Wednesday, July 25, 2007 ‘Definite action plan on infra’
PRESIDENT Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) has raised mixed reactions from Cebu business leaders.
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Monera lauded the Arroyo administration’s concern for education, but he said the National Government should come up with a “more definite action plan” for infrastructure development.
“What we need are signals on what she intends to do in terms of infrastructure, education and other concerns,” Monera said. Arroyo, during her Sona last Monday, said investments of billions of pesos have been put in for “human and physical infrastructure.”
She named three priorities which “will see record levels of well thought out and generous funding.” These priorities are: “physical, intellectual, legal and security infrastructure to increase business confidence;” health and education; and peace in Mindanao.
Education
Monera commended President Arroyo for focusing on the need to improve the country’s educational system, saying that education is “the key to a nation’s success.”
Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Eric Mendoza, for his part, said he is “grateful” that the President has seen the need to reduce bureaucracy in the processing of business permits.
He said reducing red tape is an important element to drive growth in local and foreign investments in the country.
“It’s a good sign that she has taken notice. People have been complaining about it for the longest time,” he said.
Arroyo said her administration is also working on eliminating graft and corruption in the processing of permits and licenses, and in the collection of taxes.
“Firms who were asked for bribes in taxes, permits and licenses dropped from one-third to one-half. Contract bribes are also down,” she said in her Sona. “Graft won’t be eliminated overnight but we are making progress.”
Mendoza also said the President is “on the right track” for pushing for the construction of the Cebu North Coastal Road (CNCR) and the Mandaue-Consolacion bridge to decongest traffic in the area.
“The growth for Mandaue and Cebu is unstoppable but the biggest problem is traffic. Putting access will ease up congestion in these areas,” he said.
The CNCR is also deemed to spread development in far-flung areas in Cebu, which will not only solve traffic problems in highly urbanized Metro Cebu, but promote business and tourism activities in the northern towns of the province, Mendoza said.
The 9.45-kilometer CNCR will stretch along the coast of Mandaue City to the towns of Liloan and Consolacion. It will connect the cities of Mandaue and Cebu to the future port in Bogo City.
Debt situation
Its projected cost is P2.31 billion and is expected to be completed by 2010.
But the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) said Arroyo’s Sona failed to report on the country’s debt situation.
Lito Vasquez of FDC Cebu said that while it is “partly true” that National Government has pre-paid the country’s loan to the International Monetary Fund, this was achieved “in exchange for new loans with longer maturity, decreased availment of agencies of direct loans and the unplanned resurgence of our currency.”
“All this speaks of Mrs. Arroyo’s core debt management strategy of borrowing heavily to pay old debts,” Vasquez said in a statement. “Mrs. Arroyo’s take on the debt does not solve the problem and is instead further embedding the country in the predicament.”
FDC is asking Congress to repeal the automatic provision for debt payments in the appropriations law so that “the urgent needs of Filipinos” will be addressed.
The group is also asking for a comprehensive audit of public sector debts and the President’s debt management strategy.
Among the loans that the FDC has questioned are the $121-million World Bank-funded Small Coconut Farmers Development Project and the $400-million North Rail Project in Luzon. (MMM/LAP)
