Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has urged President Arroyo to open up the country’s “regulated” economy and “cleanse it of its cronyism and its inefficiency.”
“Our economy is still less open than those of our neighbors. Not only do state restrictions raise the costs of doing business; they also give unfair advantage to families of influence, who easily transform themselves into monopolists and cartels,” he said in a letter he sent to the President last Oct. 20.
The letter is entitled, “You can still create a new beginning for our nation.” In it, De Venecia suggests solutions to the country’s political and economic problems.
He said economically, the problem is “slow and highly uneven growth.”
To speed up growth, he suggested that Mrs. Arroyo “cut down the commanding influence of oligarchic families, monopolies and cartels in the making of economic policy.”
“Dismantle faulty regulatory policies that constrain the growth of businesses and lose the state between P100 billion and P200 billion in potential income,” he said.
He said the cost of electricity, logistics and telecommunications still eat up as much as 60 percent of the total expenses of an average Philippine company.
“These costs average only 20 percent in neighboring economies,” he stressed.
Another recommendation of the Speaker: “Free the agencies supervising aviation, ports, the maritime industry, telecommunications, and the energy sector from regulatory capture. Stop collusion between regulators and industries, which is so injurious to the public interest.”
In the area of land use, De Venecia said the government should discard its “faulty land administration systems to capture the huge potential economic value of land use.”
In a recent business forum, businessman Manuel Pangilinan made a similar suggestion by calling for a review of the comprehensive agrarian reform program.
The Speaker also suggested that the state “liberalize the trade in sugar and corn to raise the foreign competitiveness of our food processing and poultry and livestock industries, many of which are rural-based.”
De Venecia’s advocacies in the economic sector are apparently the same as those of former Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri, who was reportedly moved to the Commission on Higher Education because he was pushing hard for the liberalization of many areas of the economy, including port operation.
In his testimony before the Senate on the controversial $329-million contract that the government had awarded to Chinese firm ZTE Corp. for its national broadband network (NBN), Neri revealed that billionaire businessman-port operator Enrique Razon had threatened him if he opened the Manila port business to a competitor.
Razon, who is close to Mrs. Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, has denied he made the threat.
The President has cancelled the ZTE contract because of the controversy it has created.
Insofar as contracts and projects are concerned, De Venecia said the President should put these “beyond the influence of brokers, dealmakers and crony capitalists.”
He said the secrecy with which deals are being made “raises the liability of greater and more lucrative corrupt practices.”
De Venecia’s son Joey lll claims that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and resigned Chairman Benjamin Abalos of the Commission on Elections were the “coach” and “captain ball,” respectively, behind the ZTE-NBN deal. The two have denied the accusation.
Summing up his advocacies, the Speaker told Mrs. Arroyo: “Let us open up the regulated economy that continues to multiply opportunities for earning wealth without effort for people of influence and political entrepreneurs.” – Dess Diaz