Due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has revised the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 or the country's economic development blueprint.

During a virtual meeting of the House Committee on Economic Affairs, NEDA acting Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said the PDP strategic framework – which initially targets that by 2022, the Philippines will be an upper-middle income country – has been updated  and is now geared toward a “Healthy and More Resilient Philippines.”

“The immediate objective under the PDP will now focus on a Healthy and More Resilient Philippines,” Chua told the panel, chaired by AAMBIS-OWA Party-list Rep. Sharon Garin.

He noted that there were “some changes” and “refinements” in the government's priorities under the plan. 

“For instance, under Malasakit (Building a high-trust society), it will now be ensuring people centered, clean technology-enabled, and responsive governance. Under Pagbabago (Transforming towards equity and resiliency), it will expand economic opportunities across regions because there is a need to reduce congestion and spread opportunities,” Chua said. 

“In terms of Patuloy na Pag-unlad (Increasing growth potential), a scale-up technology and stimulate innovation as our key of getting out of the present slowdown and to find new areas of productivity and efficiency,” he added.

The PDP initially aimed at enabling all Filipinos to achieve their aspiration of a “Matatag, Maginhawa, at Panatag na Buhay” by laying a strong foundation for inclusive growth, a high-trust and resilient society, and a globally competitive economy. 

The NEDA official said some of the banner programs under the “updated” PDP are “improvement” in the health system, food security, and “digital government.”

He said improved health system is needed “so that people will be able to know that they are taken care of and that their chances of getting sick is less.”

“This will improve basic confidence and stimulate domestic demand,” he added. 

Under the revised PDP, Chua said they are “proposing a transformation of the way people do business with government to as much as possible online transactions.”

During his presentation, he also stressed the need to protect not just jobs in the short-term, but in the medium to long term, the employability, making skills training important. 

“We will also have to begin a process of more balanced regional development. This requires two major underpinnings. The first one is the provision of all the basic services in the provinces so that people will have a reason to stay and business will have a reason to invest there. The second is to improve connectivity so that the provinces and secondary or tertiary cities or towns will be connected to high growth drivers or markets in Manila or the rest of the world,” Chua said. 

He also stressed the need to enhance the government's “Build, Build, Build” program, which is one of the biggest multipliers of growth. 

During the panel meeting, Chua presented a series of “structural reform options” which have been taken out of the revised PDP and can be institutionalized through a legislation to further strengthen the government's response against the coronavirus disease pandemic. 

Among the identified areas are health, agriculture, logistics, digitalization, investments, businesses, labor, social protection, education public transport, and disaster and emergency response. 

In the area of health, Chua said they sought the strengthening of research and development; establishment of a Virology Center and Pharma Development Center; production of pharma-grade medical supplies; and strategic inventory of medicine and equipment. 

"We would like to propose a discussion on how each of these could be legislated with the intention of strengthening the foundations of the Philippines to deal with the new normal characteristics and still attain our potential GDP growth,” he said. 

As far as the investment is concerned, he cited the need for Congress to pass economic liberalization bills, including the the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) to attract foreign direct investments. 

“All of these are geared towards taking advantage of the crisis to have the opportunity to change some of the underlying economic distortions that prevented us from achieving more of our potential GDP growth,” Chua said.