Introspective By Romeo L.
Bernardo
(Part 1)
In this space a decade ago, I wrote about how President Fidel Ramos hit
the ground running in 1992 to address the critical pain points plaguing our
nation, citing in particular the power crisis that flat lined our economy.
(“National leadership and our collective future,” January 2010, http://romeobernardo.blogspot.com/2010/01/natl-leadership-and-our-collective.html).
I noted that success in “putting the lights back on literally and in
terms of business confidence set the stage for reviving investments and
rallying public support behind other reforms to improve global competitiveness
and our people’s lives.”
We are entering once again a threshold that “will define the course of
our collective future for at least the next six years,” this time facing a more
existential crisis of global proportions.
As an input to the programs of the national candidates and their teams,
a few economists and subject matter expert friends in the Foundation for
Economic Freedom, the Management Association of the Philippines, the Makati
Business Club, the Philippine Disaster Resiliency Foundation, and I developed a
10-point wish list for the first 365 days of the new administration. I am
pleased to share this with readers, abbreviated a bit to fit column space.
THE 10 POINTS:
1. Create a National Recovery and Resilience Council. Downscale the IATF
(Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases)
and create a Health Security Council.
2. Rapidly upgrade the country’s healthcare system and nutrition.
3. Prioritize and address with utmost urgency the resolving of our
worsening Learning Crisis.
4. Liberalize key segments of the economy.
5. Address the country’s future Energy Security.
6. Uphold the rule of law.
7. Revive the PPP (private public partnership) model of infrastructure
development.
8. Craft Industry Roadmaps in the 10 sectors with the most potential for
massive job generation.
9. Institutionalize labor flexibility.
10. Improve the ease of doing business and delivery of public services.
1. CREATE A NATIONAL RECOVERY AND RESILIENCE
COUNCIL AND A HEALTH SECURITY COUNCIL
Create a National Recovery and Resilience Council (NRRC), headed by the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), and assisted by an Advisory
Committee including the private sector, to manage the tradeoffs between job
creation and social protection, versus COVID-19 mortality rates. Downscale the
IATF and create a Health Security Council (HSC) that is composed of the
Departments of Health (DoH), Interior and Local Government (DILG), Information
and Communications Technology (DICT), and Budget and Management (DBM), and the
Office of Civil Defense (OCD), with a mandate for emergencies, with oversight
over pandemic control, and empowered to tap other government agencies and
private sector entities as resources.
On the HRC and NRRC
a. Background: The
creation of the HSC and NRRC assumes that we are moving into an endemic phase
of COVID-19 in 2022. While there will be the threat of surges, this has to be
mitigated by high levels of vaccination for the eligible population, and an
easily mobilized surge capacity in public and private hospitals.
b. The HSC will
maintain its pandemic control functions of PDITR (Prevention, Detection, Isolation,
Treatment, Reintegration, Vaccination for COVID-19). Comprising the HSC shall
be the DoH, OCD, DILG, DICT, and DBM. The body will have oversight of pandemic
control and can tap any of the other agencies of government as needed, as well
as ensure that preventive measures, epidemiological surveillance (databases and
digital tech support) and treatment of cases are undertaken properly,
nationwide. The HSC can tap private sector and the academe as resource persons.
c. The NRRC shall be
led by the NEDA Secretary, as he/she would be best placed to assess and manage
tradeoffs, as well as set the appropriate targets (e.g. job creation and
minimum health, education, and social protection outcomes). Aside from the
members of the private sector, member government agencies shall include those
whose inputs are crucial towards economic recovery (e.g. Departments of Labor
and Employment, Trade and Industry, Social Welfare and Development,
Transportation, Education, etc.).
d. The HSC and NRRC
report to the President and integrate policy decisions at the level of the
President. The bodies can report at the Cabinet level, where policy decisions
can be made. Critical to the structure is a cross-walk and constant
communication between the two bodies, such that information is symmetric, and
the best possible decision can be made at a rapid pace.
