Now, the hard part begins. After co-signing a joint manifesto of commitment with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), the government must demonstrate its capacity to deliver the goods: further easing business regulations, completing vital infrastructure projects, and most importantly, improving the management of the pandemic.
ECOP leaders deserve commendation for boldly declaring last June 21 their determination to create one million jobs within the next six months. They discerned the urgency of slowing the economy’s decline. New variants of the coronavirus threatened to bring about another spike in cases even while the government began to ramp up its vaccination efforts.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported last July 1 that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent in May from 8.7 percent in April. This one percent drop of 410,000 in the ranks of the unemployed was achieved as a result of the easing of quarantine measures and putting more jabs into arms as vaccine supplies increased.
Recall that at the onset of the pandemic, unemployment peaked to 17.7 percent. ECOP asserts that the government should bring down unemployment further to its pre-pandemic level of 2.1 percent through more robust support to micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises. The ECOP recovery package includes subsidies and soft-loan facilities, facilitating the mainstreaming of the informal sector into the economy, and enabling broader adoption of new business models based on digital solutions and processes.
The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) and the Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF) are calling for the build up of technology infrastructure and a renewed emphasis on public-private partnerships to implement vital flagship projects that had to be shelved as the pandemic gobbled up available resources and severely constrained the government’s fiscal space.
The country’s seesawing COVID-19 situation is attributed to the basic weakness of the health infrastructure. Resorting to the enforcement of alternating phases of strict and moderate quarantine restrictions could not bring about long-term resiliency. Allowing the private sector to compete in putting up a superior alternative health care system at its own expense could be achieved through the PPP mode.
Likewise, the government can solicit PPP proposals for priority projects that could not be implemented as government resources were rechanneled to the COVID-18 response efforts.
A good case in point is the recent completion by SMC Infrastructure of the Skyway 3 Stage 3 project despite a massive cost increase due to alignment changes to overcome right-of-way hurdles.
Earnest efforts to achieve economic recovery 10 months before the 2022 elections are clearly challenged by the narrowing of the window of opportunity as the political season draws nearer. The national interest should not be sacrificed at the altar of partisan politics.
We salute the enlightened elements of the business community for being resolute in prodding the government to act with dispatch while planting their own stakes.
No less than a whole-of-society approach will enable the country to build back better.