The run-up to the ADB Summit saw the Philippine PR machine on hyperdrive. It was so surreal to read that the Aquino government had resorted to Imeldific measures of covering up the squatter colonies with a makeshift wall. I recall the same activities happening during the Marcos era – what’s Noynoy gonna think of next? Coming up with a Center for Agrarian Reform and burying the farmers of Hacienda Luisita in its walls?
Aquino’s Wall of Shame
You gotta hand it to Pinoy mediocrity. In the words of Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino – the wall was erected to“show our visitors that Metro Manila is orderly.” It smacks of an Asian B-movie about the Berlin Wall. On one side of the wall you have the manicured roads and skyline for the international visitors. On the other side of the wall you have the urban blight of Manila squatter colonies and voters mills.
To make Metro Manila orderly – or the Philippines orderly for that matter – Pinoys need more than to erect makeshift walls which hide poverty. You have to actually work at making things orderly – the trash actually needs to be collected, residences actually have to comply with building codes, enforcement agents actually have enforce the law, among others.
Its’s More Fun in the Philippines – NOT Again
This is no different from the recent PHL ad placement on CNN about how it’s more fun in the Philippines which was blown out of the water by a story on Manila’s pagpag eating population. In a recent CNN’s “Eye On” series, the Philippines was chosen as the focus of their reports. Running from April 30 to May 4, “Eye On” featured reports on child labor, the Philippines as the “Call Center Capital of the World,” Manny Pacquiao, and the country’s top tourist destinations. The story on trash eating Pinoys irked Senator Sotto and he threatened withdrawal of the ad placements on CNN.
Now would be a good time to remind Sen Sotto that an ad placement does not give the Philippines any control over the stories that will come out on CNN. This should be an eye opener for Sen Tito Sotto Van Winkle and the Philippine “media”. It’s not unexpected though considering that the Philippine constitution does not allow foreign ownership – as in ZERO PERCENT – of any Philippine media entity. Forget innovation, cross-pollination, and freedom of expression in the Orwellian Philippine media industry.
Going beyond the huff-and-puff histrionics of Senator Sotto, the Philippines does not become more fun because of ad placements. The Philippine becomes more fun when visitors stop being mulcted, harassed by beggars, kidnapped by AFP/PNP supported gangs and syndicates, potholes are covered, roads are actually improved, airports are improved – and that’s just for starters. It would also help if Pinoys stopped looking at foreigners either as walking ATMs, sex perverts, or greedy occupation armies who wanna occupy our land.
The Sparrow of Rising PSE Indexes Does Not An Economic Summer Make
As Aquino’s economic managers were singing Hossanahs about the historic PSE highs – the international finance community was clearly not impressed.
So while Socioeconomic Secretary Cayetano Paderanga was blabbering about how the government’s infrastructure expenditures were on track and economic indications were looking “good”, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda Kuroda said the region still faced “significant challenges,” high among which was the issue of rising inequality.
Philippines Leads in Income Inequality
It can be recalled that in July 2011 – a global ranking of countries in terms of inequality prepared by international group Vision of Humanity, Stratbase said the Philippines had a Gini coefficient of 44 percent in 2010. This was higher than 42.5 percent in Thailand, 39.4 percent in Indonesia, 37.9 percent in Malaysia, and 37.8 percent in Vietnam. For short – the Philippines leads ASEAN in income inequality.
ASEAN’s Laggard
In April 2012, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) latest World Economic Outlook said the Philippines would be ASEAN’s laggard in 2012 and 2013. The IMF projected the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 4.2 percent this year and 4.7 percent in 2013 after slackening to 3.7 percent last year from 7.6 percent in 2010 due to weak global trade and cautious spending by the Aquino government. The projected GDP growth this year for the Philippines (4.2%) is slower than Indonesia’s 6.1 percent, Vietnam’s 5.6 percent, Thailand’s 5.5 percent and Malaysia’s 4.4 percent.
The Philippines can now add “ASEAN’s Laggard” to its other titles – The Sick Man of Asia, Land of Thieves, The World’s Greatest Exporter of Domestic Helpers and Prostitutes.
Investments Everywhere, Except the Philippines
The Philippines attracted $1.7 billion in 2010, compared with Singapore’s $38.6 billion, Indonesia’s $13.3 billion and Thailand’s $6.3 billion, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy managing director Naoyuki Shinohara. These are figures that Noynoy, Purisima, and the BSP should know by heart – to remind them that for all the talk of the Philippines as being “ready for business” and “poised for take off” – NO ONE’S BUYING (much like the much hyped PPP).
