Half-empty or half-full?

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile gives the two-year-old Aquino administration a passing grade, saying the economy is performing well based on the stability of the exchange rate, inflation and interest rates. He says that while employment generation has been sluggish, that is due in part to the economic problems of industrialized countries, including some members of the European Union, that affect our export industry.

The civil-society think tank Ibon Foundation Inc., however, sees things differently. It claims the national government has failed to create enough decent jobs for Filipinos and its efforts to lick poverty continued to be insufficient. Mr. Aquino’s daang matuwid reform agenda, it says, has failed to rein in economic growth that is inclusive and sustainable. It notes that while the country’s gross domestic product in the first quarter increased to 6.4 percent, this was mainly due to the temporary increase in government consumption.

The statistics are clear, says Ibon: The total number of unemployed and underemployed Filipinos increased by 780,000 in the last two years to 11.7 million in April 2012 from 10.9 million in April 2010. As of April 2012, there were 4.4 million unemployed and 7.3 million underemployed Filipinos. The group, however, recognizes that there were over 1 million jobs created in April 2012 and that unemployment over the past two years fell to 10.3 percent in 2012 from 11.4 percent in 2010.

The government and civil society differ not only on how they look at the economy, but also on how to address current economic problems.

Ibon fully supports the call of militant groups for the government to implement an across-the-board P125 wage increase.

Enrile, on the other hand, sees the economy improving under the Aquino administration with more jobs to be created as more big private companies start to join the Private-Public Partnership (PPP) programs through construction of more infrastructure throughout the country. “The economy will improve if the government will spend,” according to the veteran legislator.

Enrile goes further. He asserts that we need to change the economic structure of the country by amending the Constitution. “We have to open the country to foreign investments. That’s the way to hasten the economic vibrancy of the country.”

The view that the Philippines is being left behind by its neighbors in Asia because of the economic provision in the Constitution that prohibits full foreign ownership of enterprises does not sit well with civil-society groups. But it’s a powerful argument, supported by many local businessmen that the administration ought to seriously consider at this point.

Meantime, even as the administration’s popularity has dimmed somewhat after two years in office, it enjoys broad support from the international community.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is extending $1.87 billion in lending and technical assistance to the Philippines in the next three years. This is broken down into $600 million for 2013, $700 million for 2014 and $570 million for 2015 that will go to public-sector management, multisector projects that include disaster-risk management and social-protection projects, education and transportation. The ADB financing, says the National Economic Development Authority, involves $325 million in co-financing from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that will support projects on water supply, transportation and road improvements for the next three years.

Is the economic record of the Aquino administration the past two years half-empty or half-full? It depends, of course, on your political and perhaps even ideological standpoint. But it cannot be denied that, even as Malacañang concedes that much still has to be done, progress is being made in economic construction and in improving the lives of the people. If the administration stays the course, then the next four years could show significant gains in attaining inclusive and sustainable growth.