The more presidential foreign travels, the lesser investments

The greatest irony is whenever the president embarks on a foreign travel, the more downward trend in direct foreign investments is shown by Central Bank figures, and numbers do not lie. And, as we wrote the other day, this president has had no less than 25 foreign trips in less than 21 months in office. This record is one for the Guinness Books of World Records. This beats the foreign travels of Presidents Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping.

At the same time that PBBM travelled to Germany and Czech Republic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released official figures under the banner "Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) Down By 6.6% in 2023." Shown by the BSP official data are clear and indubitable indications that the 2023 full year FDI inflow declined by no less than 6.6% compared to a year ago. In 2022, the net FDI inflow was only $9.5 billion but in 2023, this went down to only $8.9 billion. This marked decline was recorded despite the 13 foreign travels of the president after which he always claimed that billions had been committed by foreign investors.

The total annual FDI inflow decreased in 2023 despite the unusual surge in December 2023 when it reached $826 million or an abnormal increase by 29.9% compared to that in December 2022 when the monthly total was only $636 million. The bulk of that unusual increase emanated from Japan and not from USA and Europe which had been visited by PBBM more than seven times in his tenure in office so far. Also to be considered alarming was the marked decrease in non-residents' net investment in equity capital other than reinvestments of earnings. The decline reached no less than 21.7% to only $208 million in 2023 compared to $266 million in 2022.

The Special ASEAN Investment Report for 2023 showed that the Philippines ranked number 7 among the 10 member ASEAN economies. The top 10 investors in ASEAN are as follows: first the US, next the ASEAN member nations themselves investing in each others' economies, followed by Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, UK, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and France. The bulk of their investments in billions of US dollars went to the following countries in descending order: first to Indonesia, $7.315; Singapore, $6.171; Vietnam, $4.577; Thailand, $3.681; Malaysia, $3.202; Myanmar, $1.498 Philippines only $611 million, followed by Cambodia, Laos, and Brunei.

Just imagine being beaten by Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Never mind Singapore because it is an unquestioned leader not only in ASEAN but in the whole world. Now, the proponents of the fake Peoples' Initiatives to amend the Constitution should not use these data in order to lend credence to their false claims of our fundamental law supposedly being anti-foreign investments. The truth of the matter is that we are more liberal than Indonesia which is Islamic and Vietnam which is Communist. This is according to no less than retired senior associate Justice Antonio Carpio and such noted constitutionalists as former chief justice Hilario G. Davide, Jr. and Christian Monsod.

The problem in our country is not the Constitution but corruption, too much red tape and bureaucratic inanities, unstable government economic and financial policies, anti-management labor policies, high cost of oil, gas and power, lack of sufficient infrastructures, high incidence of crimes, horrendous traffic, and too-many disasters and calamities. These should be addressed by the president and this administration. The solutions to our deteriorating direct foreign investments could not be found via 25 presidential foreign travels in 21 months.

All these can be addressed by sound political, economic, and social policies, cleaning up the government and a handson chief executive assisted by a competent and conscientious Cabinet. The Senate and the House should stop playing myopic and parochial politics, become less corrupt and more nationalistic and start behaving as truly honorable and decent men and women. This country can exceed Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam and can even dream of becoming a Singapore.

The only problem is that we have the right people and the right country but with the wrong leaders in government. To paraphrase Shakespeare with a local twist, we should lament: “The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we have tolerated the wrong people in government".