Money & Manny For Pinoy and Poverty

Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura? Nagpasko ka na ba sa gitna ng kalsada? Iyan ang tanong naming, tunay ka bang isa sa amin? I am in no doubt that you heard these lines, not just once but for a number of times. You may have chuckled at it the first time you heard it but I would pose a question on you, is not this something that was able to picture out the lives of our inopportune brothers and sisters here in our country? Is not this something that is in reality happening in our country? If you say no, I would ask you to think again. Hey, where did you really come from?

Philippines is experiencing economic fluctuations every now and then. For some point in time, we are undergoing an increase in the total production of our goods and services due to various economic factors such as the increase in labor force, increase in capital stock and advancement in technology. During these periods, those who are in the business firms engage in economic expansion. This results to a better standard of living for the Filipinos. But nonetheless, there are also years wherein this positive growth takes place. There are years that we do experience a decline in the real incomes and increasing unemployment rate in the country. During this period, what business firms do is economic contraction. And if this scenario gets worst, it would be a severe recession for the Philippines.

This economic condition does not bring any benefit to the people and to our country. Through the macroeconomic theory, the government will be able to stabilize the economy. The government must make use of the monetary and fiscal policy. If there is low aggregate demand, the government must boost up their spending, cut taxes and inflate money supply. However, if the aggregate demand is high then it must do the other way around. Indeed, the government officials must be able to take full advantage of this macroeconomic theory in order to reach a more stable economy which would be of advantage to each and every Filipino.

Nalaman mo na bang mapag-aaral ka niya? Tutulungan tayo para magkatrabaho at ang kanyang plano ay magkabahay tayo. As a Public Administrator, these are the national issues the 2010 Presidential Candidate, Manny Villar would like to concentrate on. The main driving force of his platform is liberating the Filipinos from poverty and injustice. He would accomplish this by his self-reliant and sustainable development programs which could be made possible through implementing agrarian reform, increasing agricultural productivity and developing domestic industries. He would also move the spotlight on the problems of environmental destruction, climate change and returning calamities. He will provide priority to education, health, housing and other basic social services. Ensuring social equity and respect for human rights are also his main concerns. Lastly, he would want to have a foreign policy which is based on respect for national sovereignty and ensure that these foreign policies would be the benefit of parties concerned and not only of a particular country.

On agriculture and rural development, Manny Villar seeks development of agricultural lands and will provide livelihood opportunities since it would raise the standard of living of Filipinos living in the rural areas and it would increase manpower productivity. He would also provide support to farmers through providing them with agricultural inputs and post-harvest facilities and forward and backward linkages, access to technology, and micro-finance to those who are in the rural industries. If ever elected, he would like to the government official to review the policy on trade liberalization. It would be a good idea if our country would export our good and services if and only if the world price and comparative advantage would be in favor of us. If we do have low domestic price then that would be a sign that our country could be a good competitor and exporter of that particular good or service. However, if we do have a high domestic price then it would be a drawback for us since it is the other countries which would get the comparative advantage and it will make us the importer of that particular good or service. Moreover, Manny Villar would push for the review and corrections of various trade and investment policies of the Philippines which only poses inconvenience to us. Trade and Investment Policies must be based on agreements that would be reciprocally advantageous to the Philippines and the Filipinos.

Undeniably, Philippines has a high poverty rate which means that the percentage of the population whose family income below poverty line is high. To be able to reduce the poverty case here in our country, the government must be able to come up with policies such as minimum-wage laws, welfare programs that would serve as an increment to the incomes of the needy, put up a tax system that would collect revenue from high-income households and give in-kind transfers to low-income households and carry out antipoverty programs and make work incentives available since People respond to incentives.

To give solution to the poverty problems in the Philippines, he sees the promotion of viable manufacturing sector as one of the keys to economic growth. He will prioritize an entrepreneur-friendly and entrepreneur-ready environment. He sees entrepreneurship as a long-term solution to unemployment problems in the country. According to him, we should remove the old epitome of Philippine schools preparing students to be employees. What we need to do is to craft a new generation of entrepreneurs. We need more job providers to respond to the increasing number of job-seekers. He believes that the country’s projected annual employment gap can be bridged by turning to entrepreneurship rather than waiting for the global economy to recover. This is one of his platforms that would really make me vote for him. I do share the same way of ideology with him since I do also believe that Poverty is an Option and there are lots of opportunities out there. If you cannot find one then make an opportunity for yourself rather than sitting around the corner and counting posts.

