Elections to boost economy

MANILA, Philippines - Election spending will help the country weather the economic crisis, an economist said yesterday.

“The elections is a private pump priming activity of very generous political candidates who will want to share their wealth to the masses,” University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) professor Bernardo M. Villegas said in a forum.

Villegas counted seven presidential hopefuls who are expected to spend a lot of money this year and in 2010 for direct and indirect campaign expenses.

One presidentiable, Senator Manuel Villar, said that a candidate running for the highest position in the land needs at least P1 billion to get elected. However, Villegas countered that the figure is small and estimated that each candidate will spend P5 billion.

Already, candidates are spending on commercials that are running on television and radios advertising their different advocacies.

Multiplied by seven, the presidential elections will help pump prime the economy by increasing spending by P35 billion. 

Because of this, Villegas said the predictions of World Bank and other international agencies that the Philippine economy will only grow by one percent this year is flawed.

  Instead, Villegas said the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country will expand by four percent in spite of the crisis.

Aside from election spending, Villegas claimed that the remittance from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will remain high because OFWs are able to keep their jobs abroad.

He noted that foreign employers tend to keep Filipino workers and lay off other nationalities because Filipinos are multi-skilled.

He said Filipino workers are totally superior to other nationalities. He said the World Bank and the other agencies got it wrong because they are using generic models that are applied to all countries.

“World Bank is completely oblivious to these situations. Their models need to be updated,” Villegas said.

As such, he concluded that there is no real decline in remittance. He predicted OFW inflows to be at $16 billion to $17 billion this year.

Another thing that will prop up the economy is the large domestic consumption base. Villegas said that the large population of the country will help control the economy because even if the exports are declining, the locals are still buying the products.