How it’s done
THE LOCAL business community is pleased that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s economic managers have, for the most part, said all the right words about where they intend to take the Philippine economy.
If the incoming President had a penchant for upending the establishment with his unconventional pronouncements, his economic managers have done the exact opposite: They have managed to ease public fears about the policies that will govern the business environment for the next six years.
For example, during last week’s consultative meeting with business leaders, incoming Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia spoke about the deeply rooted poverty that has so far defied resolution despite the gains made by the outgoing administration.
Indeed, it is estimated that 25 percent of the population remain poor despite the fact that economic growth during the last six years has reached historic highs. The fact is simply this: The rich got richer and the gains failed to trickle down in significant measure to those that needed them most.
To address this situation, Pernia, as the incoming director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, will have the key task of conducting an orchestra of economic players and interests according to one cohesive action plan.
And his statements indicate that he has the right priorities. He wants effective implementation of the Reproductive Health Law to ensure that population growth is kept to manageable levels. He wants renewed focus on the agriculture sector which—despite the efforts of past presidents—has continued to languish amid cheap alternatives from abroad brought about by greater investments poured by other countries into their farms. At the same time, he wants to reinvigorate the manufacturing sector, underscoring the potential of light and heavy manufacturing industries to create value for the economy and generate thousands of jobs.
Pernia also repeated the mantra of two previous presidents concerning a cornerstone of the economy: that working overseas should eventually become an option instead of the necessity that it is now for many Filipinos.
As verbalized by incoming Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, the ambitious goal is nothing less than to bring down the poverty rate to 16 percent by the time the Duterte administration bows out of office in 2022.
All of this is music to our ears.
But it doesn’t take genius to know what ails the Philippines. The crumbling infrastructure, the kilometric lines of commuters jostling for a ride in a breakdown-prone train system, the urban blight, the poverty in Metro Manila’s slums and in rural areas nationwide—all these are seen and experienced daily.
Determining how these can be eased and changed—and actually doing what it takes—involves a little more brain power and significantly more political will applied at the right pressure points.
President Aquino came to power with a surfeit of political capital which he channeled into his anticorruption program. But his failure to allocate more of this political capital to ensure that economic gains were transmitted to the poorest sector put the damper on his centerpiece “daang matuwid.”
This week, Duterte will be inaugurated president with a similar surfeit of political capital which he has vowed to channel into his anticrime campaign. That he is willing to go all-out in his campaign against crime there is little doubt. Surely it won’t hurt for him to channel some of that capital into solving some of the thorny economic problems. After all, the issues that keep Filipinos poor are the very same issues that feed crime.
As the acerbic mayor of Davao City takes the helm of the ship of state this week, it is good to know that he has picked economic managers who reassure rather than alarm the captains of industry. His economic managers know what ails the country and what needs to be fixed.
But then again, the outgoing administration also promised nothing less than economic salvation for the country at the start of its term, but fell short despite a once-in-a-lifetime positive macroeconomic environment.
Talk is commonplace, and comes cheap. For the sake of 100 million Filipinos—one-fourth of whom live in poverty— Duterte’s economic team should show once and for all how it’s done. Execute!
