No pause for alarm

At the start of the year, this hard-up nation received, in clear and plain words, a guarantee from the Aquino (Part II) administration: “Underspending would be a thing of the past.”

The guarantee actually came from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), headed by our very own Secretary Florencio Abad, creator of the famous “disbursement acceleration program (DAP).”

As we all know, the DBM became the defender of this wonder of modern economic management under this administration, the one called “underspending”—the failure of the government to pursue projects that it laid out in the yearly budget.

The DBM promised that, regarding the fiscal record of our leader Benigno Simeon, aka BS, the year 2015 would definitely be better than 2014.

But as it turned out, official figures showed that, during the first quarter of 2015, the very same problem of “underspending” remained the major drag in the economy, slowing down the GDP growth rate to an anemic 5.2 percent.

And what did the gods at the DBM have to say about the “underspending” nuisance? Well, er, ah, it should be “no cause for alarm.” Whew!

Now, before the entire business community could jump for joy over the braggadocio of the boys of our leader Benigno Simeon, aka BS, they suddenly remembered that “underspending” is already a problem of this administration. In fact, it was the biggest concern in business in the past five years.

Still, the Aquino (Part II) administration would always blame what it called “reforms” as the main cause of the problem.

The DBM for instance claimed that “underspending” was the direct effect of the “reform” of our dear leader, BS, to rid the government of wasteful spending and massive corruption.

There, in other words, something good would only naturally lead to something bad. Wow!

The DBM also loved to point out that the problem was also the result of how good the administration managed the economy.

Let us pause for a moment on that statement: The administration seems to be insisting that, because the economy grew too fast—thanks of course to the brilliance of our dear leader, BS—the bureaucracy simply could not adjust to the hectic dizzying pace of the growth.

What a lot of….

Citing official figures private economic research groups reported that the government contributed only 0.2 percentage points to the 6.1 percent GDP growth in 2014.

The bureaucracy hardly had anything to do with last year’s growth, as shown by the record-breaking “underspending” of P300 billion.

The bloated, red-tape infested bureaucracy did little to contribute to the economy, which grew at a lackluster pace of 6.1 percent. The growth figure was even lower than the official target of the administration.

Just imagine how dizzier the bureaucracy could have been—and how much higher the “underspending” would turn out—had the administration achieved its high-end target of 7.5 percent growth rate.

According to one economic pundit, if the administration only pursued infrastructure projects with the P300-billion underspending in 2014, some P76 billion of it would have covered the labor costs of the projects.

Yes, some P76 billion in wages would go to poor Filipinos, which could be used to put food on their tables with their dignity intact. They need not rely on the CCT doleout.

Yet all the business community got so far from the so-called economic management team of this administration was mere talk, and some more talk, supported by a whole lot of talk.

After the discouraging economic figures of 2014 came out, every Tom, Dick and Harry called Cesar, talked of how the Aquino (Part II) administration would work hard on massive infrastructure like roads, airports and trains.

This year, the DPWH would build P186 billion worth of national roads. Great! It was just that the DPWH again had a terrible “underspending” record in the first quarter. The rainy months have already started, and the DPWH has yet to start building those roads worth P186 billion.

At the same time, our beloved DBM boasted that our dear leader, BS, called for a Cabinet meeting to take “an even more decisive action on this concern,” i.e., the “underspending” that was the result of supposed “reforms.”

Apparently, our dear leader, BS, also required every government agency to report directly to him on the supposed infrastructure projects every “seventh day of the month.”

Look at that—a mere report, and only once a month?

Well, the problem has only persisted for the past five years. With the “underspending” hitting a fantastic sum of P300 billion last year that, to this administration, was still no cause for alarm. All the sane people in the world would think that the problem should be nothing short of alarming.

Instead of just waiting for a passive report on the projects every seventh day of the month, what about undertaking proactive monitoring of those projects everyday?

That is what hands-on economic management is all about.