Immediate COVID-19 Response Measures
e. Increase
vaccination rates to 80% of total national population ASAP by opening up
pediatric vaccination down to five-year-olds, booster shots for the general
population, and entering into Vax 2.0 as we shift from a Pandemic to an Endemic
situation.
f. Encourage
vaccination among the lowest socio-economic classes (e.g. families covered by
the Conditional Cash Transfer program, CCT) by providing a “top up” or
additional incentive to get vaccinated and take regular boosters.
g. Refine a Vaccine
Incentives/Disincentives programs: entry into restaurants, cinemas, sports
facilities, churches, etc. for the fully vaccinated, while restricting access
for the unvaccinated; similar for employment.
h. Refine Alert Level
criteria to make them clearer (e.g. focus on vaccine coverage, average daily
attack rate, hospital bed utilization rate, rather than on cases).
i. Further ease
mobility restrictions as applicable in transportation, schools, and other
institutions and facilities.
2. RAPIDLY UPGRADE THE COUNTRY’S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Rapidly upgrade the country’s healthcare system to manage against an
endemic situation by increasing hospital bed and manpower capacity, reforming
the national insurance system, and guaranteeing a steady supply of vaccines and
medicines. The healthcare program should include Nutrition/Malnutrition, which
has significant impact on personal health, learning and education, and future
productivity.
a. Upgrade public and
private hospital capacity across all regions. This includes expanding current
bed capacity and manpower complement to staff the beds. Provide significantly
more financial benefits and incentives to attract and retain doctors and
nurses.
b. Reform PhilHealth
by overhauling its leadership; investing in claims, fraud, and billing
technology; and considering options to privatize or outsource some of its
functions to ensure efficient service delivery.
c. Ensure the continuous
supply of two to three of the most trusted vaccines for boosters and
therapeutic medicines for COVID, while establishing the appropriate logistics
infrastructure, especially in the provinces to ensure proper deployment.
d. Improve data
integration for case data, vaccinations, and testing, among other data points.
e. Increased emphasis
on Nutrition. There should be a strong program to combat hunger, malnutrition,
and stuntedness which can lead to irreversible and permanent damage on
learning, personal health, economic productivity.
3. RESOLVE THE WORSENING LEARNING CRISIS
Prioritize and address with utmost urgency resolving our worsening
Learning Crisis by restarting face-to-face classes, reconstituting the
Education Commission, and providing connectivity support for remote learners.
a. Return to full
face-to-face classes in all schools that are in non-high-risk areas, while
adhering to the highest levels of health and safety guidelines by the start of
SY 2022-2023.
b. Prioritize
subsidies for connectivity in the 2023 Budget.
c. Immediately
convene an action-oriented, multi-sectoral Education Committee 2 (EdCom 2),
with a mandate to develop a roadmap to address the Learning Crisis by tackling
foundational reforms; ensure Public-Private Complementarity; assuring and
institutionalizing lifelong learning/upskilling.
4. LIBERALIZE SEGMENTS OF THE ECONOMY
Liberalize segments of the economy such as importation and foreign
investment restrictions, with the aim of lowering prices to stave off inflation
and improving competitiveness by lowering costs.
a. Liberalize as many
inputs to production and items for consumption as possible, taking inspiration
from the successful rice trade liberalization and looking into other items,
such as corn, pork, and others. The aim of which is to manage inflation and
structurally adjust the economy towards greater competitiveness.
b. Enact economic
policy reforms, which include further easing up of restrictions to foreign
investments in key industries (e.g. utilities), as well as considering other
critical sectors (e.g. cement production).
i. Note: The following
laws are in advanced stages of legislation and may be passed by this Congress
by yearend — Amendments to the Public Services Act, Amendments to the Foreign
Investments Act, Amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, RCEP
(Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) ratification.
ii. Note: Several
executive actions are needed once the above amendments are legislated:
• PSA: Appropriate administrative agencies to formulate sector-specific
regulations;
• Foreign Investments Act: The Inter-agency Investment Promotion
Coordination Council (IPCC) which will be created to integrate all promotion
and facilitation efforts to encourage foreign investments including “foreign
investment promotion and marketing plan”;
• Retail Trade Liberation Act: Department of Trade and Industry-Board of
Investments to formulate IRR (implementing rules and regulations) consistent
with the legislative objectives of the amendments to the law.
c. Develop and signal
to financial markets a medium-term fiscal consolidation plan. Improve
efficiency in spending through privatization or sale of government assets and
functions, abolition, merger, and/or streamlining of agencies.
(To be continued.)
Romeo L. Bernardo was finance undersecretary during the Cory Aquino and
Fidel Ramos Administrations. He is a Trustee/Director of the Foundation for
Economic Freedom, Management Association of the Philippines and FINEX
Foundation
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