In photo: The Philippine flag soars high in Luneta Park City of Manila
Photo file/THEPHILBIZNEWS
By Alithea De Jesus
As the Philippine government continues to face challenges in dealing with the novel coronavirus pandemic that disrupted the lives of everyone we know. It has also caused anxiety as health and safety concerns coupled with economic and income uncertainties setting back a broad spectrum of businesses.
In the recent economic briefing, the government brandished 11.8 percent growth in the second quarter of this year, but in reality, there’s more than meets the eye. The 2 weeks hard lockdown has negatively affected the overall economic performance for the third and even the last quarter of 2021 which has an estimated lost income of 210 billion and not to mention the inevitable pay cuts to be implemented and the risk of job loss for 167,000 workers in the process.
The vaccine roll-out is still way beyond the target of the Philippines to complete the herd immunity of at least 70% by the end of the year, according to vaccine Czar DILG Secretary Eduardo Año.
Based on the Reuters World COVID-19 Tracker, the Philippines has just administered at least 29,127,240 doses of COVID vaccines based on the assumption that every person got 2 jabs of vaccine, and that is about 13.5% of the country’s population which is far from reaching the ideal of 70-85% her immunity.
To date, the government is still struggling to enforce policies that strike the perfect balance between lives and livelihood and the most dreadful forecast is about the continued jobs that will be lost of 5-10 million if the lockdown continues
While we know that there’s no perfect way to handle this extraordinary situation which, by all indications, is beyond our control. But more than having a strong mindset that treads against the worst-case scenario and bank on the Filipino resiliency, it is empirical that having clear and achievable economic programs would make our country rebound.
For this reason, former cabinet members underscored the positive economic impact of fiscal and economic policy reforms instituted by President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III that will continue to be effective in boosting economic recovery beyond the pandemic crisis.
In a virtual forum organized by think tank Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute (ADRi) to mark Ninoy Aquino Day, Former Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad, stated that “By vigorously putting governance reforms at the heart of which transparency, accountability and anti-corruption reforms, the Aquino administration made unprecedented gains in many areas of governance.”
Abad said, “I think the one critical factor was the leadership provided by a determined, knowledgeable, trustworthy, and decent president, as exemplified by President Noynoy Aquino.”
He adds, “Another important factor was that we had a cabinet composed of experienced, dedicated, and very respectable people.”
“The People’s Budget, open data, Seal of Good Housekeeping, participatory audits, budget partnership agreements, and of course, bottom-up budgeting, I think, put together, continue immensely to what was achieved during those six years in terms of promoting greater transparency, accountability and reducing significantly the corruption in government,” Abad said.
Former National Economic and Development Authority Director-General Manny Esguerra in his statement pointed out that, “Economic growth was sustained at 6.3% during the plan period, the highest ever achieved across presidential terms.”
Esguerra said, “The faster pace and higher quality of growth also created more employment opportunities as indicated by the declining unemployment and underemployment rates. Employment opportunities did not only increase, but the quality of jobs also improved as indicated by the increase in the share of wage and salary workers in total employment.”
“The favorable investment climate was generally due to the reforms to increase productivity. A testament to that is the improvement in the Philippines’ global rankings in the Global Competitiveness Index, the Economic Freedom Index, Ease of Doing Business, and the Corruption Perceptions Index,” Esguerra said.
Former Cabinet Secretary and Secretary of Energy Jose Rene Gregory Almendras in reference to the Integrated Economic and Human Development Framework said, “This basically explains why we said that the whole aspiration of addressing poverty, of human development was primary, and in the beginning, the notion that President Aquino addressed was let’s get people jobs, let’s get them working, let’s get them employed because employed people are better off than unemployed people so it was about job generation.”
Almendras recalled, “President Aquino had a key result area defined in his administration and he would review with cabinet members their commitments, (and) their performance on a very regular basis.”
“We prepared a plan that said wherever you put the money in, it always resulted in human development, poverty reduction, economic development, and national development,” Almendras said.
Stratbase ADRi President Prof. Dindo Manhit for his part said, “We believe that it’s time to look back also to Daang Matuwid espoused by the Aquino administration that we believe was able to set the appropriate political, economic, and social environment for the promotion of information integrity.”
“Principled leadership, good governance, a dignified foreign policy is good economics. And under this context, I believe we should be guided as we try to look forward and build and push for true reforms and change in the Philippine political and policy environment,” Manhit said.