Government forms team to ensure continuity in eco governance

Government has formed a crack team to conduct a day-to-day monitoring of the economy during the ongoing impeachment trial and possibly position itself as a transitory body to ensure continuity in economic governance should there be a change in leadership.

Documents from the Economic Mobilization Group (EMG) revealed that a multi-sectoral core group has been formed in anticipation of a "crisis situation" resulting from the impeachment trials.

The document made reference to what it called "transition period" during which there would be a need to manage economic governance, regardless of who is President.

The document revealed that the core group would be composed of officials from the Office of the Executive Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Finance, Department of Agriculture, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the National Economic and Development Authority.

The core group would also have representatives from the private sector through the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Philippine Industries, Employers Confederation of the Philippines and the Asian Institute of Management.

At present, the EMG is a multi-sectoral body headed by the DTI, supporting its Cabinet counterpart, the Economic Coordinating Council (ECC) headed by the DOF and the President himself.

According to the document, however, the EMG is the only body with the mandate and multisectoral coverage sufficient to respond to a potential crisis situation. The core group’s first task would be to determine a set of selected economic parameters for monitoring on a daily basis in order to provide early warning signals and feedback for "timely intervention."

The EMG document shows that the economy had been adversely affected by varied internal and external factors. "To date, damage to the economy due to the political crisis has yet to be assessed," it said.

With the huge fiscal deficit, the EMG warned that a "systematic breakdown" may be "difficult to forestall."

"The call of the combined opposition is for the President to leave his office no later than mid-December 2000," the document revealed. "Otherwise, more protests and crippling civil disobedience is expected to pressure him to resign."

"Even if a new President were to be installed within the immediate future, the transition, with regard to economic governance, would still need to be managed," the document pointed out.

According to the EMG, the economy is expected to keep deteriorating until the political crisis is resolved. The group said all indicators point to at least another three months during which the crisis would linger, even without factoring the impact and implications of the coming 2001 elections.– Des Ferriols