PH COVID SPENDING IS THIRD WORLD

ROUGHLY 90 percent of Filipinos do not even know where Timor Leste is. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) map has so expanded from the original Malay grouping — the MaPhilIndo ( Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia) — that geography lessons have to continually remind us that the Asean is already a vast collection of countries with a diverse ethnic makeup, colonial history and creeds. That Timor Leste, with the fading remnants of its long and anguished Portuguese colonization (1769-1975 ), is now a part of the region.

A few days back, many Filipinos were forced to research the basic facts about Timor Leste. Why is this newly created country (a 21st century creation, with fullcountry recognition only in 2002) determined to spend more on the coronavirus disease 2019 ( Covid-19) contagion than us despite its extreme poverty? In the Asian Development Bank (ADB) tally of Asean spending per capita on the pandemic fight as of May 18, we were eighth in per capita spending on the virus fight, with obscure Timor Leste at the seventh place.

Our spending per capita was only $185.86. Timor Leste’s per capita was $ 200.32. Of course, First World Singapore was on top, with a hefty $7,991 per capita. Had Laos and Cambodia spent more, we would have been the kulelat, instead of the near kulelat.

And our mediocre spending raises serious questions. What drove the tragic austerity? Why is it that countries with extreme levels of poverty like Timor Leste can spend much more to contain the virus and help ease the economic shocks? Where is the tapang at malasakit?

On paper, our ranking on per capita spending for Covid- 19 should have been between Malaysia, which spent $ 1,125 per capita, and Brunei, which spent $714.61 per capita. Instead of the niggardly amount of $ 185.86. Because we can afford to. This is on record.

For the past 22 years, our economic growth has been one of the most impressive in the whole of Asia. A GDP growth of 6 percent per year was routine. That long stretch of unprecedented growth has made the Philippines the darling of the business-oriented media entities and the ratings agencies which, slowly but surely, raised to decent notches our creditworthiness .

The Duterte administration started on a mission of upping the growth records of the previous administrations, anchored on an ambitious infrastructure modernization program which implementation would stretch far beyond the six years of his presidency. At a cost of P8 trillion, the so-called Build, Build, Build program was supposed to modernize the fraying infrastructure through a combination of government financed projects and the mode of public-private partnership. A tax reform program was supposed to raise the revenue side of the ambitious infra program.

Administration propaganda often refers to a forthcoming “Golden Age” in infrastructure development, which impact would spill over into job creation and the other supposedly ascendant economic sectors such as services and tourism. Of course, the economic figures of the Duterte administration did not live up to the promised hype. But the growth trajectory has been scaling decent levels.

Then came the pandemic, which in the ideal world required these basic responses: competent institutions, trained crisis leaders and the most important thing — adequate funding. The first two are our weak links. The public health system is a mess. The leadership of the Department of Health answers to one description — utter incompetence. The retired generals tasked to lead the anti-virus efforts do not have the grounding in fighting pandemics.

On paper, we are supposed to be adequate on the money part, given the 22 years of above-average economic growth, the supposedly stable fiscal institutions and the readiness of Congress to vest President Rodrigo Duterte with special powers to move around the national budget to meet the funding needs of the current emergency.

Instead of adequate funding, what the ADB report on the spending per country in the Asean on the important Covid fight speaks of a mindless austerity. Inadequate spending meant underwhelming and inadequate response:

– Little money for the needed medical fundamentals: test, isolate, contract-trace and heal.

– Little money for social safety nets, which the TV bloviators have lumped under the broad category of ayuda.

– Little money for the other critical exigencies.

– Little money to succor legitimate businesses whiplashed by the pandemic.

Simply put, our Covid spending is tragically Third World despite the illusions of greatness and stability.