Economist-congressman Joey Salceda of Albay defended on Sunday (May 17) the Duterte administration's Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) program, particularly from criticism that it's just a way to “dump the urban poor [in] the provinces.
Economist-congressman Joey Salceda of Albay defended on Sunday the Duterte administration’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program, particularly from criticism that it’s just a way to “dump the urban poor [in] the provinces.
”Salceda, chairman of the House ways and means committee, claimed that critics were “misreading the executive order” that contained the BP2 program, meanig Executive Order No. 114 signed last May 6. “The EO was very clear: urban congestion is not the main problem, but is a symptom of something larger and more structural. The EO was explicit about the policy pronouncement: ‘the uncontrolled upsurge in the NCR brings to the fore longstanding issues on the lack of viable and sustainable opportunities in the countryside, unbalanced regional development, and unequal distribution of wealth,'” he said. “I don’t know where they get the idea that the EO wants to dump the poor [in] the countryside without addressing the underlying issues,” Salceda added of those assailing the program. He further described the Palace directive as a signal to government agencies to embark on the building of a “truly Filipino system, where the countryside and the cities are both engines of growth and development, and where opportunities are equitably distributed between the rural and urban Philippines.” The BP2 program is viewed as an offshoot of learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, it is consistent with the Duterte administration’s mantra of countryside development. Salceda, a co-chair of the economic stimulus cluster of the House Defeat COVID-19 Committee , said that BP2 is in line with the key principles of “Dutertenomics,” which is the core of the President’s socioeconomic agenda. “Dutertenomics has always been guided by the simple principle that all Filipinos deserve a comfortable life. That the urban dweller and those in rural areas deserve the same level of comfort and are entitled to a just share of national development. That’s why we in Congress have responded in earnest: with such policies as CITIRA , a reform that is structurally biased towards countryside development; and with our support for Build, Build, Build and key reforms in agriculture,” he enumerated.“The critics make it sound like you can only attend to either the city or the countryside. That’s not the way we govern. They’re thinking as if there is a socioeconomic discontinuity between NCR and the rest of the Philippines. There is none,” he said. “If you can develop the countryside and arrest rapid congestion in highly-urbanized cities, you can make conditions more humane in those cities. If you can develop value-chains in the countryside, you make affordable, higher-quality goods available in the city. And if you can lay-out a sustainable way of governing the city, you prevent sprawl from eventually invading the countryside. BP2 says that in other words very clearly,” added the former longtime Albay governor. Salceda also says that his office is coming up with proposals for a “green, high-tech economy” that will reshape the country’s framework for development. “As long as you have a digitally-enabled economy, why would you have to move to Manila if you can work in Albay and serve a customer abroad? Why would you have to move to Manila if you have a robust agricultural and agribusiness sector in the provinces?” he asked. He noted that while COVID-19 unsettled the country’s economic structures, there’s always a chance to fix it. “As United Nations Green Climate Fund co-chair once, I think there is no better chance to restructure our economy around the principles of balanced regional distribution and modern, inclusive, and sustainable value chains than now.” “The critics will lodge the old talking points, but the President’s instincts here are correct. We need to build both sustainable cities and a progressive countryside,” the Bicol congressman said.
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