MANILA, Philippines - The government is prepared to sustain the country’s economic growth which reached a record 7.1 percent in the third quarter, President Aquino told a gathering of his party-mates in Cebu City Friday night.
He said various infrastructure projects are expected to fuel further growth in the months or years ahead even as consumer spending and remittances from overseas Filipino workers are expected to significantly contribute to the growth momentum.
“Now, with the recent strength of our economy, we’re hoping to not only to maintain that but to continue it,” Aquino told Liberal Party members in Mandaue City in Cebu before joining thousands of Catholics in a thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of St. Pedro Calungsod in Cebu City.
He cautioned, however, that there are challenges ahead, including a shaky world economy. “The challenges before us will not be met if there is no unity of purpose,” he added.
The Philippine economy expanded 7.1 percent in the third quarter, the fastest among Southeast Asian nations and just a bit slower than China’s 7.4 percent.
Officials said household spending, public construction and higher farm output boosted growth. Exports have also improved but trade made up a smaller proportion of the economy than in many other Asian nations. This has ironically cushioned the effects on the local economy of the weak growth in Europe, Japan and the United States.
The President, in his message to LP members and officials, explained the need for unity so that Filipinos can work together in steering the country to sustainable growth.
For the coming elections, he said he has to choose his allies carefully even as he stressed that there would be no “free zone” in Cebu because he would like to ensure that those in his camp know who the real “bosses” are.
“These people who we stand on the stage with, we can guarantee that they will perform and perform in the direction that you would want us to go to,” he said.
“Cebu has the potential and also has the problems... The allies, the friends that I found in Cebu, I will always treasure and definitely, I will stand by all of you,” Aquino said.
Aquino said that aside from having a level playing field among investors, political support for his administration should also be a factor in assessing whether his government is stable enough until 2016.
“Our group always says that the Filipino people are our bosses. Some others think that when they get into position, they are the boss and everybody else has to follow,” Aquino said.
He said that before his term ends, he wants to travel around the country and be able to squarely tell people: “I left you definitely a better place than what I found you in.”
He said one of the projects approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is the improvement of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport to accommodate 10 million arrivals by 2016.
“We are very confident that by 2016, you will have very close to 10 million arrivals...Now, the problem is Mactan International Airport was not designed to carry that load. So Phase 1 will take care of that new load. This is the terminal and extension of the apron,” Aquino said.
The President said both Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific were refleeting and that “our airlines collectively will be getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 110 new aircraft.”
He said Metro Manila airports alone cannot possibly accommodate the expected surge in tourist arrivals, thus the need to upgrade other airports.
He also said plans are underway for a Bus Rapid Transit System, which will be a cheaper alternative to light rail transit. He said part of the project is the establishment of exclusive roads for buses. A comprehensive program to improve traffic flow in Metro Manila is also being worked out.
The NEDA board approved on Thursday 11 projects worth more than P100 billion, mostly infrastructure.
Faster growth seen
House leaders, meanwhile, predicted faster economic growth for the country next year even as they attributed the better-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) performance in the third quarter to the anti-corruption and socio-economic reforms of the Aquino administration.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said local and foreign investors have been noticing the effects of President Aquino’s reform measures, including crucial laws on doing business in the country.
He, however, said the House would not be complacent, as much work remains to be done.
The Speaker earlier told a joint meeting of foreign and local business chambers that the House remains focused on five tasks, including sustaining the robust macroeconomy; focusing on attracting new investments; further boosting trade; making human capital the country’s greatest asset; and establishing a genuine peace and order situation.
Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco, vice chairman of the House committee on small business and entrepreneurship development, said the 7.1 percent growth in the GDP “can be sustained or be higher next year to some 8.5 percent given the midterm elections” in May.
“If government sustains infrastructure projects like public-private partnership (PPP) projects and P-Noy’s moral compass transcends and converges with decisive Cabinet officials, then there’s no way but up for the Philippines,” Haresco, an economist, said.
He cited Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, who was able to save 10 percent in infrastructure funds equivalent to billions of pesos “while energizing the countryside with infrastructure.”
“The Aquino government had been consistent in pursuing equitable and inclusive economic development which arrested any possibility of a runaway inflation rate,” the lawmaker said.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, chairman of the House committee on public information, said impressive third quarter growth and the improvement of Philippines’ ranking in Forbes’ Best Countries for Business List “are clear indications that our country is headed towards a brighter economic outlook for the Filipino people.”
He said while the economies of the rest of the world, including neighboring countries, are in turmoil, the Philippines “is spiraling upwards.”
“The fact that we edged out China and India in the Forbes’ list of Best Countries for Business is something that we can be proud of and at the same time serve as a challenge for all of us not only to help sustain but to improve some more,” Evardone said.
“And these can be done only if all sectors will continue to embrace the reformist agenda of President Aquino and his desire to stamp out corruption in all levels of society,” he said.
Down the line
Meanwhile, Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara said yesterday that the country’s economic growth should trickle down to and be felt by the poor.
Angara said the challenge for the government is to “ensure that the benefits of growth are felt by all, especially the poor.”
“A great number of Filipinos remain impoverished. Many find it hard to believe pronouncements that the economy is improving, when their lives are hardly getting better,” he said.
“To make a real difference in their lives, we must be able to provide opportunities for individuals and families to prosper, whether through employment or entrepreneurship,” he said.
“Every Filipino must be able to actually feel the growth of the economy. All of us must feel that we are a part of it. Equitable growth – that should be our goal,” he added.
The Philippines has the widest income gap between the rich and the poor in the whole of Southeast Asia, ahead of Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Laos, he said.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), for its part, sees more decent jobs for the people as a result of the 7.1 percent GDP growth.
Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said with the growing economy, more investors would like to come to the Philippines.
“It is in the manufacturing industry where the hard and long-term jobs are,” Baldoz said. – With Jess Diaz, Mayen Jaymalin