Angara urges gov't to spend more on infra, R&D

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Edgardo Angara called on the National Government to start spending more on infrastructure and on research and development (R&D) in order to improve the country’s ranking among foreign investment destinations.

Reacting to the recent report issued by CNBC.com ranking the Philippines as the fourth worst country in the world in terms of doing business, Angara said that investors, whether private or public are looking at various aspects before putting their money in a country, including ease of doing business.

“Doing business is only one measurement that the world is judging every country. They are judging the doing business aspect in the Philippines, they are judging our state of infrastructure, they are judging the state of education, they are judging the state of governance and in all these standards we are miserably failing,” Angara said.

Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on education and vice chairman of the committee on finance, reiterated that the current administration must stop its stinginess when it comes to spending because this is necessary to pump prime the economy.

However, apart from spending on infrastructure, Angara emphasized that significant investments must also go into R&D and education so that the country can catch up with the rest of the world.

“We have to catch up because we are always in the bottom one-fourth of the world. In all tests, we don’t even land in the median. If these were grades, we don’t even get a mark of 75 percent or passing,” Angara said.

“We fail in all tests. So it is as if we’re already numb, we are not paying attention to those items,” he added.

Angara lamented that the Philippines, in spite of having the best and most anti-corruption laws in Southeast Asia, remains one of the “most corrupt and slowpoke countries in attending to business needs.”

This, he said is an indication that laws alone cannot bring a country to higher standards.

He said that what is needed is a change in the culture, particularly the fidelity in rules.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the focus should be on strengthening and improving the institutions, particularly the judiciary.

Pangilinan lamented that the judiciary has come out with numerous rulings in the past that tend to distort the rules in doing business in the country.

“The real beef of foreign business are the inconsistencies of the judiciary. They feel that the judiciary can anytime overturn a decision that had already been ruled on before,” Pangilinan said.

“It can be very confusing because many decisions of the judiciary in the past have not really worked to establish a solid and consistent business policy,” he added.

He said that the government must continue to address corruption in all levels and cut red tape so that investors would feel welcome in the country.

“The way to make us truly competitive globally is to strengthen all our institutions, strengthen the rule of law, and ensure that those who violate the law will be held accountable for their actions. Then we can show the world that we truly mean business,” Pangilinan said.