Salceda has to see RP economy, right side up

Commentary:

Salceda has to see RP economy, right side up

Carl Ala, a political economist from the University of the Philippines-Manila

The admission of presidential economic adviser and concurrent Albay Gov. Joey Sarte that more Filipinos got poorer since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001, must have been a punch on the gut of the current occupant in Malacanang and highlights the rift between the two neo-liberal economists.

Though from the stand point of political economy I agree with Salceda in his contention that the rich got richer while the ranks of the poor swelled during the last 9 years, I completely disagree when he said that there were 34 consecutive quarters of progress in the country. Salceda’s point that despite deregulation, privatization and liberalization there are still poor people and that more neo-liberal policies should be done to solve poverty is also way off.

On the contrary, it is these neo-liberal policies themselves that he and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pushed are among the biggest reasons why many Filipinos now are wallowing in poverty. He should see the Philippine economy the right side up.Data from the National Statistical Coordination Board, which showed that the number of poor Filipinos – five-member families living on barely over P1,200 a month — hit 27.6 million in 2006 from 25.472 million in 2001. Hunger incidence nearly doubled from 11.4 percent in 2000 to 20.3 percent in 2009.

These also are the same policies and laws that big foreign and local businesses used to bleed the economy dry. Salceda even said that profits of the country’s top 1,000 corporations jumped by 21 percent per year while the return on their equity or investments increased by 15 percent per year since the President took power.

“Their total earnings amounted to P3.1 trillion of which P2.1 trillion were pocketed as dividends or earnings of the stockholders and only P1 trillion were re-invested,’’ he added.

So the solution here is obvious, instead of further expanding such neo-liberal policies, these should be scrapped. The next administration should also seriously consider implementing genuine agrarian reform and nationalist industrialization to solve the glaring disparity between the rich and the poor in this country.

The basic problems of Philippine society especially giving land to farmers and secure jobs and wages for workers should be addressed first to uplift the lives of at least 90% of our population. Basic and social services like education and health should be rendered free or at affordable prices so that most Filipinos will benefit from it. Then the next administration should seriously consider formulating a true national economic plan with the primary goal of satisfying the ever-increasing needs of the Filipino people, so that our level of material and cultural life will be raised.

Of course, economists who caused and justified the problems we are encountering now should also be held accountable. In this light I think that Gov. Salceda is also liable, especially with the recent government data saying that Bicol is the “tambay” capital of the country with 37% of its labor force being under-employed and the prices of food, light and water in the region are at its all time high. As the chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC), these falls squarely on Salceda’s lap and now being the top economic adviser no wonder we are in this deep a trouble. # # #

[Via http://carlcala.wordpress.com]