He was a very serious researcher about poverty, especially the poverty of our people before he was appointed Economic Planning Secretary and NEDA director-general. Unlike many co-opted appointees, however, who forget their advocacy and even their ideology once the perks and privileges of power get into their system, Secretary Arsenio M. Balicasan has remained true to his commitment for the poor and has not forgotten to remind all that economic growth alone is not the goal: inclusive growth is.
As a researcher, he presents the latest report about the health of the nation in very clear terms. Those aware of his commitment to include the millions of poor in the path and journey to real inclusive growth can easily discern his honest and consistent loud message that the present economic growth left certain very important sectors behind. Yet, if lessons are learned and collective effort shared, then there remains hope for the future, according to Secretary Balicasan.
Please note that in contrast to press reports that focus on the 5.3 growth, Secretary Balicasan himself admits that this growth, while positive, falls short of the 7 per cent growth for the same quarter in 2013.He is also first to admit that they face the big challenge of attaining the 8.2 per cent target growth rate for the 4th quarter.
Media reports focus on the growth of the economy, which is, of course, always good news for this country. Secretary Balicasan points out the good news as follows:
"Growth in production was mainly contributed by manufacturing, trade, real estate, renting & business activities, and construction. On the demand side, the growth was fuelled by net exports, private construction, and food and non-alcoholic beverages"
Secretary Balicasan also explained the challenges amidst slow but steady administrative steps towards transparency and accountability.
"Public construction contracted from a double digit growth of 19.1 percent to -6.2 percent. Most of the delays were due to lags in the submission of documentary requirements by the concerned agencies. Although this year, the GAA is now considered a release document, for certain big ticket items, the GAA stipulates certain conditions prior to budget release. Mostly, the requirement is for agencies to situate its proposed projects within the context of already existing facilities. DepEd's Basic Educational Facilities Program had to wait for the completion of calamity-resilient building designs. In addition, they had to relocate some schools in the Yolanda-affected areas either because its original location is deemed unsafe or because the student population in the previous location has declined significantly. The detailed plans for the reconstruction of the Yolanda-affected areas had to be prepared by the concerned local government units and national agencies, then consolidated by the OPARR, before funds could be released."
More importantly, he reminds everyone about including the poor among the food producers in inclusive growth. "By far, the biggest decline is observed in the Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry sector, by -2.7 percent. Crop production, which accounts for 44.5 percent of the total output of the sector, contracted (-5.0%). The losses mostly came from palay (-10.0%), corn (-5.8%), coconut including copra (-5.8%), and the aggregated "other crops" (-3.5%). Palay production was adversely affected by typhoons "Glenda and "Luis", onset of "habagat". Regarding coconut, farms in the Visayas are yet to recover from Typhoon "Yolanda" in addition to the scale insect infestation. There were modest gains in hog production (1.6%), but poultry production decreased (-3.7%) during the quarter. This was due to the damage brought about by Typhoon "Glenda" on major poultry houses in CALABARZON. Currently, these poultry houses as well as those in the Yolanda-damaged areas are still in the process of building their layer inventories. The fisheries sector was also severely affected by typhoon Glenda."
On balance, Secretary Balicasan ends his report as follows, still on an optimistic note- "Going forward, do we see a brighter prospect? The short answer is "yes."
"We expect the private sector to maintain a robust performance; government will have adjusted to the new protocols and we see this in the most recent, though preliminary data coming from DBM. And the reconstruction assistance in the Yolanda-affected areas is already gaining traction."
"We are also taking stock of the lessons here: agencies will have to be adequately prepared and capacitated to comply with new protocols. And more importantly, we need to improve our resilience against disasters - through better preparedness, through adaptation, through adequate social protection and through having a faster response mechanism."
With 2 more years remaining, will Secretary Balicasan and his team see inclusive growth benefitting the millions of poor Filipinos during their term?