Building the country after the elections

The election is over. All we are waiting for is the final official result. Whoever eventually wins will need the support and cooperation of everyone, all sectors of society including the losing parties and their supporters, in order for the country to leave behind the divisions and bitterness of the last political exercise and thereafter move on to the serious and urgent business of nation-building.

In fact, nation-building is much like building any structure such as a house. A house, to be livable and comfortable must have all the essential components like the walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, foundations and all other parts that makes for a complete home. A country, in like manner, for its people to live a good quality of life, must have in place all the vital components of a modernized society in the form of infrastructure like roads, highways, bridges, ports, airports, railways, schools, markets, hospitals and government buildings, as well as utilities such as power, water and telecommunications facilities. In addition, the country must be able to produce its own essential goods and services for its people such as food, clothing, shelter, education, medical care and also care and protection of the environment.

Obvious in this enumeration is that the most important assets of a country are its land and its people. The land is the physical metes and bounds upon which all the above-mentioned infrastructure and utilities will be placed and upon which the nation’s requirements for food, clothing and shelter will be sourced. Needless to state, it will be the people who shall work on this land that is dedicated to its highest and best use.

For the people, however, to properly and optimally work on the land to its highest and best use and thereby move the country to progress and prosperity, they must be endowed with certain values, qualities and attitude that bids well for nationhood. In a nutshell, they comprise the five "loves" namely: "love for God", "love for country", "love for fellowmen", "love for work" and "love for learning".

Verily, a country whose citizens are genuinely imbued with these five loves will make for a people that is God-fearing, patriotic, civic-minded, skilled and learned, and with a passion to apply their knowledge to honest work – ingredients for a truly successful country and people.

The twin side that makes for a successful country apart from a citizenry imbued with the five loves above-stated is a nation led and governed by good leaders. It is essential, therefore, that the people elect into public office candidates who possess the requisite qualifications, characters and values that assure quality leadership.

It is unfortunate in the Philippines that the great majority of our voters have this feeling of resignation that whoever wins in the elections would not matter to them as the chosen leaders would not make any difference in their lives anyway. With this feeling of indifference many of our voters, the poor and needy especially, succumb to the immoral proferrings of some candidates who buy the voters’ votes. With such a mindset on the part of a candidate of what public office is and how to get there, it is no wonder that the end result will be public servants who look upon the office to recoup their election expense with a big profit to boot. Graft and corruption becomes endemic to the system. As for us, we get the government that we deserve.

To break this vicious cycle, we propose that our leaders, both the elected and the appointed, be given a salary and remuneration that is commensurate and in keeping with the responsibilities of their high office. As it is, the salary scale of our President down to the municipal councilor is so abjectly low that the temptation to use their public powers for private gain becomes irresistible at times. In this regard, we propose that the President should receive a salary twice that of the highest paid executive in the Philippines, the Vice-President as much as the highest paid executive, and the Senators down to the Congressmen, Governors, Mayors and Councilors a wage that is decent for their respective positions. Then we can then expect from them the best service they can give to the people without temptations of graft and corruption on their part.

Aside from a land resource that is committed to its highest and best use as well as a human resource that is endowed with the five loves as earlier stated and a leadership that is committed to the welfare of the people, a fourth and equally vital factor in the attainment of progress and prosperity is the proper role and attitude of our government institutions that relate to local businesses and corporations.

In this regard, we are very happy to note that, in the spirit of assisting companies in dire starts due to the effects of the Asian currency and financial crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission under the able stewardship of Chairman Lilia Bautista has gone out of its way by helping these enterprises liquidate some of their assets.

Take the example of the College Assurance Plan (CAP), one of our largest pre-need companies. Chairman Bautista went the extra mile by bringing together CAP officials and representatives of the Philippine Veterans Bank in order to explore ways and means for the PVB to liquidate some of the non-performing assets of CAP. This is, indeed, a commendable attitude on the part of SEC as it sees to it that companies registered with it maintain their operational health and profitability.

SEC’s attitude under Chairman Bautista would be even more significant and meaningful when the same assistance and concern is extended to our local banks who collectively find themselves holding onto P500 billion worth of non-performing assets. The present government thrust in this regard through the SPAV (Special Purpose Assets Vehicle) whereby foreign companies are enticed to buy the local banks’ NPA’s is inadequate as a remedy as the foreign businesses offer a pittance of only 30 percent of the value of these assets.

It is our suggestion, instead, that we adopt the successful formula of Taiwan’s and other Asian countries’ banks which, finding themselves in a similar situation, collectively put their NPA’s into a common corporation and using this now asset-laden company to obtain long-term credit from their central bank. By this manner, their banks were able to continue extending credit themselves to their local businesses, thereby pump-priming their economy and making good use of their erstile non-performing assets, to boot.

It is, thus, our suggestion that the SEC adopt this auspicious scheme as part of its advocacy so that the companies registered with it, even though in financial woe because of the currency crisis over which they have no fault whatsoever could have a fighting chance in staying afloat and remaining a positive contributor to the society and the economy.

Another area of government reform we wish to espouse, on top of the amendment of the CB Charter as repeatedly detailed in our previous aticles, is the creation of three more Central Banks to add up the total of Bangko Sentrals to four. We say this with the observation that in the United States there are 13 Federal Banks with 50 branches all over the States. At a population level of 250 million people, 13 Federal Banks translates into about 20 million Americans being serviced by one Federal Bank. In our case, with around 84 million Filipinos, we need four Central Banks to achieve the Central Bank/people ratio as in the USA.

We propose that the country retain two central banks for Luzon, one for Central Luzon and another for Eastern Luzon where progress and development have been largely stunted. The other two central banks will be allocated as one for Visayas and the other for Mindanao.

The rationale for this is to get the Central Bank as near enough to all the people and to all the places in the Philippines. This way the CB’s can allocate the money supply to a level that is necessary and commensurate to the financial needs of the areas over which they exercise jurisdiction. In this manner, there shall be equal and even development not only in the few urban centers but in the countryside as well where more land is found. And, of course, the development of the countryside will encourage the re-migration of the people from the metropolitan areas back to the provinces that will be most beneficial for all.

In sum, we wish to stress that the urgent reforms needed in the country today consist in a myriad of significant areas. We need reforms in proper value formation of the citizenry as well as we need reforms on the part of our leaders. We need reforms also in monetary and fiscal matters like the way we view our money supply and on how we should finance our developments ourselves with new local money. On top of this, we need reforms in our very own Central Bank so that it can fulfill its vital role as the vanguard of development by making available the needed money in places all over the country, from our most modern metropolis to the furthest flung island in our archipelago. Finally, we must support and encourage the thrust of the SEC in seeking to maintain the level of health and profitability of registered companies so that they could be truly partners in our development efforts.

We, therefore, challenge everyone to support our considered proposals. Our future, your future, our childrenís future may very well depend on them. Let us think out of the box. Let us, together, crusade for a better tomorrow.

You may write your comments / suggestions at 15/F Equitable Tower, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City or through e-mail at HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]"

(Note: We beg the indulgence of our leaders who are at times tasked to read a lengthy piece. The purpose of our writings, however, being advocacy and not merely commentary in nature, compels us to dissect a given problem, analyze its causes and effects, and offer studied solutions. The length of the article should be irrelevant to such an approach.)