National priorities

I have long wondered if our national leaders had the right national priorities guiding them.

Even a former president who holds a PhD in economics and served for ten years seemed to have other things in mind than prioritizing the national good. That’s how we got edged out in ASEAN’s tiger race.

Now I am sure that the current president is fully aware of what our national priorities should be. Whether he will snap out of his lethargy and put some time and money into making the needle move in key national priority areas is another thing altogether. I am not optimistic, but at least I know he knows what these national priorities are.

Why am I sure? Last week, Rafael Consing Jr., president and CEO of the Maharlika sovereign fund, spoke before the Foundation for Economic Freedom. Over the course of a little less than two hours, Mr. Consing explained what he had been working on for the sovereign fund.

The Maharlika Investment Fund had been a one-man show since the start. Consing was only recently allowed to hire staff. But he now has an investment program which he presented to BBM. He wants to move faster because he only has three years left in BBM’s term to prove doubters wrong about the Maharlika Fund.

Consing identified his key result areas: energy; physical infrastructure and innovation; food and agriculture modernization; social infrastructure enhancement; sustainable mining and resource development and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

My initial reaction was a suppressed yawn because no one is going to argue against motherhood objectives. We have heard all that before. What makes it different this time?

The positive difference I detected was not in his PowerPoint presentation. The difference is Mr. Consing himself. He comes across as someone who is more than capable of getting the program going. His professional track record speaks of his accomplishments. Then there is the sense I got that he has a genuine sense of urgency, as if he is personally running out of time to get his dream program realized.

And he knows what he is up against. He has spent a lot of his time since the fund was created in the murky world of Philippine business and politics to give him a dose of realism. He saw for himself the messy regulatory environment that has kept our energy sector performing at suboptimal levels.

After Maharlika bought itself two seats at NGCP and in the holding company with a majority stake at NGCP, he said he now realized it was simplistic and unfair to blame NGCP for problems in the power sector. I agree. I have pointed out in the past that the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission should bear most of the blame due to the lack of coordination and the horrendous regulatory delays that affected the availability of capital to more aggressively pursue NGCP’s projects.

Indeed, Mr. Consing pointed out that, contrary to public suspicions, NGCP has excess transmission capacity. The problem is that power producers are putting up their power stations anywhere they want to without considering accessibility to the grid. In Luzon, NGCP’s excess capacity is 3,300 MW; in the Visayas, it is 2,372 MW and in Mindanao, it is 1,120 MW. Consing said BBM was surprised when he told him about this.

This is plainly a failure of DOE to properly coordinate. It is more complicated now with hundreds of power producers, especially solar, so the coordination work of DOE is crucial.

The key result areas outlined by Consing are exactly what a decent administration should prioritize. Indeed, BBM should prioritize those key areas beyond the Maharlika Fund. Consing’s program provides a good outline of what BBM’s next State of the Nation Address should contain. Consing has the right focus, but he doesn’t have enough resources to make a difference in all of those areas.

What if BBM can convince his cousin, the Speaker, to shift all the pork barrel funds in the next three years to these Maharlika priorities… That’s about a trillion pesos a year, enough to make another President Marcos great. Other than the energy infrastructure, consider some of what Consing envisions:

For physical infrastructure and innovation: bridge the urban-rural divide by upgrading transportation infrastructure; improve connectivity and digital infrastructure; modernize the logistics system; develop affordable housing.

For agriculture: create efficient market supply chain pathways from farm to table; invest in vital irrigation systems; support the development of thriving agri-businesses.

For social infrastructure: make strategic investments in accessible and quality healthcare facilities and support systems; upgrade school facilities and expand access to quality, future-ready education; strengthen local manufacturing capacity for essential technologies.

For sustainable mining and resource development: champion sustainable mining practices adhering to world-class environmental standards; empower communities to ensure an equitable share in the benefits derived from resource development.

It is easy to see that these priority areas identified by Consing should also be the focus of the National Budget. But our elected officials are more concerned with getting their pork barrel funds to enrich themselves. The neglect is criminal.

It is no longer shameful for our government leaders to steal from the Treasury. The flashy cars in the Batasan parking lot should be a national scandal. So now, we need a Maharlika fund to finance what the National Budget should have financed through the years.

The challenge to BBM is to make Consing’s dreams for Maharlika get started beyond initial thrusts in energy and mining. As I told Mr. Consing after his presentation, I like his vision, but our problem in this country is our inability to execute plans.

The Maharlika Fund vision is rightfully long-term, but we have to be convinced in the short term that our government is finally serious in getting the priorities done. Seeing a few of them implemented gives hope.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco