Investing in our people
Speaking in an awarding ceremony for tourism entrepeneurs, President GMA laid bare her policy direction for the country.
From Philstar.com,
“Our objective for this year is to invest in the people in order to attain the eight blessings in 2008. Investing in the people so we can achieve 8 by ’08,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
She explained 8 by ’08 “involves job creation; better cost of living; strong peso; more investments; pro-poor education; pro-poor healthcare, housing, food; green Philippines and anti-terrorism.
Two weeks ago, the President’s economic managers came out with Plan 7,8,9 or a growth target of seven percent this year, eight percent in 2008 and nine percent in 2009.
The idea is for the government to wipe out unemployment and ease poverty by creating new jobs and according to the economic managers, this would be achieved through a high growth rate.
The number one critique of the growth sustained during the Arroyo administration is that its effects have not been felt by the people. We often hear this and I think this criticism is too easily made. I would like to qualify this critique.
First, it takes time for economic gains to translate into social benefits. In between the two, you have government which creates the policies that connect them, and a central policy would be the annual budget. We were running on a reenacted budget in ‘06 but this year we have P1.3T.
But whether that budget goes into where it’s supposed to is another matter. I am never optimistic about the fact that the allocation for education gets the largest slice of the pie. The Department of Education is still the most corrupt agency of all.
Let’s take this example. The report adds,
“The budget also allows us the creation of more teaching positions particularly in the fields of math and the sciences while we have also over P2 billion for food supplements for school children all over the country,” Andaya pointed out.
To be honest, this worries me. More teachers but at what cost? Will they be trained and supported? Will they be good teachers? I rather see money go into teacher training and reeducation, and the government should grant scholarships to promising public school teachers (DepEd) for them to pursue further studies in education.
I disagree with the notion that we must address the number of teachers first. I want to see a government committed to creating quality teachers. They must compete with the private schools by raising the salaries and improving the facilities. Teaching in the public school must become an option that is just as attractive as teaching in La Salle, Ateneo or even the PSHS. “If you build it, they will come.”
Of course we need to have more buildings and teachers, but didn’t GMA herself say that we must invest in our people? That is what social payback really means for me.
It takes time for economic gains to translate into social benefits because it is dependent on the speed and efficiency of government. We are still bogged down by the traditional problems of corruption and political in-fighting so no wonder it is slow.
Many things come with the commitment to invest in our people. It goes beyond providing them with their basic needs and services — which our government must still satisfy for most of our population, mind you — and into actually providing opportunities and possibilities for our people to live better lives.
My opinion on what to do with our teachers is just one way for us to do just that. A similar logic can be applied to our doctors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and public servants. We must allow all these people to utilize their high-level skills here in our country by giving them enough incentives to do so. In the long run, we can’t afford them leaving for higher paying, low-skilled jobs elsewhere.
Social payback is all about giving to our people what they deserve. They don’t cast their vote and pay those taxes so that they could just leave the country; in their hearts all they want is to be able to live in it and have their dreams fulfilled.
Investing in our people is something we can only do with a view of the future. It goes beyond satisfying the here and now. While the current administration has the vision, what I question is their will. They have three years left and they still have much to prove.
