by Andrea Lucas
The economic growth boasted of by the Aquino administration belies the dismal conditions of the country’s backbone sectors, which remain backward even as President Benigno Aquino III concludes his term, according to independent think tank IBON Foundation.
In its yearend Birdtalk on January 21 at UP Diliman, IBON points out Aquino’s missteps in governance, such as globalization and privatization schemes which will haunt the country even beyond his term.
Historically speaking, the globalization framework has proven to be outdated and cannot solve the country’s problems, said IBON Executive Director Jose Enrique Africa.
Non-inclusive growth
The Aquino administration has consistently favored the finance, trade, and construction sectors as they provided the most profitable opportunities. With the continued rise of business process outsourcing companies, these sectors showed the most growth, increasing as much as a 69 percent in the first half of his term.
Real estate developments made by the private sector have also triggered a 43-percent rise in the country’s construction sector, while trade registered a 47-percent increase from the previous year.
Despite this growth, job creation has remained low throughout Aquino’s term, dropping to 6.4 from 7 percent in 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. As of April 2015, the number of part-time workers in the country has ballooned to around 40 percent of the labor force, or over 15.5 million Filipinos.
As a result, one out of four Filipinos remain poor, a number that has changed little from the past decade.
These growths are not sustainable since they are driven by foreign capital and the demand for cheap Filipino labor, explained IBON.
Nationalist and pro-people economic development are solutions that Aquino should have taken, with programs towards higher wages, national industrialization, higher taxes for the rich, and agrarian reform, said Africa.
While the Philippines remains an agricultural country, growth for the sector lagged behind at a mere 1.6 percent in 2015. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program has also failed to redistribute land among farmers, with nine out of 10 still landless more than two decades after the act was first implemented.
Persisting problems
Come the election of a new president, the country’s problems will persist, as none of the presidential bets have given thought to programs such as genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization, added Africa.
In addition, the Aquino administration has become marked by political favoritism, as shown by the number of political clans participating in politics, with a total of 270 families during the 2010 elections.
Familiar names like Binay and Marcos will vie once again for top spots in the upcoming elections. Aquino has also endorsed Manuel Roxas III’s bid for the presidency.
This setup will make it easier for the Liberal Party to replicate its landslide victories in 2010 and 2013 in the next elections, as the Philippine electorate has essentially become name-recall, according to IBON Executive Editor Rosario Bella Guzman.
“The conduct of Philippine elections is still dictated by the ruling party in order to maintain the status quo. The people’s victory must then be that of analysis and action,” Guzman added.