Leviste on Digong as LKY/ CCPI sets 5 pillars to success

In September last year, businessman-industrialist Jose “Joey” P. Leviste Jr. launched a book  titled, If the Philippines had a Lee Kuan Yew. What the book was saying was no wishful thinking, but a teaser, perhaps a trial balloon, about the possibility of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte becoming elected in the May 2016 presidential election, and then the Lee Kuan Yew of the Philippines.

Leviste theorizes that the Philippines can draw lessons from the strong leadership of the first Prime Minister of Singapore who presided over the transformation of the city-state into one of Asia’s “tiger” economies.

The book is actually a compilation of articles about the Singaporean leader, written by 31 Filipinos, most of them journalists, who see Lee Kuan Yew as a competent, decisive and principled statesman.

“The book,” Leviste points out, “aims to start an intellectual discourse on what needs to be done so that the Philippines can achieve the social and economic progress and the national will that Singapore has achieved.”

Having observed President Duterte’s seemingly acting on his own, will he listen to what the LKY book writers say?

Listen, for example, to former Philippine Prime Minister Cesar E.A. Virata who writes in the book’s foreword about why some countries succeed and many others fail. “Lee’s foresight and careful selection of capable people assured Singapore of a cadre of experienced politicians and administrators to manage its long-term development.”

Virata continues, “With proper leadership, there are many other policies that we can learn from LKY, such as flexibility, pragmatism, recognition of present and emerging challenges brought about by technology and demographic factors, planning ahead, and assembling resources. These are marks of a good and transforming governance.”

For Leviste, Singapore provides a striking example of how a Southeast Asian country can match, if not surpass, the economic progress achieved by the developed countries in the West. It has topped nearly all global rankings in terms of competitiveness, ease of doing business, infrastructure development, information technology, education and health care.

The businessman writes that in 2013, the World Bank estimated Singapore’s GDP per-capita income at $55,182, making it one of the highest in the world, after Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Macau, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark. The Philippines, in comparison, only managed to post a per-capita income of $3,000 in 2015.

“We still have a long way to go to realize Singapore’s level of economic and social achievements. To do this, we all need to collectively raise the per-capita income in the Philippines to at least the per-capita income of Makati City as a start.”

“Over the next 50 years, the Philippines is poised to be one of the world’s 20 largest economies. We are likely to join the ranks of advanced nations. We are likely to be a regional, if not global, leader. But these will only be possible if we will have competent, strong, disciplined, decisive and principled leaders, like LKY, who can get things done,” writes Leviste.

President Duterte must have seen Leviste as a good asset. He recently appointed the businessman as a private sector member of the governing council of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources which is chaired by the Secretary of Science and Technology Fortunato de la Pena.

Leviste is no stranger to holding public office. He was elected as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1970, representing the 2nd district of Batangas.

At present, he is chair of OceanaGold’s wholly-owned subsidiary company in the Philippines, the Philippine resident representative of the Australia-Philippine Business Council, and a director of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines.

He is also editor of the book, “Pacific Lake: Philippine Perspective on a Pacific Economic Community” and author of the books, Food for Thought on Agricultural Strategies for Developing Countries and Transitions: Essays on the Philippines and the Pacific Rim.

Leviste has a BA in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University, and masters degrees in economics from Fordham University and international business from Columbia University in New York City.

He is also chair of Enactus Philippines, an international non-profit organization that works with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize university students in 36 countries to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders.

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On the 130th year of existence of the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands, members see hope in the country’s elevation to the economic status of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia by the Year 2030. At the Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel last week, CCPI president Jose Luis U. Yulo Jr. presented five pillars which will serve as the country’s “guiding vision” to “leap frog and catch up/overtake our ASEAN neighbors.” Target date: 2030 – or 14 years from now.

Agreeing with Yulo on stage were chairman and former president Benigno N. Ricafort, and chairman emeritus Ramon Pedrosa, and some officers and members of CCPI present at the media forum. They represented the huge membership of the oldest business chamber which has 80 lifetime corporation members and 430 honorary corporation and individual members.

Yulo said the ASEAN GDP-Gross Domestic Product Per Capita, both in nominal terms or purchasing power parity terms, show disturbing ranking figures on how the Philippines compares with our ASEAN neighbors. In the 1960s, the Philippines was No. 1 on top of ASEAN; in the 1970s, it was No. 3 behind Singapore and Malaysia, and in 2016, it is now No. 5, behind Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. “Shame on us!” declared Yulo.

Thus the CCPI, in keeping with its guiding slogan, “History Builds the Future 2030: Five Pillars,” sets forth these slogans which will “make the country on the right track forward, and stop its continuing decline.” Hopefully, said Yulo, “Shame on us” will transform to “Shame no more.”

These five pillars are summarized thus:

1. To be on “Top of the World,” every Filipino must have access to the best education, must be fluent on correct English and Tagalog, be among the best in the world in at least one profession, with at least a high school K-12 education, and college and post-college graduates comprising 25 percent of the population.

2. “Shame No More” shows the best, the brightest, the most honest and dedicated of the citizenry serving in the government. Mining and natural resources are given only to companies that will set up factories that use said natural resources in the manufacturing of end-products within the country.

3. “Heaven on Earth” means Philippine infrastructure must be comparable with the best in the world, with disaster prevention features against earthquakes and flooding, and user friendly.

4. To be “Global Counquerors,” Philippine-owned businesses (at least 51 percent or per the Constitution, truly Filipino owned), are dominant in market share and revenues in businesses of national and substantive importance and are operating globally.

5. A “Not Just Cocobananas” economy that uses its minerals and natural resource as inputs to value-added manufacturing of end products within the country.” It’s a n economy effectively controlled competitively by Filipinos (at least 51 percent in sales or outlets) in critically important areas of the economy while being open to foreign participation/competition.”

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