Inquirer News, May 31, 2010

Palace dares Aquino to sustain economic growth
By Christian V. Esguerra, Alex PalPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: May 31, 2010

MANILA, Philippines—The next administration will have no one to blame but itself should the country’s economic growth sputter after growing 7.3 percent during the first quarter of the year, Malacañang said Sunday.

“The wind is at their back. The Arroyo administration has given them momentum. They shouldn’t waste this,” said Gary Olivar, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson.

Olivar said that if the economic growth slowed down—despite the momentum given to the next administration—it would be held accountable.

At the weekly Malacañang media forum on Radyo ng Bayan, he challenged presumptive president-elect Benigno Aquino III to focus on sustaining the growth the Palace credited to Ms Arroyo’s economic policies.

Aquino, along with other lawmakers and militant groups, downplayed the economic growth, saying it was but the result of the huge spending during the election campaign.

“If Senator Aquino thinks our economic growth only came from campaign spending, all I can say is this, ‘That’s a lot of tarpaulins, Senator,’” Olivar said sarcastically.

He said that so many campaign paraphernalia should have been produced to affect the manufacturing sector, which registered a 20-percent growth.

“We’d mentioned that campaign spending in the recent elections would have less effect than in the previous elections because ways of campaigning were now more modern,” Olivar said.

Officials to explain growth

He said details of the economic growth—particularly the supposedly minimal effect of campaign spending—would be made public on Wednesday in a Malacañang press conference.

Tapped to do the explaining were officials from the National Economic and Development Authority, National Statistics Office (NSO), and the National Statistical Coordination Board.
Olivar said Aquino should give Ms Arroyo, the senator’s economics professor at Ateneo de Manila University, some credit for the economic growth.

“These are the numbers,” he said. “The problem is he’s shooting from the hip again. He doesn’t set his target. He just shoots and shoots. I don’t think this (approach) is proper because he will now become the president of our country,” he said.

Olivar added: “He’s no longer a candidate. He’s now a president-in-waiting.”

He said Aquino should “appreciate” Ms Arroyo’s efforts, noting that “he will see in due course the burdens of the presidency.”

But, of course, we continue to wish him the best and we appeal to all to give him their full support,” he said.

No poverty reduction

Former National Treasurer Leonor Briones agreed that the positive predictions of economic growth for 2010 were premised on the holding of successful elections, which had been welcomed by international and local business communities.

The Philippine experience, however, shows that economic growth has not resulted in poverty reduction because there are more poor people now than there were 10 years ago, Briones said at the ninth UCCP Quadrennial General Assembly in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental on Thursday.

She presented government figures showing that the country’s 20 poorest provinces come mostly from the Visayas and Mindanao, while the country’s richest provinces are in Luzon.

Briones noted that the underemployment rate had been going up. NSO data showed that in January 2010, underemployment rose to 19.7 percent from 18.2 percent in January 2009.
“When the government says that the economy is growing, you have to ask where the growth is coming from, who is benefiting from the growth,” she said.

Briones is the lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines, a nongovernment organization monitoring government programs aimed at meeting targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

Poor revenue collection

Briones also noted that deficit spending had increased from P12.4 billion in 2007 and P67.1 billion in 2008 to P298.5 billion in 2009.

The situation was aggravated by the government’s poor revenue collection, she said.
The figures for 2009 showed P115.9 billion in uncollected revenues from tax and non-tax sources.

Briones said the Philippines would have to spend P207.8 billion for recovery and reconstruction in the next three years.

“The challenge for the elected officials would be if they are willing to spend a big part of the budget for education, health and agriculture,” she said

Cut wastage

Briones called on the new administration to reduce the debt burden by improving revenue generation, plugging leakages in tax administration and cutting of wastage from corruption and frivolous spending of discretionary funds.

“This year, we are spending P5 billion to 10 billion to give money to the poor but that is not the solution; the solution is to give the poor people jobs. Relevant education and a healthy population are the key to addressing poverty,” Briones said.