In his term, he would develop local industries through making subsidies and loans and technical support from the government available. Exploration of the provisions for government subsidies and tax relief for Filipino Industrialists will be done to encourage local investors to engage in manufacturing businesses. The investments for these manufacturing businesses would come from the public sectors alone but also with the help of those in the private sphere.

Manny Villar aims to stabilize the economy to manage the fluctuations in our country. Because if the economic fluctuations would continue, it would have an unhelpful impact on the spending of the government and households and even have an effect on the aggregate demand for goods and services. If this happens, there will also be a decrease the in the production of goods and services. When the outputs produced by the Philippines dwindle, the unemployment cases in the country would amplify. It is for a reason that the output of goods and services are interconnected with the economy’s exploitation of its labor force. Just like for example, if a particular corporation in the country decides to lower its production then it would only need smaller number of people to be employed to be able to meet the projected number of outputs of the company. This is another explanation why he would want to thrust for the support for viable manufacturing sector. Through this sector, jobs will be provided and it would trim down our reliance on products produced outside the Philippines. This would also result to Filipinos having the nationalistic consciousness to make use of and pay money for locally produced goods, domestic jobs generation will be sustained and outmigration of Filipinos to foreign countries will be thoroughly reduced.

Through the years, we have seen how the debt of our country has bloated. And if this continues, the share of each person’s debt would also swell. This does not only impinge on those who are at the present, citizens of the Philippines however it would even have more undesirable effect on the next generations of Filipinos. It would be a burden for them since they will be placed in circumstances wherein they have to decide whether to pay higher taxes or enjoy less government spending just to be able to pay the debt and its accumulated interest. Worse decision is not to bother about it now and let the next generations handle this economic problem. Manny Villar would dynamically pursue a variety of forms of debt relief from global financial institutions and foreign banks and prioritize the distribution of these funds to basic social services and growth of agriculture and industry. As a consequence, the government really needs to have a balanced budget because it would be one way of getting greater national saving, investment and economic growth. It would mean a better future for the next generations of Filipinos.

Another plan of action of Manny Villar is to performance of good governance and exercising public accountability. As stated in the Constitution, A Public Office is A Public Trust. If ever elected, he would hold the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other Public Official who have violated the law for involving themselves in activities such as robbery of public funds, electoral scam, gross human rights violations and the cover-up of these crimes. No one is above the law. Every Public Official who has cases of graft and corruption must be prosecuted and justice must be given to those whose rights were infringed. He would promote transparency by making statement of liabilities and net worth of public officials accessible to the eyes of the public. Through this way, we will be able to improve the way other country see us and not as most corrupt country in Asia.

He does not only focus on economic sectors and political activities within the national territory however he would also want to build good relationship with the external states. He would prop up and enhance trade relations with our Asian Neighbors in the spirit of equal opportunity and mutually favorable agreements.

First principle of Economics, People face trade-offs. In the process of attaining all these platforms of government by Manny Villar, it is inevitable that there would be some things that would not be given too much focus or things must be given up. One example is with the plan of Manny Villar to dynamically pursue a variety of forms of debt relief from global financial institutions. With this, the only fear that I have is when our country becomes too dependent from other financial institutions outside the Philippines in financing the programs of the government. However, this is less likely to happen if the Government will be able to raise enough financial resources and with the backing of other non-government and private sectors in the country to support their programs and activities. Another one is regarding the plan to develop local industries through making subsidies and loans and technical support from the government available. The only danger with this is when the Government releases too much money for lending which results to a negative supply of loanable funds. But nonetheless, this can be prevented if the Philippine financial system would that the loanable funds are in balance and the national savings of the country is not negative. Lastly, the Exploration of the provisions for government subsidies and tax relief for Filipino Industrialists will be done to encourage local investors to engage in manufacturing businesses which has the dangers of posing threat on our environment because of too much exploitation of our natural resources. However, this can be avoided through mitigating measures by the concerned executive department like the DENR.

If Manny Villar will be elected as the president and his platforms of government will be implemented, I would assure you that Philippines in the succeeding years will have a government that upholds the public good, morals, intelligence, social justice, good health, Happiness and prosperity of the Filipinos. Vote for Manny Villar this May 2010 because Si Villar ang tunay na mahirap. Si Villar ang tunay na may malasakit. Si Villar ang may kakayahan na gumawa ng sariling pangalan. Si Manny Villar ang magsasagot sa ating kahirapan. Money and Manny for Pinoy and Poverty.