Analysts give Marcos mixed performance in his first year as President
Analysts gave President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a mixed performance during his first year in office.
A political science professor graded Marcos ''incomplete'' while a banker said more work is needed in agriculture.
“I think I will give him an incomplete grade because he’s not yet finished. There are still things he needs to do so I think it’s still premature to give him a grade since it is still his first year,” Aries Arugay, chairman of the UP political science department, told Teleradyo Wednesday night.
Arugay said that Marcos was successful in implementing his foreign policy.
“In terms of foreign policy, he is fulling his head of state function by representing the country and going on trips to other countries. We know that there are critics who say his trips are excessive but I think that there are trips that are really needed, like his trip to America. It’s been 11 years since a Philippine president went to the US…but I also think that there are trips that are less important,” Arugay said.
“He laid the foundations of Philippine foreign policy that protects the interests of our country,” he added.
Arugay said the President needs to work on the country’s economy.
“Although our economic growth is high, this cannot be felt by ordinary Filipinos. Because in the end, inflation, and lack of supply… are what the Filipinos experience. For them, the 7.6 percent of economic growth is useless because the prices of goods are still high but their salary doesn’t increase, and the cost of electricity and water is also high. Of course, the prices of water and electricity will continue to rise because of the challenges that will be experienced during El Nino as well as the problems with their supply,” he said.
Banker Alexander Escucha, said the Marcos administration was heading in the right direction in most aspects, except when it came to inflation and agriculture.
“ I think the unemployment rate is in the right direction, infrastructure spending is in the right direction. But there are some things we need to catch up on,” he said.
Escucha said one of the positive aspects he saw in the Marcos administration was increased infrastructure spending, which rose from four to five percent under the Duterte administration to five to six percent.
He also said there was not much progress in the farm sector even though Marcos is also serving as Agriculture secretary.
“For the last 20 years, agriculture only improved by around one to two percent. Even according to the World Bank’s economic update, they forecast that the next five years that agriculture would grow by 1.1 percent or even 0.1 percent, because of El Nino and tropical storms,” he said.
Escucha said that ordinary Filipino citizens could not feel the decline of inflation because prices of commodities, such as food and transportation, are rising.
“Now if there’s one area that we can call a failure, it’s agriculture. He promised that rice would be sold at P20 per kilogram. We’re importing sugar supposedly to lower the prices to P40 per kilogram, but it is still sold at P80,” said Escucha.
Asked about what Marcos should focus on during his next year, Arugay said he should concentrate on bureaucratic control and cooperation with Congress.
“First of all, he should control and ensure that his bureaucracy, especially the Executive branch toes the line on what he wants. As the President, you’re the head of government. So there should be no debate about your orders,” Arugay said.
“So I think bureaucratic control is very important. He should hold bureaucratic agencies that are not performing well accountable. They shouldn’t just apologize and be told not to repeat their mistakes,” he said.
“Second, I think he should focus on cooperation with Congress. If he couldn’t realize his legislative agenda he could just say that ‘I tried my best to enact and push my legislative agenda but Congress is not cooperating’. So to me, in the end, it all comes to day-to-day governance,” he added.
Escucha said the Marcos administration should focus on inflation.
“The high inflation rate affects those in the bottom 30 percent who are poor. So the Department of Agriculture should act on this,” he said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
