Transition from pandemic

Department of Finance (DoF) Secretary Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez III frowns upon “scoring” where the Philippines is being gauged or graded when there is no game or competition involved. In particular, Dominguez brushed aside the “scoring” given by the international business publications Bloomberg and Nikkei Asia on the Philippine government responses to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) contagion and its variants.

As the country’s chief economic manager, Dominguez draws the line when such “scoring” involves human lives. “First of all, we are not in a horse race. We are not in a game,” Dominguez quipped. Secondly, he stressed, nobody knows how the “scoring” was done. So the next best thing to do as far as the Finance is concerned: “I just don’t pay attention to it. It does not bother me.”

Nonetheless, Dominguez disclosed, the DoF has already drafted its transition report containing the “pandemic playbook” used by the outgoing administration of President Rodrigo Duterte in stopping the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic after it struck us in January last year. Dominguez described the “pandemic playbook” as having ten-point policy plans that will shift the government’s pandemic responses into “endemic” and “measuring the right things” to better guide the next administration’s policy-makers.

Speaking to us in our virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Dominguez commented on two different sets of “scoring” on the Philippines and other countries on their anti-COVID responses done by these two international news bodies. The New York-based Bloomberg is a media conglomerate that is a provider of financial news and information, research, and financial data. On the other hand, the Tokyo-based Nikkei Asia is an English-language newsmagazine focused on the Asian continent but also other major international developments.

The Bloomberg reported last week about the Philippines being the worst place to be during this pandemic. This, after Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking for November ranked us last in the list among 53 countries included in their review. It gave the Philippines a COVID “resilience score of 43.1.”

Last Monday, the Nikkei Asia reported the Philippines improved several notches up from 103rd in October to 57th place in its latest COVID-19 recovery ranking. The Nikkei attributed this mainly to what it described as a “significant increase in its infection management scores.”

A member of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), Dominguez noted the fatality rate all over the Philippines averaged to “only 45 people died per 100,000” COVID-infected cases. “How come they do not score us on this issue?” Dominguez rhetorically asked.

“What does that mean? We have preserved lives better than them,” he argued. In particular, Dominguez mentioned as example Hungary with about 350 COVID-related deaths per 100,000 people and the United States with about 250 people per 100,000.

The Finance Secretary lost his faith to “scoring” after recent experience of the Philippine government in the scandal-rocked “Ease of Doing Business” annual report by the World Bank (WB). “They wanted other countries to look better than they actually were and they want other countries to look worse than they actually were. That’s why I don’t pay attention to this scoring,” Dominguez explained.

Dominguez wrote to Washington-based WB president David R. Malpass on Sept. 17, 2021, a copy of which he furnished to me. He raised to Malpass about the investigation results of the WB that unmasked senior bank leaders who have allegedly unduly pressured staff to alter data “to avoid angering certain countries” that were included in its annual “Doing Business” report.

Dominguez cited the yearly releases of “Doing Business” report by the WB has evolved into a trusted and independent guidebook on how member countries perform relative to each other in improving their investment and business environments. “Hence, I am shocked to hear of the alleged acts which compromise not only the accuracy but more importantly the impartiality of the reports,” Dominguez wrote the WB president.

As a matter of government policy, Dominguez underscored the administration of President Duterte closely hews and complies with international and local transparency rules. Dominguez could only give credit to President Duterte for such policy guidance since they all assumed office on June 30, 2016.

“It’s always best to tell the truth,” Dominguez quoted the President’s guidance to all his Cabinet members.

Ironically, it exempts from transparency rule the Ombudsman’s steadfast restrictions on public access to the President’s statement of assets and net worth (SALN). But that’s another issue altogether.

Whether he supports or not the COVID “scoring” trend, the Finance chief definitely has no choice but to deal with it. “This COVID-19 pandemic is not the last pandemic we may have. (But) hopefully, this will be the last one in my lifetime,” the 76-year old Dominguez quipped.

Meanwhile, Dominguez gave us a rough rundown of the proposed 10-point policy plan adjusting the primary metrics to be utilized for decision-making and to be reported to the public while moving to an “endemic” mindset. In broad strokes, the 10-point policy agenda addresses the following: infection metrics; vaccination; healthcare capacity; economy and mobility; schooling; domestic travel; international travel; digital transformation; pandemic flexibility bill; and, medium-term preparation for pandemic resilience.

With the coming presidential polls in May 2022, Dominguez reiterated the readiness of the Duterte administration to ensure the smooth transfer of the government to newly elected leaders who will serve the next six years. And this includes the strategic transition from pandemic “to live with the coronavirus” the safest way we can while bracing henceforth for likely endemic outbreaks every now and then.