In the course of the democratic election process, a group seeking to replace a group in power criticizes and derides the latter’s policies and programs and promises to replace them with better things. A voter in the recent election would have been perfectly right in expecting that candidate Rodrigo Duterte and his advisers would offer the nation a better economic menu for the period that the Davao City mayor will be in office. But an examination of the 8-point economic agenda that Secretary of Finance-designate Carlos Dominguez has unveiled indicates that the Duterte administration will be pursuing an economic agenda that is a virtual extension of the economic daang matuwid of the administration of PNoy Aquino. With the exception of one item—the item calling for more vigorous implementation of agrarian reform and greater support for the agricultural sector—the Duterte administration’s economic agenda is almost a replica of the set of programs and policies that have guided the management of this country’s economy during the last six years.
Take the financial and monetary policies that are currently in place. Both Dominguez and the newly appointed director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (concurrently the Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning) have stated that the exiting fiscal and monetary policies are sound and should be maintained. They recognize that those policies have been instrumental in keeping prices stable, attaining highest-in-several-decades GDP growth figures in the last few years, bringing the fiscal ratios to highly favorable levels and getting the international financial rating agencies to bestow upon this country the highest ratings that it had ever known.
The incoming administration’s economic team has likewise stated that the Aquino administration’s PPP (Public-Private Partnership) will not be scrapped but will merely undergo review with a view to strengthening its processes and improving its evaluation and awarding procedures. In so doing, the Duterte folk have shown acceptance of the soundness of the PPP approach to infrastructure building and have indicated that a need nonetheless exists for a reassessment of the PPP program and its processes.
The Duterte folk have likewise signaled that the Conditional Cash Transfer Program (also known as the 4Ps) makes economic sense and therefore should be maintained and strengthened. During the election campaign, all of the candidates for president indicated support for – and readily acknowledged the usefulness—of a program whose benefits are now being experienced by over 4 million families. The Davaoenos could have presented the nation with a new program of socio-economic benefit-giving, but they didn’t, thereby indicating that in their view the 4Ps was making a difference in the lives of the poorest of the poor, especially Filipinos living in the rural areas.
Arguably it was in the sphere of transportation that the Duterte 8-point agenda was most disappointing. It tried to pass off as transportation policymaking motherhood statements about the need to improve the nation’s transportation system, with emphasis on easing the conditions that have given Philippine urban transportation such a bad name. The President-elect and his chosen advisers have spoken about the need to improve and expand the nation’s scant railway network, but the 8-point agenda did not begin to suggest how and where the expansion of the Philippine National Railways might happen.
The Aquino administration’s concern for the environment—born out of the series of major typhoons experienced by this country under its watch—is likewise reflected in the 8-item economic agenda of the Duterte administration. The Aquino administration has been particularly concerned about irresponsible use of the nation’s natural resources. In recent weeks President-elect Duterte has voiced strong concern about irresponsible mining, mirroring the Aquino administration’s reluctance to give the mining industry the full-speed-ahead signal. The Duterte agenda did not spell out its position on one particular segment of the mining industry, to wit, the climate-harming coal mining operations. The nation waits with baited breath for the Duterte administration’s position on this highly contentious mining issue.
It is the sphere of agriculture—including reform of the structure of agricultural land ownership—that the economic agenda of the Duterte administration stands out in relation to the agricultural program of the Aquino administration. There’s not much that the incoming Secretary will be able to do for agrarian reform, considering that two agrarian reform laws have come and gone (the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Act of 1988 and the subsequent CARPER and that whatever rural land was redistributable has already been redistributed, often after lengthy and highly adversarial judicial proceedings. But the Duterte agenda speaks of the need to adequately supply the production requirements of Filipino farmers and of the crucial importance of providing free irrigation water. The wisdom of providing irrigation water free of charge may be questioned by some quarters, but the fact that the agenda identifies dependable irrigation as a key production input is both reassuring and promising.
The Duterte administration’s 8-point agenda is underwhelming. It contains most of the right policies, but those policies are the ones that the Aquino administration pursued during its six years in office. What was derided by the Duterte folk during the election campaign now forms part of the Duterte administration’s economic agenda.
Summing up, the Duterte 8-part economic agenda is a virtual replica of the Aquino economic team’s management of the economy. Like all virtual replicas, it neither impresses nor excites.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com