Business leaders rue ‘missed opportunities’

By Luis Leoncio

As President Aquino moves toward the homestretch of his six-year term, more and more leaders of the local business sector are coming out to dispute his claimed achievements, citing “missed opportunities” that they say defined his term.

Makati Business Club (MBC) Chairman Ramon del Rosario, also president and CEO of diversified Phinma Corp., noted the administration’s failure to pass the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, which aimed to mandate transparency in the dissemination of government data under Mr. Aquino and would have set an example to be followed to succeeding administrations.

Despite making the passage of the FoI bill his campaign promise in 2010, no less than the President himself opposed its enactment and had given unmistakable signals to his allies in both chambers of Congress to enact the bill only if there was an assurance of the passage of a counter-measure like the right-of-reply law.

“Although President Benigno Aquino III’s administration has adhered to transparency values, the legislation would have served to institutionalize these gains for future administrations,” del Rosario told the Oxford Business Group (OBG) in its annual situationer on the Philippines regarding the need for the FoI Act.

Even the World Bank, in a report on the economy, cited the enactment of the FoI Act as necessary for the growth momentum to be sustained. It said an FoI law guarantees transparency in the government, which foreign investors look for.

Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman and CEO of Ayala Corp., cited the need to reorient the labor policy of the government away from the mere export of Filipino manpower, particularly as the country becomes part of the Asean economic bloc before the end of the year.

“Within Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], there is even more room for Filipino-worker employment to grow, as most overseas workers, some 67 percent of all deployments, go to the Middle East. However, I believe such an arrangement has a natural ceiling. If too many workers leave the Philippines, it puts a dent in the country’s potential for further economic growth,” he told OBG in its Philippines report.

“Meanwhile, in the countries that receive large volumes of Filipino workers, a similar backlash may also occur, as the influx of foreign workers could be perceived as taking jobs away from qualified citizens,” he added.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) President Ramon Ang said the trumpeted private-public partnership (PPP) programs would have potentially provided Filipinos increased job opportunities, but the projects envisioned under the PPP “have been slower than most of us expected.”

SMC has been a major participant in most of the PPP projects already rolled out.

“The Philippines has more than enough talented engineers, technical workers and skilled workers capable of helping bring about major projects… but this became a problem as many of our best talents are probably working abroad,” Ang said.

He said the PPP program and the acceleration of infrastructure and development projects would have provided more job opportunities at home for talented Filipino workers.

Another missed opportunity, according to Ang, is power supply keeping with the steady economic growth.

“To meet our country’s growth targets, we need to meet first its power requirements and have enough capacity for future growth,” Ang said.

Ang said SMC was investing heavily in the power sector to provide for more growth potentials.

“Currently, [SMC is] constructing two new power plants that we hope would go a long way toward providing adequate and consistent power supply in Luzon as well as in the Mindanao and Visayas regions,” he said.

Ang said while there’s a lot of interest in PPP projects from local and foreign firms, “perhaps what needs to be done is to build our country’s image as a compelling investment destination that offers a level playing field and consistency in support and regulation.

Peter Coyiuto, president and CEO of First Life Financial Co. said a chief enabler of income growth is improved infrastructure driven by both public and private spending.

“If development in infrastructure is not pushed, the gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow more than 5 to 6 percent, whereas in a country like the Philippines, it should amount to 8 percent considering its population growth rate of 2 percent a year,” he said.

“Better infrastructure would strengthen connectivity and unlock the potential of economic sectors that will then generate more wealth and more insurable citizens,” he added.

Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President Alfred Yao said the Philippines has myriad local products that can successfully compete against their foreign counterparts.

“They include Champion for laundry detergents, Hapee for toothpaste, EQ for diapers, Ca for flavored drinks,” he said. “This is multibillion-dollar proof that we can be globally competitive, and these companies have strategies that are increasingly relevant as we open our borders to Asean brands, products and services, and as we compete in their local markets.”

But Yao added that among local products, sustainability remains an issue “that requires both the right business environment and the political will to sustain it.”

Prof. Benjamin Diokno of the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE) said that for the economy to be sustainable, the next administration should recalibrate policies toward job creation.

“This can be accomplished by focusing on construction and agriculture. Public construction should be large and small, urban and rural based,” said the former budget secretary.