Enable the private sector to rebuild our economy
May 16, 2020CitizenWatch Philippines
Enable the private sector to rebuild our economy
As the government grapples on solving healthcare and economic problems brought by the pandemic, Filipino consumers continue to suffer with threats to public health and job security. The mass testing capabilities and economic relief programs of government are still inadequate in response to this crisis.
We fully support the government’s move to organize Task Force T3 (Test, Trace, Treat) as a public-private collaboration and laud the support of the Asian Development Bank, Philippine Red Cross, Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation and private healthcare providers from the Ayala-led AC Health and Pangilinan-led MPIC Hospital Group and Unilab.
We wish Testing czar Vince Dizon of the Taskforce T3 success in his mission “to ramp up testing to save lives.” The project’s objective to boost testing capacity from an average of 5000 to at least 30,000 tests a day will have a strategic benefit to our crisis managers in terms of data and science based analysis that will be basis for improving policies and guidelines in fighting the pandemic. The results of these tests will be critical in determining the areas and the pace of easing restrictions to cautiously allow the businesses to operate and most importantly, for people to start getting back to work and earn income.
In reviving economic activities, government and private sector synergy will be needed thru enabling policies, stable regulatory environment, and very competitive incentives to attract investments that will bring in a new era of industrial growth in the “new normal”.
This crisis underlines the need to seriously refocus priorities in Health Security, Food Security and Job Security. Government must be the enabler of growth that will unleash the private sector’s resource, talent, and innovation to get our economy up and running.
There are proposals to again raise taxes to recover government revenues lost in this crisis. Nobody wants more taxes. More taxes will translate to higher prices of commodities that will further burden our already cash strapped consumers. The priority should be in helping businesses recover so that jobs are created, and consumers will have the purchasing power for goods and services that will in turn be taxed for government revenue.
Government should also revisit Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a strategy for the Build Build Build Projects so that government funds, the people’s taxes, can be redirected to fight this virus from Wuhan. With the right partners, and viable package, these strategic infrastructure projects can be realized with no cost to government and will be an important pillar for economic growth.
CitizenWatch Philippines calls for unity. Let us cultivate a harmonious public-private collaboration geared towards a new era of development.
Orlando O. Oxales
Lead Convenor