IT is ironic that, while our immediate regional neighbors are drawing up plans on how to achieve 6 to 7 percent GDP growth rates, and while China is deliberately reigning and decelerating its own 10 to 11 percent phenomenal growth to avoid overheating, the Philippines is retrenching.

First, instead of boosting business, generating jobs, working longer hours, cutting unnecessary expenses, and providing more incentives, the country has decided to dig in by mandating a four-day work week for state workers without showing to the public the comparative analysis between lost-opportunity cost of shorter man-hours and lower business activity and savings from electricity by giving government employees a 4-day work week, at no loss of salaries and wages.

Second, crude oil prices at over US$51 per barrel will hurt more than proportionately the oil-importing nations such as the Philippines where the bulk of its total annual import bill goes to fuel imports and raw materials.

Moreover, with political instability in oil-producing Latin American and West African countries, continuing conflict in the Middle East, and the insatiable demand for fuel in China, Japan, and the United States, it is very probable that oil prices may plateau at these high levels. This means that tiny economies like the Philippines will have to use their skills to survive and accelerate development in this emerging scenario.

Third, the Philippines must also review and reassess the future of globalization in general, and its relationship and attitude towards the World Trade Organization (WTO) in particular, in view of the growing disenchantment of the WTO, and criticisms of discriminatory policies by the WTO, such as farm subsidies and dumping, that hurt smaller nations.

This is a watershed and crucial period in Philippine economic history, not to mention the real threat of international terrorism, when fundamental reforms, bi-partisan collaboration, less politics, less corruption and political courage are vitally needed, albeit increasingly tardy.

What is needed today is leadership of the highest caliber without looking back in anger.

You be the judge.

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HERE AND THERE

We pray for the repose of the soul of Pope John Paul II who will be one of the greatest popes in modern times…..His tireless travels all over the world not only reinforced the Catholic faith among the world’s more than one billion Catholics but had contributed to the promotion of world peace which would have been more elusive and unstable than it is……In the meantime former Senior Police Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, wanted for questioning for various crimes, one of which was the abduction and brutal murder of veteran publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, has become an upscale and successful realtor in Florida….His co-officer, Cesar Mancao, is also doing well financially in New Jersey…..The two senior police officers were the most trusted lieutenants of incumbent Senator Panfilo Lacson when the latter was the PNP chief of former President Joseph Estrada from 1999 to 2001…..Apparently, Philippine authorities are not in a hurry to have them extradited from the United States where they have not committed any federal crime…..By the way, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs worldrenowned MIT economics professor, adviser to foreign governments, and now with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and U.N. Millennium Project, praised NEDA’s Medium-Term Development Plan for its structure and clarity. However, the implementation of economic plans has never been successful in this country owing to the plans’ lack of coercive powers and their being subjected always to political influence…. The Philippines should review and reassess its cultural and historical preoccupation of praising defeats and honoring the defeated by elevating them to pedestals reserved for heroes, the latest of them being defeated boxer Manny Pacquiao…..The real authentic hero was Lapu-lapu who scored the only successful major battle against great odds…..Did you know that the Italian woman war correspondent of Il Manifesto newspaper, Giuliana Sgrena, who was kidnapped and subsequently released by Iraqi insurgents, goes in and out of the hospital for punctured lungs and a shattered shoulder? Her escort, Senior Italian Intelligence Officer N. Calipari, was killed covering Sgrena with his own body when American soldiers indiscriminately fired from atop a tank as the car bringing Sgrena and Calipari to safety was fired at by American soldiers…. Since the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq two years ago, at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed along with 1,500 US soldiers, and 10,000 direct and indirect American military personnel have been wounded or rendered disabled….. That’s all folks….. (Email: hrrv@ edsamail.com.ph)