EDITORIAL - Narrowing the gap

He’s seen as a man who likes simple living – someone whose plain language and casual attire have won him mass support. He’s also the first president in a long while who was not born to wealth or to a nationally prominent political clan.

So President Duterte, who sleeps under a mosquito net in his middle-income home in Davao City, should have a firmer understanding of inclusive economic growth – or the lack of it in this country.

Achieving inclusion will take more than destroying the oligarchs, as he has threatened to do during his watch. What it will take is far more complicated: a reform of the structures that have allowed yawning income disparities to persist, and created a ruling class of the enormously wealthy and politically entrenched.

This privileged class accounts for only a miniscule fraction of the entire population. But because they are the ones in government or have the financial muscle to influence policy making, the nation’s laws, rules and systems are designed mostly in their favor. President Duterte, who has often said he does not owe his election victory to any of these traditional power players, is expected to break this “capture” by the elite.

In a new index created by the World Economic Forum, the Philippines ranked a middling 40th among 79 developing states in terms of fostering inclusive growth and development. The WEF’S Inclusive Growth and Development Report ranks countries based on criteria that are seen to provide a broader gauge of economic progress than Gross Domestic Product growth. GDP is just one of the elements considered in the WEF’s Inclusive Development Index or IDI, which covers 109 economies.

The WEF noted that the Philippines has seen its score fall steadily in the IDI in the past five years, with declines registered in almost all performance indicators. Reversing this trend is a challenge that President Duterte must meet.