And to add salt to these wounds – Ford opens Thailand plant to expand Southeast asian export hub. The $450 million plant in Thailand can make 150,000 cars a year, expanding its export hub to meet rising demand in neighboring countries. Outside of Thailand in the region, Ford is considering Indonesia for possible expansion, Henrichs said.
Note that Ford presently has P4-billion ($94.5) Laguna plant, located at the Greenfield Automotive Park in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, has a capacity of 25,000 vehicles per year and is capable of producing at least four different vehicle platforms. The plant currently assembles not only the Lynx sedan and the Escape SUV for domestic and export market but also Tribute SUV and Protege sedan for export to Thailand and Indonesia.
It makes one wonder – why didn’t Ford just expand its $94.5M assembly plant in Laguna instead of Thailand? I’ll wager a guess. Noynoy Aquino was recently bragging about the Philippines Q1 growth. On closer look the growth was due to an increase in the earnings of MERALCO. If memory serves me right – the Philippines now has the most expensive electric rates in Asia. No thanks to the constitutional and statutory restrictions which limit foreign participation in utilities to only 25% while the rest of Asia embraces FDI in bolstering the domestic economy.
Auto manufacturing is an activity that requires lot of electricity – and if the cost of electricity is high, expect the sales price of the end product to be high – and therefore uncompetitive. Given the Philippines structural flaws, it will be prudent therefore for Ford to determine other areas where the cost of electricity is lower and business is more friendly to global investments. You would think that Thailand’s recent floods would have been a dampener to Ford, obviously it isn’t. Oh and by the way, the Japanese companies which were affected by the Fukushima disaster are accelerating their move off-shore to places like Thailand, where there is a strong Japanese manufacturing community, stable and cheap labour supply, low risk of natural disasters as well as modern infrastructure.
I will not be surprised if Ford Philippines will be mothballed later on as Ford Thailand ramps up its operations. It already happened before when Intel moved out of the Philippines – due to high electricity rates. At the rate Noynoy Aquino is singing hossanahs to MERALCO-driven “growth” – foreign investments will be lining up to get out of the Philippines – much like the mining industry nowadays (after Noynoy’s review of mining policy).
Good Governance Isn’t Just About Anti-Corruption
While Aquino goes on a witchhunt and sending to jail past administration officials for alleged corrupt practices and holding them accountable for wrongdoing while in office – and presents this as “good governance”, the international community – or the rest of the world thinks otherwise. There is more to anti-corruption than impeaching a Chief Justice who happened to pen a historical decision ordering the distribution of Hacienda Luisita or violating the constitutional right to travel of the Philippines’ former head of state.
Thus while Shinohara said that the Philippines’ hosting of the ADB annual meeting was a “good opportunity” to convey the message to the market economy that Manila continues to work hard in improving governance. He qualified what he meant by good governance. “When I talk about governance, I’m not taking about anticorruption but governance in general, which includes policy-making, the fiscal structure, supervision of state institutions, risk management of state institutions, all these things,”
Shinohara might as well have told Aquino- “get off your butt and get to work, you lousy excuse of a dumbass president”.
Still Watching Corona and Still.. Poor and Hungry
Since Aquino took office – he had the CCT subsidy, the fuel subsidy, the PPP, selling more bonds – thereby increasing public debt. For all the arneo english of Aquino’s sycophants – and all the “historic” PSE highs- where are the results?
Limiting electric power providers to Filipino companies only or majority Filipino-owned companies only has not reduced the electric bill of Mindanao – and has increased the cost of doing business leading to less economic activity and an increase in unemployment and poverty.
More regulation, bigger government, more welfare programs – will not and has not improved the Philippine economy – take the cue from Europe’s now highly indebted welfare states.
Apparently the Philippines thinks it can do better than Europe by increasing more public spending. Who’s gonna pay for all that public spending? It’s going to be taxpayers! Yes – that’s the income tax levied on every employee in the Philippines. If you have less net take home pay – are you wealthier or are you poorer?
Be wary of government bureaucrats who will make you wealthier by taking your money away. The only wealth that will be improved – will be their wallet – not yours or mine. It’s about time my fellow Filipinos ended their fixation that government will improve their lives.
Small is beautiful. Less is more.
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