BBM justified his cabinet reshuffle as a response to the people’s demand for the government to address key problems, as expressed in the last election.
Opinion polls before the election pointed to the topmost concerns of Filipinos, namely: high food prices, job availability and low income. These are economic issues that ordinary Pinoys think were neglected by the administration and that caused the trust rating of BBM to plummet.
In other words, from the people’s perspective, BBM and his economic managers failed them. So, why did the economic managers get a quick free pass and even some words of praise from BBM?
Curiously, the Makati business folks called a press conference to urge BBM to retain the economic managers for their supposed good performance. Maybe the economic managers have been good for the economic elite, but not for the hoi polloi.
I was wondering why the Agriculture Secretary was not included among the economic managers. What the Agriculture Secretary does or fails to do has serious ramifications on the economy’s health.
In fact, the economic problems we have experienced in BBM’s first three years were largely agricultural: rice, sugar, tomatoes, onions, pork and chicken prices. Up to now, we still do not have a clear idea of how BBM will make things better in agriculture.
BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr., at one point, said monetary policy alone cannot resolve supply-driven inflation, particularly in the food sector. It calls for comprehensive and coordinated actions by other government agencies to address the underlying supply-side issues contributing to rising food prices.
That’s not even a hint. Remolona is effectively saying BBM, together with his agriculture and trade secretaries, was not doing enough to tame food inflation.
A rice trading cartel was clearly manipulating the price of rice, both domestic and imported. Yet the Agriculture Secretary denied a rice cartel existed.
That may be true in the textbook sense of what a cartel is, but there is obviously a group of rice traders who have been outsmarting the BBM administration so that the price of rice remained very high in the local market for a very long time.
The Agriculture Secretary even gave the impression he was on the side of the traders. He explained that the price of imported rice will go down once the old stock of rice imported at a higher price is exhausted.
If there is rice stock, old or new, it is the government’s duty to flush those out to bring down prices.
Yet, BBM and his Agri chief did nothing when some traders refused to claim their imported rice from Customs because those were a lot cheaper than what they were currently selling.
The rice/food inflation has been the weakest point of BBM’s administration. The P20 rice is unimpressive propaganda because it isn’t widely available.
This rice price failure really bites because the bottom 30 percent of the population spends more on food as a percentage of their disposable incomes compared to the elite and middle class.
BBM must focus on the masa’s consumption basket, which is 80 percent spent on food, electricity, water and transportation. Otherwise, the Duterte false nostalgia becomes credible.
Social media comments on the retention of economic managers show that ordinary people (not Makati Business Club members) are not happy with their performance.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto is getting the most brickbats because of his PhilHealth stance, call for new taxes and fast-rising national debt.
The Trade Secretary has failed to assure consumers that they are protected from price gouging, especially when some basic commodities have supply problems. The responsibility of the Trade department to ensure the quality of products, like steel bars, has also been a common concern.
We have yet to see what the DTI Secretary plans to do to get the country on the radar of foreign investors in light of Trump’s tariffs.
And we are still kulelat in the FDI race in ASEAN, a continuing failure of the economic managers.
As for what used to be NEDA, there have been complaints of bureaucratic backlogs in their approvals for infrastructure projects. Projects approved in the previous administration are being made to go through the mill again.
NEDA seems more focused on getting the macroeconomic numbers to advance the country from lower-middle to upper-middle-income status, which is meaningless to the masa. Even if we achieve it, income inequality remains. It even masks disparities in wealth distribution.
The quality of life of the masa remains as it has always been because moving up does not directly measure factors like education, health care and environmental quality, which are crucial for assessing the well-being of a population.
Worse, we may lose eligibility for concessional loans from international financial institutions, which often offer lower interest rates and longer repayment terms.
Therefore, while moving up to upper-middle-income status is a positive economic milestone for a press release, it is meaningless to the masa unless the BBM administration succeeds in ensuring that the benefits of economic growth are widely shared.
When PNoy got us some of the best GDP growth numbers historically and then the investment-grade credit rating, the masa elected Duterte instead of PNoy’s anointed.
Maybe Arsi Balisacan, basically an academic, shouldn’t have been retained. Academicians are more focused on project studies when we are drowning in project studies. We need someone who can execute.
Someone with nuts-and-bolts experience running a major business, like Deck Go, should have been made Economic Development Secretary. Or economist/entrepreneur Toti Chikiamco.
Sec. Arsi’s academic background is deeply rooted in the study of poverty and economic development. His research interests have consistently centered on poverty, inequality, and human development. He may be more useful as DSWD Secretary, where he can make sure the 4Ps program is properly executed.
Giving the economic managers a free pass is a mistake in this so-called cabinet reshuffle. BBM should rethink this for his own good.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco