ANGELES CITY -- Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has stressed the importance of “inclusive growth” in local governance.
The United Nations (UN) repeatedly told developing countries like the Philippines that government wealth should be distributed to the people, according to the mayor.
Pamintuan said the city government adheres to the UN policy and spends taxes and other government revenues in building a maintaining hospitals and schools.
“For me, one of the things the UN wants developing countries to have is inclusive growth. Wealth should be distributed to the grassroots. That is why they should not fault me if I use taxpayers money for the improvement of our hospitals, services and affordable college education,” Pamintuan said.
The Ospital Ning Angeles (ONA) or the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center is an example of the local government program in line with the inclusive growth, the mayor added.
“From the time that I put up ONA in 1993 up to this year, there are close to three million patients that have been treated there. Whatever they say about our hospitals, those three million were never wrong because our hospitals are really of big help,” Pamintuan said.
On the part of the private sector, inclusive growth may be implemented in terms of providing employment and just compensation to employees, the official added.
“In the private sector that [inclusive growth] is already different. Increase the number of your employees and their salaries if you are ‘over rich.’ If you are SM or Robinsons, increase your workers’ salaries because that is inclusive growth,” Pamintuan said.
The national government should also effect the putting up of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to realize the inclusive growth scheme, the mayor added.
“The government should spend on SMEs and their growth. Money is concentrated in the top level. It should be cascaded down because that is true inclusive growth,” Pamintuan said.