Credible economic team

AHEAD of the inauguration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte as the country’s next President on June 30, incoming Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and National Economic and Development Authority Secretary General Ernesto Pernia will conduct a consultative workshop with some 300 business leaders in Davao City on June 20 to 21.

Dubbed “Sulong Pilipinas: Hakbang Tungo sa Kaunlaran,” the conference is co-organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Mindanao Business Council.

During the meeting, Dominguez and Pernia will present their plans and programs for the country’s economic growth.

The participants are expected to give their inputs on the socioeconomic agenda of the Duterte administration, which, in a statement given to the media, “emphasizes the need to maintain accelerated economic growth while ensuring that gains are broadly shared by the Filipino people.”

Dominguez and Pernia represent two sides of the troika in Duterte’s economic team, the third being incoming Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, who served in that capacity also during the short-lived administration of President Joseph Estrada.

Competent

The three appointments bode well for the country. They are competent and knowledgeable with the objectives and workings of their assigned departments. What’s more, in light of Duterte’s anticorruption program, they have not been linked to any illegal activity in their public and private lives.

They will have the enviable responsibility of filling Duterte’s “knowledge gap” in the fields of economics and finance.

Their boss has publicly admitted that maintaining peace and order is his expertise, and that he will have to rely on his advisers in dealing with the country’s financial and economic problems.

To his credit, during the presidential debates, Duterte stated with candor in the presence of his opponents he will copy or adopt some of the programs in their platforms that he agrees with in case he is elected president.

Since Duterte is expected to actively attend to the peace and order situation, his economic team would have to step up and see to it that his promise of inclusive growth, or giving the less privileged members of our society their rightful share in the country’s economic gains, is achieved as soon as possible.

In this endeavor, there is no need for Duterte’s economic team to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, to achieve inclusive growth and improve the country’s business climate.

Continuity

For all the criticisms against the Aquino administration, it cannot be denied it has made major strides in attracting foreign investments and creating employment opportunities.

The perceived shortcomings of the outgoing administration in its economic program does not justify scrapping or upending programs that are already on stream in order to satisfy the whims of people close to the new powers-that-be.

For one, the public private partnership program (PPP) of the Aquino administration should be continued, although it can use some adjustments in its planning and awarding to ensure the projects are completed and made available to the public at the earliest time possible.

There must be a better and faster way to comply with the procurement and bidding laws to get big ticket projects done without getting snagged in the bureaucracy or being delayed by temporary restraining orders issued by corrupt judges.

In the pursuit of the incoming administration’s program, its economic team does not have to bring new people, except perhaps for highly confidential positions.

Since the members of the troika have, at one time or another, served in the government, they already know the majority of the staff of the departments they will be heading are career employees who can be trusted to give their best when properly motivated and efficiently managed.

Coordination

Duterte’s economic team will need the assistance of Congress to enable the incoming administration to meet its promise of economic relief to the people.

Many of our economic and financial laws were enacted when the country’s population was still manageable or globalization was merely a topic for discussion in business schools.

The world has turned many times over. The laws that have impeded our economic growth have to be repealed or amended, and new ones that are in sync with existing global conditions have to be enacted, and fast.

It’s time for the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac), an advisory and consultative body to the President created by Republic Act No. 7640 composed of, among others, the President, Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, to be reconvened to get the needed economic legislation moving.

The Ledac proved its worth during the administrations of Presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The laws the two administrations needed to spur economic growth were promptly enacted by Congress.

Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, the Ledac fell into disuse during the Aquino administration. There was scant coordination between the executive and legislative departments, leading to the delay in the enactment of significant legislation or the passing of bills that were later vetoed by the President.

The incoming administration’s economic team should take the lead in reviving Ledac if it wants inclusive growth a reality during Duterte’s term.

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