Still poor

Significant improvements can’t happen overnight, Malacañang officials said amid reports that poverty levels remained unchanged since 2006.

This is true. But all those rosy economic reports have raised public expectations that the Aquino administration is also making notable inroads in poverty alleviation.

Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. If there are no corrupt people, there are no poor – this was the campaign battle cry of the daang matuwid team in 2010, which ran on a platform of good governance.

Since then President Aquino (through Congress) has kicked out of the way two officials he described as major roadblocks along his straight path – the chief justice and ombudsman he inherited from his predecessor. P-Noy’s officials regularly tout reforms being implemented to promote transparency and reduce corruption in their respective agencies.

So if the government is making headway in the battle against corruption, the public expectation is that similar gains are being made in the fight against poverty.

This has not happened, according to that official poverty report from a government agency, the National Statistics and Coordination Board.

Palace officials pointed out that the period covered by the report was from 2006 until the first six months of 2012. That still meant two years of the Aquino administration – perhaps not enough time to make a dent, but hardly “overnight” either. Public expectations are higher for the “walang corrupt, walang mahirap” team.

* * * Why have so many Filipinos remained poor? One reason – as acknowledged by economic managers even in the previous administration – is that economic growth can’t keep up with the demands of a booming population.

P-Noy hopes to address this partly through the reproductive health law, but this is now in limbo at the Supreme Court. If the law is ever implemented, it will take several years before the impact on demand, supply and inclusive growth can be fully gauged – too late for P-Noy’s anti-poverty statistics.

Another reason for lingering poverty is that our people are not being empowered by education. Compared with many of our neighbors, Philippine investment in public education is woeful – and it shows in the quality of education services, the quality of graduates, and declining national competitiveness. The problem is also reflected in the continuing exodus of many of our best teachers for better paying jobs overseas. This in turn worsens the quality of Philippine education.

The government can invest more in modernizing agriculture and fisheries, so production can increase enough to boost exports and create more jobs. Go to supermarkets in East Asia, Europe and other regions and you will see how we have been left behind in agricultural exports by our Southeast Asian neighbors Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. We have the same products; why are they ahead of us?

Progress in agricultural modernization has been slow, with the private sector instead taking the lead in certain types of agribusiness. P-Noy had to retract his fearless forecast that the country would become a rice exporter starting this year.

* * * The conditional cash transfer program is easing poverty, but a better answer is the creation of stable jobs with decent pay. For this, long-term investments are needed. This is where the administration can produce results, if not overnight, then at least in the near future – or at least before Filipinos pick a new president in 2016.

The world is taking notice of positive changes under P-Noy’s watch, which should help lure foreign direct investments.

The Philippines is politically stable enough not to warrant hordes of foreign election observers next month. The European Union has an office called the Election Observer Missions. EOMs monitor if elections conform to international standards.

The EU currently has EOMs in Jordan, Kenya, Pakistan, Paraguay and Sierra Leone. EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux told me they saw no need to send such a mission here for the midterm elections.

Even the Germans are looking at the Philippines again, despite the unresolved dispute between Manila and German air transport operator Fraport AG over NAIA Terminal 3. A vote of confidence from Germany, Europe’s strongest economy, can send a strong positive message to European investors.

Since February there have been several high-level German visitors in Manila: Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Ursula von der Leyen, and parliamentarians belonging to the committee on foreign relations.

During the visit of Von der Leyen, who is tipped to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor, we were told that Germany is ready to accept 2,000 Filipino nurses.

German Ambassador Joachim Heidorn told me that a 12-member delegation of businessmen engaged in solar energy is also arriving next month.

The ambassador told me that Germans like P-Noy’s anticorruption focus, the Philippines’ economic performance and ongoing peace initiatives with Islamic separatists.

Bilateral ties go beyond the Fraport issue, the ambassador said, although Germany of course wants the issue resolved and out of the way.

There seems to be little movement in this area. But even with the pending dispute, Germany’s Lufthansa Technik is operating aircraft maintenance facilities at Villamor Air Base as well as in Clark, Cebu and Davao. The facilities currently employ 2,500 Filipinos mostly in high-tech, highskilled jobs. The facility in Clark services the double-deck Airbus 380, the world’s largest commercial plane.

Deutsche Bank also has a strong presence here, with about 2,000 employees.

The Germans – and other Europeans – are waiting for the resolution of the controversy over the training and accreditation of Filipino sailors for EU ships. Ambassador Heidorn told me that on some German ships, up to 80 percent of the crew are Filipinos, whose jobs are jeopardized by the controversy. A European team is arriving in October to assess the monitoring body for seamen’s accreditation that is being set up with advice provided by the Netherlands and Norway.

Also pending is the review of the aviation blacklist that prevents Philippine carriers from flying directly to Europe. Tourism can create many jobs that are badly needed here, but Europeans tell me we need better marketing in their countries, and the lack of direct flights is a disincentive for travel.

These are doables for an administration that needs to produce tangible results soon in the battle against poverty. Instead of questioning the parameters for assessing poverty levels, the P-Noy administration should just do its homework, bring in investments and create employment.