In the ”legacy phase” of the Arroyo presidency, its time we get our acts together and get moving, before the distractions of the 2010 Presidential race drag us even further behind our neighbors.
Here's a list of things that should be “Delayed No More!”
Genuine commercial banking and finance. Make it clear to banks that they should no longer expect government to borrow the money in their vaults. Encourage them to develop commercial banking competence, including credit risk analysis, so they can finance deserving Small and Medium scale enterprises and entrepreneurs.
With the current set-up, they'll soon run out of places to put deposits, given the preference of OFWs to borrow overseas where interest rates are lower, and requirements less stringent. Banks need to invest in educating their target markets on the proper use of credit and finance. Be proactive. Start with college kids.
Delay No More!
Needs driven housing. There's a real estate boom in the P500T to P5Mln segment, not the P30Mln segment. Our working and professional classes need affordable, quality housing, with easy access to mass transport, not gold plated bathroom fixtures.
Delay No More!
Speaking of Transportation. Where's my loop?
For that matter, where are all the other Mass transit lines that are supposed to crisscross Metro Manila and other major metropolitan areas? Pay off the old ones, then ask for financing to build new ones through a Build-Operate-Transfer scheme.
Mandate that major shopping malls and office complexes integrate public transport hubs away from congested city streets, just like they do in other major cities.
Delay No More!
Encourage greater participation in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market to effectively lower the price of electricity. Napocor needs to review its supply contracts, and ditch those sweetheart coal deals, both to remain competitive and to get good prices for the plants it chooses to sell.
Delay No More!
Implement local government policies to encourage economic activity in neighborhood communities and reduce the need for residents to commute long distances to find livelihood opportunities.
Compel government agencies to immediately act on implementing rules and regulations for enacted laws, particularly those which impact the SME sector. We have passed several good laws, such as the Barangay Micro-Business Enterprises Law, but these are being ignored for lack of implementing rules and regulations.
Delay No More!
Overhaul the Education Curriculum.
Grade School graduates need to know the three 3R's. Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, and know typing and math tables by heart. They should also have basic communications skills in both English and the local language.
High school graduates need practical wisdom and basic skills to be productive upon graduation. Business math, computer and livelihood skills of their choice, such as auto mechanics, crop raising, animal husbandry, or crafts.
Students spend more time studying two novels by Jose Rizal about oppression in the Spanish period, than taking up the subject “Technology, Livelihood, and Entrepreneurship.” No wonder kids leave school brainwashed into helplessness only to become radicals in college. Get over it, Spain is our friend now, change the focus to practical skills that are needed today.
Delay No More!
Develop a National Broadband Strategy that encourages interconnection among government offices, schools, small telcos, and other businesses in each province through regional Internet Exchanges, not merely a National Broadband network that operates independently of everyone else's. Use the network to deliver updated educational curricula, e-governance services, and practical business information.
Delay No More!
Review the recently enacted VoIP Law.
With all its compromises and safety nets for imagined issues, it prevents operators from offering VoIP services to their largest market: Overseas Filipinos and others needing a local number in the Philippines. Let's get away from that habit of watering down good ideas into unworkable implementations. All the restrictions in the VoIP Law merely cripple our operators vis-a-vis overseas competitors operating in more liberal policy environments.
Delay No More!
Deal with the killings.
Regardless of whodunit, there's a lot of dead bodies, and a lot of perpetrators going scot-free. It is a lack of determined detective work, arrests, and convictions that are cultivating a culture of impunity. All these dead bodies are making aid donors, investors, the media, and the general public uneasy. A lot of smart people with the potential to contribute to our society are ending up dead. We really need to stop this.
Delay No More!
Deal constructively with insurgencies.
Use military force against any armed group, regardless of ideology, that targets our soldiers or oppresses our people, but constructively engage groups that are willing to discuss issues on the negotiating table.
Much of these groups are local insurgencies responding to local issues. Some don't even have issues. Do you still believe that there's a unified, indivisible, insurgency? Resolve each regions' insurgency separately by dealing with the issues and make it clear that the use of arms is unacceptable.
If the issue is with awarded lands and former landlords, remember how US Federal troops were used to deal with recalcitrant Alabama Governor George Wallace's attempt to block school integration. Land reform is a national law, and the nation has the right to use national resources to enforce these laws, even over the objections of powerful locals.
In the meantime, avoid tagging community organizers “communists.”
Community organizers are not communists, even if they were, work with them to turn their community organizations into cooperatives by offering all the assistance they need to become viable businesses. Use the agriculture and SME lending programs of the Land Bank and DBP to win them over to the mainstream. Embrace local economies by holding countryside agriculture and trade fairs in military camps.
Delay No More!
Unilateral Open Skies for airports outside Manila.
We've built the airports and spent hundreds of millions for each one. There's no sense in preventing reputable international airlines from using them. It's not an issue of whether or not Philippine carriers can fly to a provincial airport from Manila. No one wants to fly to Manila from Davao, just to take a flight to Brunei, and vice-versa. Open skies mean more flights directly into the regions. The sooner we can open our skies, the better.
Delay No More!
With all this fuss (and dead bodies) over Terminal 3, we haven't noticed that the NAIA runway has become terribly congested. Up to a dozen aircraft are waiting to take off and land at the busiest times. It's time we started talking about a new airport. Perhaps we could do in Sangley what they've done in Chek Lap Kok.
In the meantime, there aren't any major problems with the old Terminal 1 that renovations can't fix, at least until the entire airport must be relocated because of runway congestion. Kai Tak's old terminal building served Hong Kong well until Chek Lap Kok opened, and it's about the same size as our existing terminal.
Perhaps, if we made it clear that we may have to eventually close NAIA's runway due to congestion, there will be greater willingness to resolve the issues of Terminal 3.
Delay No More!
Decongest Manila's port and port to user roads to allow more efficient transport of goods in and out of the country. Develop International ports in every one of our major islands to directly route our imports and exports to their destinations.
Delay No More!
Automate the elections. Three years is not a long time for a major project. Perhaps we should review our basic assumptions on how we're going to do it: Use the nationwide cellular network to carry the data-it's already in place. Use modified smartphones as voting devices-they're cheap and don't depend on mains power, a challenge in many voting precincts. Create voting software using an open source model so every potential critic can review the source code to verify that the software does what it should-count votes. However it's done, it should be in place by 2010. We don't have any more teachers to sacrifice to ruthless local politics.
Delay No More!
And finally, one for the legislators. It's embarrassing that we had to spend one hundred fifty million pesos for each law that you've passed in the last Congress, many of which were bills to rename your hometown's main road after your grandparents. You ran for office as legislators, focus on legislating the crucial economic and policy reforms that our country so badly needs.
Delay No More!
