Global Pinoy for Better Philippines

The Filipinos and the Philippine Government are very hard to comprehend.

·        We are an agriculture economy yet people don’t want to be farmers.

·        The government’s priority is agriculture development yet it is wanting in the development of agriculturists.

·        The government counts on agricultural production to raise its income yet it is giving away large tracts of land to landless farmers who do not want to cultivate their lands.

·        We want good education for our children so we send them to school yet when they are in school, they want to pursue careers in non-agricultural sector.  Only those that cannot afford higher education are forced to remain farmers.  Some who are brave enough to pursue agricultural studies are more of exceptions than the rule.

·        So, we want to pursue agriculture development but our people don’t want to be farmers, hence, we end up cursing ourselves not because we failed to develop agriculture but because we did not see the gap between the government priorities and the priorities of our people.

·        And since our people don’t want to be farmers they go somewhere else to seek employment in non-agriculture sector, which our government cannot provide not because it doesn’t want to but because it cannot.

·        We want to upgrade the lives of our people, but when they do, they abandon their farms and settle in the cities. Afterall, they feel they no longer deserve to be called farmers. 

·        Those who cannot wait for the promised good life, hurry to the cities where they dream of angelic lives; only to settle in the squatter’s world and share with the rest of their flock the stink of the city life. 

·        I, too, am a coward. I dreamt of uprooting my parents from the harshness of farmer’s life. I struggled and won. And now, our little farm lie idle, maybe grieving for not having seen me for many years, and though I want to see her, my new life would not allow us to be together again.  And that’s because I grew tall, traveled far, chased my dreams and grabbed it; while our little farm lied still, unmoving not because she doesn’t want to but because she cannot. All these years, no one dared brought her close to where most of us want to go and want to be.  Poor lands

 The recent government decisions seem to prioritize government consumption (from 6.8% for Q1 2006 to 7.1% for the same period this year) through various infrastructure projects that are expected to
boost the economy in the future. This is understandable because, of all the parameters, this is the only one controlled by the government. The other parameters are interdependent  This is also one factor that will contribute in making a “business-friendly” environment.

Personal Consumption, however, should be equated with trade balance because, in a healthy economy, consumption is equated with the local capacity to earn income (Per-Capita Income against Per-Capita Consumption). Income is derived from employment and business earnings
which are directly equated to trade.

In this case however, personal consumption has been derived from OFW remittances and not from internally generated income. Hence, the potential imbalance or unsustainable growth.

The President of the Republic is an economist so we should trust her judgement. The euphoria over the increase 6.9 GDP is boosting the capital formation along with the government’s decision to improve the country’s business climate through improved infrastructure support.
Aside from the infrastructure, she has also put the development of Small & Medium Enterprises to her priorities, making SMEs as dependable base for exports and source of employment.

Those who see evil in E-VAT are the pessimists who dwell on its
negative effect rather than look at its positive impact. They are the
opposition and GMA’s critics who see nothing good in everything that
GMA does. Many people believed them as manifested by the huge votes
they got last May 14 mid-term elections. In fact, the two TU Senators
who landed to the magic 12 likewise opposed EVAT before its
implementation. Recto, the author of EVAT landed 14th.

However, I look at the turn of events positively. The people gave
their mandate to the GO senators in the hope that they can make their
lives better. It is now their turn to prove GMA wrong. It will be
their word against their performance. People need to know. It will
now be a battle against themselves. At any rate, more than 12M
electorates have put their trust on the senators who opposed EVAT but
about 10M likewise trusted Recto, the author. Meaning, its 55:45 in
favor of the opposition. Reckoning from the time of its
implementation about a year and a half ago, the situation is
improving bcoz only PGMA and her economic managers were in favor of
EVAT then. Roughly, the situation was about 90:10 in favor of the
opposition.

Now that we have started to see the positive impact of EVAT, we
expect the situation to tilt in favor of EVAT advocates. With the
appreciation of our PESO, our cash outflow for debt servicing has
been substantially reduced. Meaning, there will be more budget for
our local operations. The more money circulating in the economy, the
more economic activities there will be. Which, by all indications,
will already cascade down to the masses.

I haven’t read yet the DBM report  but I have my own reason to believe the report may have a basis notwithstanding their recommendation to cut down on DA’s budget.

First is the issue on economies of scale. We don’t have large tracks of agicultural lands that can be considered for commercial plantation. Why?

1. We are a country divided into 7,107 islands therefore our farmholdings are small.

2. The several commercial landholding have been subdivided into small farmlots courtesy of Agrarian Reform. In effect, our supposed biggest farmholding is only 7 hectares.

3. Our farmers are aging and not many new farmers are willing to go into agricultural production. About ten years from now we will already be dearth of farmers because our young generation are into computers, health services, factory workers, and domestic helpers.

4. Small farmholdings do not have economies of scale (aka: low productivity). We spend more for less return.

5. Our population is increasing very fast so that agricultural lands are being converted into residential and subdivisions. Housing is an equally basic need and we cannot control land conversions unless we change the design of low cost housing from single detach to duplex or multiplex (ngek!)

6. Calamities have buried and submerged large tracks of rice lands in the Bikol Region, Northern Luzon and many more. These are realities that may really have caused DBM to reprogramme budget priorities. Maybe NEDA and DA may justify their budget by changing strategies from traditional agriculture to developing new farmers and going back to basics. As Ka Iking suggested,using organic fertilizers, feeds, and pestecides.

I’ve been reading comments, positive and otherwise to the recently released report by NEDA about the country’s remarkable Q1 GDP increase. Cielito Habito has already questioned its sustainability by associating it with the US and China economies being our major export buyers. Alex Magno is in his usual upbeat mood but somewhat startled at how these figures came about.

It came not as a surprise for me. It’s been more than a year since E-VAT has been implemented which means we have sufficient funds running the economy. Our political scenario is stable despite the recently concluded midterm elections which seemingly did not shake the economy. Our stock market is upbeat and we have a continuous appreciation of the peso.

How are all of these related to the increased GDP? First let us be reminded that GDP is the sum total of the values of goods and services produced in the country.

Economy is business. The more capital is infused into a business, the more it becomes productive by limiting the restrictions to growth. E-VAT has sufficiently raised government’s capital infused, albeit, to non-income generating projects but aqequately  improved the business environment. The Nautical Highway has greatly contributed to the movement of goods and services from Mindanao to Luzon allowing these to reach large markets. Ready markets encourage production especially the perishable agricultural products. Looking intently at the sectors that contributed much to the GDP, you wiull find agriculture leading the race. Everywhere you go around the country, you will find sufficient agricultural products sans fish and marine products.

To me, this is the reason for the GDP outgrowing the GNP. The agriculture sector has bounced back especially with the renewed energy and enthusiasm by the Secretary of Agriculture.

Cielito Habito may be right in his predicament but let us not forget that the Philippine domestic market is big. We need not rely solely on exports to have our economy growing. Satisfying the domestic consumption with fresh locally produced agricultural products will curtail importation thereby saving on the needed dollars. It will also provide additional income to our farmers on one side and cheaper products to consumers on the other.

Strengthening the economy is enough protection against the hollow promises and false accusations of the opposition. It’s good that they are elected in the Senate. Their words will be tested against their performance. By then, the people will know who is making a difference in their lives.