The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The integrity of the Makati Business Club’s (MBC) Executive Outlook Survey is being questioned by the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay, which said the 67 wealthy members of the MBC “cannot represent” the sentiment of all Filipinos nationwide.
The survey, taken by MBC among senior business executives from July 6 to August 7, cited the Office of the Vice President (OVP), the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) as the three worst agencies of the government.
On the other hand, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), and the Department of Tourism (DOT) were deemed the best.
Joining the BSP, the Peza, and the DOT in the Top 5 of the ranking of the MBC survey were the Department of Foreign Affairs and Pagasa, which were tied for fourth place. The MBC said the survey was undertaken through fax and online survey among MBC members.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., in a statement, said results of the survey reflected the business community’s confidence in departments and agencies in the economic and financial management sector.
”The survey results mirror and affirm the vote of confidence extended by the international community to the country as reflected in successive upgrades in investment ratings, as well as significant improvement in global competitiveness rankings,” he said.
Coloma also noted that the ranking of the Office of the President (OP) improved from No. 36 to 27 after garnering a net satisfaction rating of +29.5 percent.
But he traced the drop in the OVP’s ranking to No. 64 from 33 in the survey for same period last year to “the Vice President’s criticisms against the administration in the aftermath of his resignation from the Cabinet.”
The Binay camp said the respondents were not representative of public sentiment. The OVP primarily serves the poor sector of the society not the well-heeled MBC members, said Joey Salgado, head of the OVP media affairs, adding that, “If they (MBC members) did not benefit from the services rendered by the OVP, this is because they have the means to get health care from the most expensive hospitals in the country and abroad.”
He continued: “With all due respect, 67 wealthy businessmen in Makati cannot represent the sentiment of our people nationwide. They cannot be expected to give a true and objective assessment of the performance of all government agencies, most especially the OVP,” he added.
Besides, Salgado added, “there are MBC members with long-held biases against the Vice President and his family. Then there are MBC officials, like its executive director, who were present at the anointment of Sec. Mar Roxas as Pnoy’s chosen one.”
The MBC members are the businessmen who have profited from this administration’s economic policy that embraces the rich and excludes the poor, Salgado said. They want to continue the inequality under an administration that is “pro-business,” he added.
Rounding up the Top 10 best performing agencies were the Department of Finance (DOF), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Board of Investments (BoI), and the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Thirty-eight out of the 64 government agencies and offices included in the survey also received positive net satisfaction ratings, with 31 agencies improving on their rankings from 2014.
Based on their rankings from 2014, the most improved agencies were the Senate (+26), the House of Representatives (+13), the Department of Trade and Industry, the Board of Investments, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Budget and Management (all got +11).
Twenty-four agencies, on the other hand, received negative net satisfaction ratings, with the OVP (64th), the DOTC (63rd), the BOC (62nd), the Department of Agriculture (61st) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (60th) landing at the bottom five. Luis Leoncio