GMA praises, fires Canlas

President Arroyo heaped praises yesterday on her chief economic planner, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Dante Canlas, for his effort in helping the economy achieve a 4.2 percent growth and for his contribution to the country’s "remarkable" macroeconomic performance, but fired him anyway.

Canlas was immediately replaced by Romulo Neri, director general of the Congressional Planning and Budget Office in the House of Representatives and a professor at the Asian Institute of Management.

Two of Canlas’ undersecretaries, Gilberto Llanto and Rafael Perpetuo Lotilla III, quit along with their boss. Their replacements are not yet known.

The President also named last night Alan Ortiz as the new president of the state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Roger Morga as president of the Transmission Company (Transco).

Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said Ortiz and Morga will assume their new positions on Jan. 1.

Ortiz, who is currently serving as a consultant of Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, takes over the post of Rolando Quilala while Morga, former president of the Engineering Equipment Inc. (EEI), takes over the post of Asiclo Gonzaga as Transco president.

Tiglao clarified that Quilala did not resign from the post as he is only serving as acting president of Napocor, while Gonzaga has long applied for retirement from the government.

President Arroyo decided to finally let go of the two officials in order to speed up the government’s implementation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which was signed into law last year, Tiglao said.

Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement Canlas’s replacement as NEDA chief at the closing ceremonies of the 28th Philippine Business Conference (PBC) at the Manila Hotel as part of her government’s response to the resolutions presented by businessmen to bail out the ailing economy.

"Dante has done a great job," the President acknowledged, but pointed out that following her meetings with the business sector and in line with her agenda, there is now a "different paradigm."

She stressed that "macro-economic stability is there, but business needs more than that."

"I can see from your conference resolution, we need to shift from the dominantly macro-economic and demand-side focus to micro-economic and supply side productivity enhancing measure. So I have asked Conressional Budget Planning head and AIM professor Romulo Neri to be the new secretary of economic planning," the President said in her speech to the PBC.

The 52-year old Neri, a bachelor, joins the President’s economic team composed of Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas II, Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho, Budget and Management Secretary Emilia Boncodin and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Rafael Buenaventura.

Mrs. Arroyo, herself an economist, said that her decision to change her economic policy and strategies for the remainder of her one and a half year term is an indication that the "government is capable of rewriting itself from one stage of development to another".

"A strong republic needs to take strong actions were needed. And I know this is what you’re waiting for in this speech," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo assured that while there is a shift in her economic thrust, it still actually follows her eight-point economic plan which targets a more aggressive growth of seven percent per year.

Thus, she explained, the government’s economic priorities remain the same - to support the small and medium term enterprises (SMEs), giving them channel financing and credit support and implementing ways to reduce logistics cost.

With the administration’s new economic policy to be principally shepherded by the NEDA, Mrs. Arroyo’s first marching order to her new economic planning czar was to de-clog the bottlenecks that have prevented the use of available funds from the official development assistance (ODA) and concessional credits for the Philippines.

"We need to unleash the goodwill of donor countries and institutions that have long accumulated in unused and untapped ODA funds. We have tens of billions of pesos in grants and concessional credits choked up within our democratic apparatus," she pointed out.

"We have to mobilize resources to construct an array of infrastructures so vital in our development process," the President stressed, baring her priority list which include the Mindanao to Luzon roll-on-roll off (RORO) ferry system, the modernization of the railway system, the extension of the urban mass transit lines in Metro Manila, the completion of the South Luzon Expressway to Batangas City, and the reform of the power sector which include the promotion of the Clean Air Act.

Just two days ago, the NEDA board which the President also chairs, aproved the equity funding needed to commence the long overdue improvement of the North Expressway and and the Clark -Subic Expressway project.

Mrs. Arroyo explained to the businessmen’s gathering that the executive branch could only do so much of the economic reforms that they press the government to undertake but some of them require legislation that must be passed first by Congress.

In connection with this, she announced that she has just signed Republic Act 9178, which extends enterprises with assets less than P3 million from paying the minimum wage law.

In an interview with ANC Live yesterday afternoon, Neri said that microeconomic reforms are indeed much more difficult to implement. However, he is up to the challenge.

He said that he thinks his background in corporate planning with different companies will contribute a lot to his present tasks. He said that he also has had enough exposure to government policies and programs but he‘s now an insider in government, he has to focus on implementation and strategy.

Rep. Prospero Nograles (Lakas, Davao City) hailed Neri’s appointment syaing that "he is probably one of the most brilliant economic thinkers in the country today".

Neri earned his business administration degree, major in marketing from UP, graduating magna cum laude. he finished his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Carolina in Los Angeles.

Until his appointment, Nograles adds, the new economic planning secretary headed the House planning and budget office. "In that capacity, he came up with several reports on how the annual budget should be apportioned and how economic policy should be legislated, but his recommendations were largely ignored," he said.

Neri is also the brains behind Speaker Jose de Venecia’s economic blueprint known as 747, which envisions an ambitious economic growth target of seven percent for seven years. The current growth is below four percent.

A continuing Cabinet reshuffle

Canlas was the third Cabinet official to go in two weeks after the President also replaced Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez and Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor on Nov. 30.

His forced resignation came a week after an independent poll showed Arroyo’s public approval rating has dropped to 45 percent in November from 54 percent in July.

Filipinos have expressed concern over poverty, high prices, low pay, corruption and law and order and terrorism in the survey.

In the wake of the ongoing cabinet reshuffle, which was seen by many as part of the President’s effort to fight her sagging popularity,

the rest of Arroyo’s economic team were quick to stress that they were not planning to follow suit .

At the same time, Camacho belied rumors that he too, would, quit. "For the record, I am not resigning," he said. "But I serve at the pleasure of the President."

Camacho said Canlas was dedicated and competent and his resignation was a surpirse. "We have developed a frienship and naturally it makes me sad that he is leaving," he said.

Boncodin made the same statement although she added that Canlas’s resignation was a personal blow. She and Canlas often took the same stand on various economic issues especially fiscal discipline and strict adherence to structured approach to the country’s Medium Term Development Plan.

Camacho, however, immediately ruled out speculations that Canlas’ forced resignation was precipitated by the Arroyo administration’s need to have an escape goat for the on-going controversy surrounding the voiding of the service contract between the Philippine International Air Terminal Co. (Piatco) and the government for the operation of the Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

According to a well-placed source, Canlas was worried that voiding the contract would send a signal of unreliability and inconsistency on the part of the government that has been trying to attract private investors to participate in public infrastructure. This, he believes, would cause the collapse of the government’s build-operate-transfer program.

Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon pointed out the NEDA is a policy-making body of the Cabinet and said that differences in opinion and approach may have caused the exit of Canlas from the Cabinet.

"It has absolutely no relation to Piatco," he stressed.

Canlas, however, was unavailable for comment yesterday. But Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters that he resigned as he wants to return to the academe where he was plucked out by Mrs. Arroyo when he asked her to join her newly-installed government in January 2000. Canlas was a former student of Mrs. Arroyo in UP.– With reports from Marianne Go, Efren Danao, Ann Corvera, Jess Diaz, Des Ferriols, AFP