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In her time in Malacañang, Cory was not very clear about her economic platform of government. Later, when the buzz about liberalization and deregulation started together with its initial success in the country when Ramos started implementing it, a top government economic official told me that the idea of opening up the country through more deregulation and liberalization actually started much earlier during the time of Cory. That was true but first Cory had to change the constitution first to ensure no new dictator would surface again and abuse the people. Now, however, the Cory constitution is believed to hampering economic growth because of strict limits placed on the participation of foreigners in developing the country’s natural resources and many other areas of economic activities. Cory also signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law that turned out to be more controversial when implemented because of many loopholes like allowing the use of stock distribution instead of dividing the land and distributing them to the tenants. Cory was also steadfast in her stand to pay all loans contracted by Marcos despite the demand of many sectors not to pay those they believed were made only to enrich Marcos and his cronies.
When Fidel Ramos was in power, his Philippines 2000 platform covered five major areas. These were (1) peace and stability, (2) economic growth and sustainable development, (3) energy and power generation, (4) environmental protection, and (5) streamlined bureaucracy. When Ramos started his rule, Philippine economic growth was flat, courtesy of Cory’s failure to provide enough power to local industries, Colonel Gringo Honasan’s unsuccessful but nevertheless destructive series of coups, and the natural calamities that came, which included the 1990 Luzon earthquake which left thousands dead, Mount Pinatubo’s erruption which caused widespread devastation of Central Luzon lands, and the typhoons that wrought havoc in the Visayas, including the massive flooding in Ormoc City.
By pursuing more liberalization and deregulation that Cory started and by allowing many independent power producers to supply the country with electricity to break the power crisis left by the mothballing of the Bataan Nuclear Plant, Ramos succeeded in bringing the Philippine economy to higher growth. By adjusting the value-added tax higher to 10 percent and tinkering with other tax measures, Ramos also succeeded in closing the budget deficits which plagued the previous administrations since the post-war period. But before he could celebrate his success and think of ways to remain in power, like what PGMA is doing now on the pretext of being a successful economic manager, the Asian financial crisis suddenly came in mid-2007, which pulled down the country’s GDP growth.
The downturn continued in the first half of 1998. Estrada then came to power by massive votes from the downtrodden. When Estrada started his term in mid 1998, there was nothing much he could do to stop the slowdown of the economy because of the financial crisis that started in Thailand earlier. The year ended with an economy flattened again but not for long because the economy managed to grow by more than 2 percent in 1999 and by another 6.0 percent in 2000 (final revision).
If Ramos had his “Philippines 2000” for his platform of government, Estrada had his “Angat Pinoy.” Actually, Angat Pinoy is the name given to Estrada’s 2004 Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 1999-2004. As a development agenda, Angat Pinoy articulates Estrada’s development objectives based on the collective aspirations of "all sectors of society" for the poor to share in the benefits of growth and the vulnerable to be protected through the difficulties of the growth process." Angat Pinoy was unable to take off because of Estrada’s expulsion in early 2001 through EDSA II.
The Arroyo administration is well known for its Strong Republic banner and 10-point Agenda. In her schemes, PGMA wanted the Philippines to join the first world though it is unclear whether this was to happen during her present or extended term. The ten-point agenda summed up what the Arroyo administration wanted to accomplish by 2009. These are (1) The creation of six million jobs in six years; (2) the construction of new buildings, classrooms, provision of desks and chairs and books for students and scholarships to poor families, (3) the balancing of the budget; (4) the "decentralization" of progress around the nation through the use of transportation networks like the roll-on, roll-off and the digital infrastructure, (5) the provision of electricity and water supply to barangays nationwide; (6) the decongestion of Metro Manila by forming new cores of government and housing centers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao; (7) the development of Clark and Subic as the best international service and logistics centers in the region; (8) the automation of the electoral process; (9) a just end to the peace process; and (10) a fair closure to the divisiveness among the EDSA 1, 2 and 3 forces.
What do you think? Has PGMA achieved even half of her agenda?
