down effect.” There isn’t even a plan in place for sustained growth.

Truth be told, the Aquino administration took over a healthy and already growing economy from his predecessor. But don’t take my word for it, look back to Standard &Poor’s and Fitch Ratings’ reports.

I certainly hope President Aquino does not use this new growth ratings to justify that all the decisions that he has been making are perfect. Which he tends to do. He uses certain good news to give most of his politically motivated agendas a boost. When people complain about high unemployment, he cites economic growth. When his administration or one of his Cabinet members or his KKKs (kaibigan, ka-klase, kabarilan)  does something wrong, he cites economic growth. When he attacks his political enemies, he cites economic growth again—and again and again.

But still, let’s not get too excited here. This supposed economic growth in the first quarter was largely due to the massive spending in the runup to the May 2013 elections. It was in no way due to what the Aquino administration has done. Now that the elections are done, we’ll see if this “stunning growth” is sustained. I and the entire Philippines would like that, but based on the Aquino administration’s lack of economic planning and initiatives to sustain economic growth, that does not seem likely.

—GERARD PABLOR,

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