Give stimulus a chance

Desired results can only be achieved with a sound plan or approach.

President Aquino’s fiscal stimulus package hopes to achieve a high macroeconomic impact through increased spending in infrastructure, public health, housing and transportation plus equity infusion in major government institutions.

It is apparent that the administration seeks to strengthen the working class while bent on closing the doors on corruption.

While easier said than done, the administration has established some measure of success particularly in the public works and highways department, which gets P5.5 billion from the stimulus package for various projects on roads, bridges and flood control that are quick disbursing and cost below P40 million.

At the same time, P11.5 billion has been allotted for the National Housing Authority to build in-city medium high rises to provide shelter for 20,000 informal settlers in the National Capital Region.  The fund will also cover the establishment of a Quezon City Business District by providing housing for North Triangle residents.

The LRT Authority also gets the much needed opportunity to repair first generation 30-year-old trains, upgrade the communication system apart from replacing all 152 units of air-conditioning for 18 trains and improve 11 train station facilities.

All told, the stimulus package is P72 billion and the depending on the absorption rate, which President Aquino is concerned with, another P20 billion could be added according to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

Timely execution inarguably could result into the desired high macroeconomic impact and more importantly achieve the other half of the goal that is to create jobs, activate public spending and repel the ill effects of the worldwide financial slowdown.

There are quarters who contend that with “only 10 weeks remaining in 2011,” the stimulus package cannot fly and that the administration is merely implementing a “catch-up job with a twist.”

There is also the opinion that government’s under spending in the previous quarters of the year is the motivating factor of the fiscal stimulus package.

Granting that these arguments are meritorious, the stimulus package still comes as a viable response to the general predicament which was triggered by the debt crisis in Europe and the fragile situation of the United States economy.

Further, the package has all the critical elements needed for the country to keep its head above water and allow Filipinos to participate actively in keeping the economy in motion.

While an exchange of views contributes to getting the job done, such must be healthy and strictly issues oriented as in the case of the administration’s stimulus package that is seemingly criticized on how it should be labelled.

The merits of the package can only be determined intelligently if the project list is allowed to take shape and the effects are quantified by the experts.

To expect this fiscal stimulus to have solid outcome within the last 10 weeks of 2011 is simply preposterous. This undertaking will carry over to 2012 and if Abad is to be believed, it will not affect the fiscal position next year.

In layman’s terms then, all we could do is monitor with vigilance and throw in the little we can do to help because it is everybody’s responsibility to back the government.  It’s the only one we’ve got.

An incredible witness

Recent hearings in connection with the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation in aid of legislation on alleged fraud in the 2004 and 2007 elections only managed to confuse observers.

This is because some of the invited resource persons seemed to be flip-flopping all over the place even if they had sworn on the Koran to tell the senators the truth, and nothing but the truth. 

Take the case of former Shariah circuit court judge Nagamura Moner, who had earlier claimed that he received money from a former official of the previous administration to commit fraud during the 2004 elections. But this claim was found to be baseless, unfounded and purely hearsay.

Now here is Moner saying that there was no poll fraud in 2004.

When asked by Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada what assurance he could give that he would not backtrack again in the next hearings, Moner said that that he even turned down an offer of a higher position in the previous government.

Moner also said that unlike in 2005 when he did not swear on the Koran, this time, he did.

Probably suspecting that Moner may be making his allegations now for financial considerations, Estrada also asked Moner how much he earned as an alleged poll operator in 2004.

Can someone like Moner, a self-confessed ‘poll fraud operator’ all of a sudden be credible just because this time, he took an oath on the Holy Book?

All his talk, observers say, only strengthens the public’s opinion that Moner is a master of double talk and must be impeached as a witness. They add that he seems to be the type of person ready to strike a deal with anybody at the right price.

 Moner, who was invited to the hearings to shed light on alleged election fraud committed in 2004, practically cleared former First Gentlemen Mike Arroyo and his wife, ex President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo of any involvement in the poll fraud.

What’s the deal this time?

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