OPINION | The economic team: Deodorant that has lost its fragrance By Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. READ:
By Oscar P. Lagman, Jr.
The business sector was much relieved when the presumptive president announced that his economic team would be composed of Benjamin Diokno as Secretary of Finance, Felipe Medalla as Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas , and Arsenio Balisacan as Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority . The Philippine Stock Exchange Index gained 47.76 points, to 6,645.52 while the broader All-Shares Index went up by 14.61 points to 3,568.65.
A shortage of supply of sugar in the domestic market was noted in late July this year, leading to an increase in the price of the commodity. On Aug. 9, the top officials of the Sugar Regulatory Administration placed an order for the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar to fill the gap in production. Leocadio Sebastian, Undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture, signed the order on behalf of President Marcos, who is Secretary of Agriculture and concurrently SRA chairman.
Sovereign wealth funds usually solve a problem of excess. Some examples are excess revenues in a situation of consistent large budget surpluses, windfall revenues from booming extractive industries, and excess foreign currency reserves from enduring balance of payments surpluses. They are invested abroad to help stem currency overvaluation. But the Philippines does not have any excess.
Economic think tank Action for Economic Reforms said that a number of former government officials, faculty members and professor emeriti of UP and the Ateneo de Manila University, and some representatives of the civil society and private sector have released a statement calling for the junking of the proposed SWF.
National Scientist in Economics Raul Fabella said in an interview with ANC, “We had sovereign wealth fund bills in the past. They did not get traction at all, it got traction only when BBM became president, and the Speaker of the House is of course very close . It gives you a lingering suspicion that something is being rushed before we wake up. That is very, very disturbing, in the Philippines, the concentration of funds tends to disappear because of our weak rule of law.
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