“Investments are the answer.”
“Investments are the answer.”
In a recent column, I listed the many challenges that the next president must face. Santa Banana, with joblessness now at 3.5 million adult Filipinos, and underemployment at 7.5 million adult Filipinos, the rising incidence of poverty and hunger has become the most challenging problem.
With economic recovery just around the corner—unless the COVID-19 pandemic again turns for the worse – the next president must start preparing a roadmap on how to face this kind of a challenge. This needs a tremendous amount of money in creating jobs and the cooperation of the private sector.
We need more domestic and foreign investments. Since domestic investments are limited, the country’s biggest bet are foreign investments. But with the restrictive provisions in the 1987 Constitution, the Philippines must find ways and means to attract them. This means amending the charter on the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution. The best time to amend the charter is with a newly-elected President.
Amending the Constitution demands a new kind of leadership from a president who can whip Congress in line. It is Congress that must decide on what mode the amendments must be.
If Congress approves the mode of constitutional convention, there will be questions. Will it be a joint constitutional convention of the House of Representatives and the Senate or separate? That’s the big question since the Senate has only 24 senators, and the house has 305 members.
Since the people have become allergic to the possibility of a constitutional amendment with the fear that self-serving members of Congress may go so far to extend their terms of office, the leadership of the next president is needed to assure the people that only the economic provisions of the charter will be amended.
For many years, local and foreign businessmen have been demanding the lifting of the repressive and restrictive 60-40 provision of the charter to no avail. I believe it’s time for such change in the wake of a very challenging problem like joblessness and underemployment giving rise to more poverty and hunger. I see no other way but an amendment of the charter.
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I don’t know what’s keeping the Senate from enacting the creation of two much needed departments which have been pending for so long at the Senate – the DDR or Department of Disaster Resilience and Department of OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers.
The Philippines is a disaster and calamity prone country for cyclones and typhoons, floods, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and storm surges during typhoons, there is definitely a need for a DDR.
Sure, there is the NDRRMC which has been devolved, but it’s only an ad hoc body under the Department of National Defense which is activated only during times of emergency. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council has to depend most on private donations and contributions and from foreign aid during disasters and calamities.
My gulay, it’s time that the NDRRMC became a department with its own budget staffed with experts who can focus and strategize on what should be done in times of disaster.
Then, there is the critical need for a separate Department for OFWs or Overseas Foreign Workers to focus itself on problems of OFWs which would make the Overseas Employment office, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and related agencies into one department. Then it could devote itself to overcoming all the abuses and maltreatment the OFWs get into while working abroad.
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There’s both good news and bad news.
The good news is that there’s a chance that the country can meet its targeted immunity goal during the half of 2022. Another good news is that the dreaded Omicron variant is still not in the Philippines. There is also the hope that three shots of Pfizer doses of vaccine can neutralize the effect of Omicron. And of course, the continuing decline of COVID-19 cases has placed the entire Philippines at the “lowest risk” category.
The bad news, however, is that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are now 57 countries infected with the Omicron variant. Another bad news is that thousands of Filipinos are coming home for the Christmas and New Year holidays, some from the “red list” countries where the COVID-19 pandemic cases are surging and also from other countries.
But still, we should be thankful that COVID-19 cases have declined so that some hospitals no longer have wards for COVID-19 cases. This means that we can have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank God for that!
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A good question is: Who will the billionaire tycoons and taipans support in the 2022 elections, and to whom will they contribute the most?
I ask this question because it’s customary for the taipans and tycoons to donate to presidential and vice-presidential aspirants. These donations and contributions are already set aside in their budgets.
I know for a fact that tycoons and taipans have their ways of finding out who are the probable winners, having their own ways of knowing who will win and who will lose. San Miguel, for instance, has their own thousands of retail outlets nationwide from the SMC conglomerate to get the list of probable winners and losers. San Miguel, too, has its thousands of Petron gasoline stations to provide Ramon S. Ang, the possible winners and losers which serve San Miguel to know who are winning and who are losing. This is also true with billionaires like Andrew Tan, who owns half of McDonalds. The network can easily find out who is also winning and losing. This is also true with Jollibee’s Tony Caktiong who can get facts about the national elections. The other tycoons and taipans have already poll surveyors that provide them with results. Manny Villar, for instance, is listed by Forbes as the richest Filipino.
The Iglesia ni Cristo with its solid three million voters here and abroad has its own sources like their ministers and diakonos to gather poll results.
The winners get the bulk of contributions, tycoons and taipans also provide token funds for losers. Don’t make any mistakes, the tycoons and taipans know beforehand who will be the next president and vice president.