DAYS before President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. delivers his second State of the Nation Address (Sona), the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) recommends his administration should initiate bold reforms as the country is still floating in the “sea of economic uncertainty.”
During the FDC’s State of the People Address (Sopa), FDC President Dr. Rene E. Ofreneo said the economy is still mal-developed and unequal.
“The economy is fragile and floating in a sea of uncertainties. The Philippines is vulnerable to global economic conflict or turbulence, which can trigger global recession and recession-depression in the Philippines,” Ofreneo said last Tuesday.
In a recession-depression situation, Ofreneo said foreign direct investments are naturally shy to invest in the Philippines no matter how open the economy is.
He said Marcos inherited a mal-developed economy that stands mainly on two legs: remittances by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and earnings from call centers and business process outsourcing firms. Aside from that, Marcos also received an economy sunk by the Duterte government’s poor handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and excessive resort to borrowing.
But Ofreneo said the Marcos administration’s economic challenges are clear—push for economic recovery and transform the mal-developed economy.
“And yet, [Marcos] does not have anything new to offer despite his landslide victory and ‘super majority’ in both chambers of Congress. He chose to merely continue neo-liberal blueprint of his predecessors, as reflected in his PDP 2023-28 and appointment of economic technocrats,” he said.
“He has no clear answers on how to address basic economic problems – joblessness, mass poverty, etc. – that have been bedeviling the nation for decades!” Ofreneo added.
He said the direction of economic governance under the administration is clear—recycling economic technocrats.
For 2022, the national government reported a 7.6 percent GDP growth while unemployment rate eased down at 4.8 percent in early 2023.
“However, high growth is explained by the fact that the country was emerging from a very depressed situation in 2020-21—from very low base period. The Philippines’ full recovery from the Covid depression is still unfinished. ‘Revenge spending’ in post-Covid now tapering off,” he said.
“Services sector still leads the growth process, with OFW spending as the main motor of the ‘consumer-driven’ economy. As to job creation, the informal economy is the catch basin due to continuous stagnation of manufacturing and collapse of agriculture,” he added.
Ofreneo said the high rate of employment is paralleled by the high rate of informal employment, estimated by labor statisticians to be 80 percent to 82 percent of the labor force.
He said recovery among the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which collectively account for more than 95 percent of one million registered enterprises, is agonizingly slow.
He added that around 10 percent of the MSMEs have closed down or stopped operations, while some are still in the survival phase, not in a buoyant or bullish mood.
“Economy dominated by 50 families (out of 24 million households) and ultra-rich wealth rising,” he also said.
Ofreneo said the Philippines is reeling from a full-blown food-agricultural crisis due to aimless/mindless liberalization, mangled agrarian reform, corruption, and lack of pro-farmer vision of development.
Meanwhile, engaging the government on survival measures, Ofreneo said immediate measures should be implemented including jobs for all, save the informal sector and micro-enterprises, help all the distressed OFWs, and save the most vulnerable and the poorest of the poor.
On the critical debt issue, he said the government should repeal Presidential Decree 1177 or the automatic debt service law; review, audit and overhaul the debt management program; cancel and repudiate odious loans; and develop a system of progressive taxation.
Earlier, Marcos emphasized that his SONA will be more of a report to the people where he will discuss the programs and projects he mentioned in his previous address, show those that have been accomplished, and the things that need to be done.
Marcos explained that he wants to explain to the Filipino people the significant progress in the Philippines especially on how the international community perceives the country.
Marcos is set to deliver his second Sona on July 24 at the Batasang Pambasa.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes
Bold reforms needed as economy afloat on ‘sea of uncertainty’–FDC
Source: News Paper Radio
0 Comments