Of visions and executions

I watched the livestream of a pre-SONA forum last Friday where the infrastructure secretaries presented their vision. I couldn’t help smirk while listening because the vision of our future being sold, we have already bought.

Who can argue against the vision of modern infrastructure? When the Duterte administration took office two years ago, I, too, was sold on the vision as well as the promise of political will to realize the vision. But what have they accomplished towards the realization of the vision?

 Indeed, if you have been out of the country like that fellow who identified himself as an OFW, you can’t help but be impressed. But for us who have been here through the Aquino watch and the last two years of Duterte, we can only shake our heads because we have heard it all before.

Vision without good execution is useless. Execution has been our problem for decades. I hope I am wrong, but it seems the Duterte watch isn’t going to be much different from Aquino and Arroyo.

It is easy to talk about the big picture. We want to hear how they are managing the execution of the big ticket projects that have made us salivate with anticipation when they first presented Build Build Build.

 Yes, we know their execution problems are not easy to solve. This is why I have been focusing on the details of their big project executions, hoping they will come down their ivory towers, roll up their sleeves, and work with the men in the field to remove obstacles to the execution of Build Build Build.

Two failed bids because the price ceiling is too low deserve the attention of Sec. Ben Diokno since DBM is conducting the bidding. The delay in right of way acquisition that is stalling a really big project like the Skyway connecting NLEX with SLEX deserves the top attention of Sec. Mark Villar.

As Dr. Noel de Dios of the UP School of Economics pointed out last Thursday, the administration’s analysis and strategy focused on infrastructure bottlenecks as the main constraint to growth. We must now examine how they are executing their strategy.

Among others, Dr. De Dios pointed out that government continues to underspend relative to its own infrastructure and deficit targets.

The economic managers keep on claiming their numbers show an increase in infra spending. But as I have pointed out, no flagship project is really underway, as in actual construction.

There is no sense of urgency. DPWH did nothing for about a year to rehabilitate Corcordia bridge in Paco. Because it was getting in the way of constructing the Skyway, San Miguel decided to do it on its own na lang.

Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez took a long time trying to explain last week at Clark that tedious government procurement procedures have to be complied with to protect public money. No argument there. Indeed, that’s a given. But what are they doing to mitigate the delay?

Then there is the technical deficit among government personnel. As Dr. De Dios explained, that didn’t matter in the past because we didn’t have the money to spend on projects anyway. But now, there is money, there is the vision, and there is the big expectation that with vision and money, our dreams will come true.

Big projects require skilled planners and engineers, but most Filipinos with those needed skills are working abroad. Our big contractors tell me they can easily bring in the skills needed, if there was certainty and professionalism in government’s management of projects.

All these resulted in what Dr. De Dios calls unintended consequences. Fiscal space with additional revenues, combined with infrastructure underperformance provides opportunities for populist measures and the feeding frenzy we saw at the tourism department and other scandals.

Indeed, money supposed to have been raised for infra had been re-allocated to free college tuitions (P40 billion), unconditional cash transfers (P40 billion), increased salaries for uniformed personnel (P60 billion), universal health care improvement (P90 billion), and free irrigation. Some of those may be justified, but revenues for BBB are clearly being pre-empted by consumption spending and waste.

The most important message of Dr de Dios is simply this: developments since 2011 justify high expectations. There is the demographic dividend – a growing working age population and an expanding middle class. Until recently, we benefited from a low global interest rate regime, liberal migration and trading regimes, and low energy prices. Technology has also been helpful.

Even if we had eight years of per capita GDP growth of 3.5 percent or more, Dr. De Dios pointed out that our growth rate is still substantially below what other countries achieved and even below government’s own targets of seven to eight percent. He also lamented that the demographic dividend is not fully used: shrinking labor force and few jobs despite a growing population.

In other words, there is so much more work to do. The way to get everyone on board is to be honest and transparent on what is going on. There will be slips along the way and that is understandable. But the humility to admit mistakes and learn from them will inspire people to get on board.

It doesn’t help that a DOF usec suggested to remove tobacco in the consumer basket to address high inflation number. He may have a point but that’s just two percent of the final figure and it is soon after the base year was changed (which is regularly done, but bad timing). Bad optics. It looks like they are trying to massage the inflation number.

Being defensive and opaque about our situation breeds distrust and cynicism. We are sold on the vision. But after two years, we have the right to an explanation on how they are going about executing the vision. 

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.