Sen. Francis "Chiz’’ Escudero, chairman of the Senate ways and means committee, reiterated yesterday his call to Malacañang to stimulate the economy by imposing a clear domestic industry bias in government procurement and investment as the country faces a global economic crisis.

President Arroyo should take the rein on the rough ride to 2009 as recession is expected to leave millions of Filipinos unemployed, Escudero said.

Among the steps that the President could do is to "invest in the Philippines’’ and stop exporting the country’s financial resources, he said. In short, the government should invest locally and buy locally, he added.

"The government should put our eggs in our own basket. It should take the lead in showing confidence in the Philippines by spending inwards and fill the vacuum that would be left by the global economic slowdown,’’ he pointed out.

Escudero said the financial capacities of government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs), like the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the Social Security System (SSS), could pump direct local investments to generate jobs for those who would be displaced by the recession and those who are unemployed for a long time.

These three GOCCs have global investment programs, he said.

"The global investment programs of GSIS and SSS have melted down the pensioners’ money. They invested in foreign financial markets like the Lehman Brothers which collapsed. If we are to invest and eventually lose our money, we might as well lose it here in the home front,’’ Escudero said.

Investing locally should be twinned with a "Buy Filipino’’ policy which could also stimulate the weakening economy, he said.

"By buying local products for the government’s consumption needs like supply and materials for its construction projects, the country has a fail-safe way to keep jobs, or even hire more, create business, raise taxes, conserve dollars, retain talent, prevent factory closures and kill smuggling,’’ he said.

Since it has the biggest shopping money around, the government has the means to boost the country’s domestic economy, he stressed.

"The protection and promotion of our local market depends on how the government prepared and planned for the eventuality of an economic slowdown. If the President is really the economist that she claims to be, this is one of those times that we need a need a good economist in our midst,’’ he said.