Taking stock of 2018
Six more days and 2018 will be history.
The year started on a high note. According to the 2017 year-end survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS), 49 percent of Filipino adults expected their personal quality of life to get better in 2018, while 3 percent thought it would get worse.
The survey also showed 52 percent of Filipinos expressed optimism the country’s economy would improve, but 9 percent said it would decline.
Based on SWS’ past survey data, Filipinos’ net optimism about the economy has been “excellent” since December 2015.
In times past, even after going through horrendous natural and man-made calamities, Filipinos always looked at the coming year with optimism and positive thoughts.
It was back to reality after the 2018 New Year celebration. The first phase of the administration’s tax reform program, the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, took effect on its first day.
The law reduced personal income taxes. To make up for the loss in revenues, it imposed higher taxes on, among others, gasoline, cigarettes and sweetened beverages.
The economic managers said the additional revenues generated from those tax measures would help fund the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program.
During the Senate’s deliberation on the law, the economic managers assured the senators the new taxes would have minimal effect on inflation.
The law met revenue expectations. On the first month alone of its implementation, the government posted a P10.2-billion budget surplus which was 359 percent bigger than the surplus in the same month last year.
This was replicated in the following months. The government became awash with money and the administration was on a roll in its fiscal and infrastructure programs.
The pats on the back, however, proved to be short-lived. The minimal inflation effect promised by the economic managers to the senators turned out differently.
As reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the 3.8-percent inflation rate in February climbed in the succeeding months and peaked to 6.7 percent in September, the highest in nine years and also among Asean countries.
If the administration’s drumbeaters are to be believed, the inflation rate has, to date, already stabilized (thanks to massive importation of basic commodities), and the public can look forward to improved economic conditions in the coming months.
No amount of finger pointing will, however, hide the fact the administration failed to quickly take remedial measures when things started turning bad after the enactment of the TRAIN law.
The feeling of helplessness about the inflation rate that President Duterte later expressed aggravated the problem. More comforting words would have eased the people’s difficulties.
With the impending exit of 2018, the country is looking forward to the national and local elections this May.
For a time, this essential political exercise came under threat when some “bright” minions of the administration proposed its cancellation to pave the way for the adoption of a federal system of government.
The senators quickly shot down the idea and declared it dead on arrival even before it reached the Senate.
That declaration, however, did not deter Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and majority of the congressmen into approving a draft constitution that purports to provide for a federal system of government.
Considering the social, economic and political problems that marked 2018, its end cannot come any sooner. Despite all that, however, we should count our blessings. Other countries are in worst condition.
Only God knows what’s in store for the country in 2019. Hopefully, it will be a lot better than this year.
Merry Christmas!
