The President’s Men and Women: NEDA welcomes familiar face

MANILA, Philippines – After some delays, the socioeconomic planning portfolio was finally turned over to economist Cayetano Paderanga Jr. in a simple ceremony last Monday.

Paderanga is not new to the National Economic and Development Authority(NEDA), having served as its director general and as socioeconomic planning secretary from 1990 to 1992.

Augusto Santos, who acted as socioeconomic planning secretary and NEDA chief during the transition period, welcomed Paderanga to the agency.

He said that Paderanga has agreed with his “simple formula to address the economic situation of the country.”

“The formula I shared with him is simple: Low economic growth plus high population growth equals low individual or household income,” Santos said.

As such, Santos said the key is to increase productivity so that the economy can absorb higher population growth, which stood at roughly 94 million.

During the turnover ceremony at the head office of the NEDA in Ortigas, Paderanga vowed to formulate an effective economic blueprint for the Aquino administration.

He said there would be a review of the Medium Term Development Plan, the six-year economic blueprint of every administration.

While he did not specify yet what sectors or areas he would focus on, Paderanga said the general goal is to increase the country’s productivity so that it can absorb high population growth and in turn translate this into economic development.

This general focus is to achieve the Aquino administration’s economic growth goal.

The Aquino administration maintained the previous administration’s target of five percent to six percent growth for the current year and raised next year’s target range to seven percent to eight percent from 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent, along with an expected recovery in the economy. In the first quarter of the year, the economy grew by 7.3 percent.

The official turnover of the NEDA portfolio to Paderanga faced some weeks of delay after allegations of corruption surfaced against him, mostly in newspaper columns.

The reports quoted former Foreign Affairs secretary Roberto Romulo that there were questions on the professional ethics of Paderanga when he was president of the Credit Investigation Bureau Inc. (CIBI).

Furthermore, the reports said that Romulo, who was chairman of CIBI when Paderanga was its president, asked Paderanga to resign after a private audit conducted on the financial statements of CIBI uncovered questionable transactions.

Paderanga had denied the allegations and explained himself to Mr. Aquino.

As such, Aquino retained Paderanga as NEDA chief despite the controversy.

Paderanga, who has a doctorate in economics from Stanford University, took graduate studies in Industrial Economics at the Center for Research and Communication in 1972.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from De La Salle University in 1968.

Currently, he is a professor of economics at the University of the Philippines School of Economics.

He has served as chairman of the board of the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis (IDEA) and Foundation for Integrative and Development Studies (FIDS).

During Paderanga’s earlier stint with NEDA from 1990 to 1992 and from 1993 to 1999, he also served as a member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

He was also chairman of the Philippine Social Science Council (1999 to 2001) and president of the Philippine Economics Society (1998 to 1999).

Outside government, he served as executive director and alternate executive director at the Asian Development Bank for the Philippines, Pakistan, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia and Kazakhstan in 2001 and 2001-2003 respectively.

In 2004, he also served as president of the Philippine Stock Exchange. –Iris Gonzales (The Philippine Star)