Monday, October 13, 2008 Mongaya: Crisis in the US By Anol Mongaya
HEADLINE news in national dailies about the worsening crisis abroad has everybody worried. Assurances by our policymakers are not heartening.
With our globally interlinked economies today, crisis in the US could bring all other economies down like a stack of dominoes. If the biggest economies like the US are now bedridden, we could just fall down and find ourselves in the ICU one of these days.
Already, my brother-in-law phoned saying he is looking for another job because the call center where he worked lost most of its foreign accounts in the past weeks. After the call centers, thousands of overseas Filipino workers might lose jobs as the Western economies fall into depression. The resulting unemployment and sharp decrease in dollar remittances would be fatal to our fragile economy.
On the other hand, some quarters tell me all is not that bad for the Philippines. Somehow, our economy has remained afloat through the months.
We have extra cash that Congress is now trying to plow back and pump prime the economy with the proposed P1.4 trillion 2009 budget.
I just hope that politics, now that 2010 is nearing, won’t draw the attention of the Arroyo administration from steering our economy amid the rough waters. Already, demolition jobs like the P200 million double budgeting against Senate President Manny Villar and the separation rumor against Sen. Kiko Pangilinan are beginning to enter the center stage.
Sen. Mar Roxas earlier urged President Arroyo to convene a multi-party budget summit to take up the global financial crisis and its impact on the Philippines, using the proposed 2009 national budget as a tool to shield Filipinos from its direct effects. Let’s see if he can get his fellow senators, many of whom want to be president like him, to support this proposal.
As an unsolicited suggestion, I think government should channel a big portion of the 2009 budget into helping micro, small, and medium enterprises. Returning OFWs should be urged not to splurge their savings but to invest in businesses with government help. The effort should strengthen the domestic economy and make it resilient in the face of the crisis abroad.
A vibrant local market should also make the Philippines attractive to foreign interests who are now looking for safe havens for their investments.
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If the national government should adopt this as one of its economic priorities, Cebu would be a major beneficiary.
If Cebu City officials will finally close a major deal with one investor for example, this should open the floodgates for more.
I was in Naga City upon the invitation of Mayor Val Chiong for their fiesta celebration last Friday. Aside from the infectious fiesta atmosphere, the mayor had several other reasons to be happy. Gov. Gwen Garcia who was with him that evening is gung ho about the provincial industrial park and international port in the city. I also heard that Plantersbank is going full speed with its SME industrial park developments in Barangay Cantao-an with the construction of the port in Naga City.
These developments should make Cebu ready for taking advantage of major national government efforts to help SMEs and the domestic economy.
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Nonetheless, there are things that we need to correct especially in Cebu City.
For example, Mayor Tomas Osmeña now approves of the development cost proposal of Filinvest. Sometime ago, he vehemently opposed a similar proposal by the Ayala group on the Carmen bulk water project. Recently, the mayor also went against the casino slot machine outlet at Rajah Park Hotel and arbitrarily announced his preference for a nearby venue. I don’t really agree with having casinos at the uptown area but developments like this send wrong signals to potential investors. The playing field is heavily stacked in favor of the mayor’s cronies.
On the casino issue, if only the judiciary also played fair to assure investors that the playing field is still even. But I have been following the twist and turns in the case and Judge Sylva Aguirre-Paderanga is quite obvious in her favoritism against the investors. She obviously railroaded the dismissal of the case filed by the casino operators. Imagine, she immediately dismissed the civil case though there was no motion to dismiss and she still has to resolve several issues, including a motion for inhibition in scheduled future hearings.
On the political side, I hope Vice Mayor Mike Rama will pursue a more rational investment policy with Mayor Osmeña expected to be out of the loop for several months. But then, while this will earn him political points with the public, he will lose the support of the pro-Osmeña faction within the BO-PK in favor of an Osmeña.
(Check out my blogs at www. inbetweencolumns.wordpress.com and www.thecebujournalist. blogger.com)
