GMA wants to cut ‘misery index’

For President Arroyo, misery should not love company.

The President said yesterday reducing the country’s "misery index," which is the sum of the economy’s unemployment and inflation rates, will be the top priority of the National Socio-economic Summit set for Dec. 10.

Mrs. Arroyo said that in the first half of the year, the country’s unemployment was at 10 percent while the inflation rate was at 6.5 percent, for a misery index of 16.5 percent.

She said this figure was not very far from the 20 percent ceiling, which economists believe indicate serious economic problems. The President said this prompted her to accept the proposal of opposition Sen. Blas Ople to hold the socio-economic summit.

"Now more than ever, we should be united," Mrs. Arroyo said. "Now, and at all times, we should move as one body and decide as one mind... We can only survive if we are united."

The Chief Executive said she accepted Ople’s proposal because it shows "the kind of cooperation that the government needs."

She said she welcomed debate and discussion because that is the essence of democracy but again appealed for bipartisan cooperation after such debates "for the sake of the country."

The President made the remarks in her pre-taped weekly radio and television program, May Gloria Ang Bukas Mo, where she said the summit would chart a two-year plan for the country’s "economic survival" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the US.

Mrs. Arroyo also noted it was appropriate that the summit, originally set for Nov. 26, was reset for Dec. 10 because it was also "International Human Rights Day."

"Having the minimum basic needs is also a human right," she said, adding that the summit’s agenda would revolve around 12 areas of concern as laid out in the government’s revised medium-term development plan (MTDP).

She said the principal issues would address how to keep prices down and how to create new jobs and maintain old ones despite a global economic crunch.

Among the issues the summit is expected to address is the formation of an asset management company that would tackle some P245 billion worth of bad loans being absorbed by the country’s banks.

She said once these liabilities are addressed, banks would be able to provide new loans for expanding businesses and create more jobs for the country.

Mrs. Arroyo, herself an economist, said she revised the MTDP she inherited from the Estrada administration to accommodate new realities expected to emerge with the country’s membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free Trade Area (AFTA).

However, she said there is a need to revise the MTDP anew after the global economic recession caused by the current global war against terror.

She said the economic problems spawned by the Sept. 11 attacks had a "multiplier effect" on the local economy and should be dealt with in the summit.