The new team
The new team
Posted 00:07am (Mla time) Jan 30, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AT LEAST this much can be said about the President's new Cabinet appointments. They don't have "political payback" written all over them.
This time around, the list of appointees is not burdened by an undistinguished ex-senator like Ramon Revilla or an undistinguished Cebu congressman like Ace Durano, who were chosen because of their political clout rather than for their management acumen.
The new finance secretary, Cesar Purisima, is already a known quantity, as a former SGV managing partner turned trade and industry secretary. (Having given up his high-paying job to serve as an alter-ego of the President only months before last year's elections, he was the surest bet to stay on in the Cabinet.) His replacement at the Department of Trade and Industry, Juan Santos, is even better known in business and political circles, as the long-time president of Nestl‚ Philippines.
Raphael Lotilla, who takes over the energy portfolio in April, is not as well known, but he has a record at the National Economic and Development Authority (where he was assistant secretary general) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (where he is president) that recommended him to President Macapagal-Arroyo. Alberto Lina, the new Customs commissioner, is a well-known entrepreneur, not least because of his sponsorship of basketball teams. He runs the successful local franchise of Federal Express. (Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Guillermo Parayno was "prevailed upon" to stay, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.)
The reaction of both the business sector-and by implication the international investment community-was summed up in the welcoming words of the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. "They look like solid, serious businesspeople and that is what we need," Robert Sears said.
Of course, none of this is to say that a businessman or a technocrat necessarily has the nation's best interests at heart.
Already, militant groups have taken aim at Santos, whose term at Nestl‚ was marked by outbreaks of labor unrest. And questions are being raised about Lina, who is himself in the customs brokerage business. (Lina is also the older brother of ex-Laguna governor Joey Lina, a close Arroyo ally.)
But President Arroyo would have done the country a disservice if she had appointed, say, another clutch of politicians as the country's new economic managers. That would have sent the wrong signal to decision-makers here and abroad. And the impact would have been both immediate and lasting.
We aren't even talking of foreign investments, which often come, as the expression goes, with strings attached. We are talking about local businessmen choosing between expanding in the country and parking their money abroad, about fund managers and credit analysts looking for signs of political will in our sometimes rambunctious democracy, about middle-class citizens weighing a decision to take out a loan for a car or a home.
If a politician had been named to head the Department of Finance, for instance, say as part of a deal with the opposition, the inevitable uproar would have slowed the economy.
Bunye was understandably upbeat in announcing the appointments. "The ongoing revamp projects a renewed sense of continuity and direction towards the realization of the President's 10-point agenda, as a new team is brought in to pull the economic carriage forward," he said.
(A curious choice of metaphor, that. Bunye's image assumes an "economic carriage" that is not only under-powered but even non-motorized. For the carriage to move, the new economic managers have to pull it forward. What, is the carriage stuck in a rut?)
Now the burden is on the appointees to work smart, and to work as a team. (Already, Lotilla has been warned by his former teacher, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, that he had only six months to show he was up to the job.) Their challenge is to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty at home and to restore institutional confidence abroad. More than ever, these twin objectives are mutually dependent. They define the nation's best interests.
Posted 00:07am (Mla time) Jan 30, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the January 30, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AT LEAST this much can be said about the President's new Cabinet appointments. They don't have "political payback" written all over them.
This time around, the list of appointees is not burdened by an undistinguished ex-senator like Ramon Revilla or an undistinguished Cebu congressman like Ace Durano, who were chosen because of their political clout rather than for their management acumen.
The new finance secretary, Cesar Purisima, is already a known quantity, as a former SGV managing partner turned trade and industry secretary. (Having given up his high-paying job to serve as an alter-ego of the President only months before last year's elections, he was the surest bet to stay on in the Cabinet.) His replacement at the Department of Trade and Industry, Juan Santos, is even better known in business and political circles, as the long-time president of Nestl‚ Philippines.
Raphael Lotilla, who takes over the energy portfolio in April, is not as well known, but he has a record at the National Economic and Development Authority (where he was assistant secretary general) and the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (where he is president) that recommended him to President Macapagal-Arroyo. Alberto Lina, the new Customs commissioner, is a well-known entrepreneur, not least because of his sponsorship of basketball teams. He runs the successful local franchise of Federal Express. (Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Guillermo Parayno was "prevailed upon" to stay, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.)
The reaction of both the business sector-and by implication the international investment community-was summed up in the welcoming words of the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. "They look like solid, serious businesspeople and that is what we need," Robert Sears said.
Of course, none of this is to say that a businessman or a technocrat necessarily has the nation's best interests at heart.
Already, militant groups have taken aim at Santos, whose term at Nestl‚ was marked by outbreaks of labor unrest. And questions are being raised about Lina, who is himself in the customs brokerage business. (Lina is also the older brother of ex-Laguna governor Joey Lina, a close Arroyo ally.)
But President Arroyo would have done the country a disservice if she had appointed, say, another clutch of politicians as the country's new economic managers. That would have sent the wrong signal to decision-makers here and abroad. And the impact would have been both immediate and lasting.
We aren't even talking of foreign investments, which often come, as the expression goes, with strings attached. We are talking about local businessmen choosing between expanding in the country and parking their money abroad, about fund managers and credit analysts looking for signs of political will in our sometimes rambunctious democracy, about middle-class citizens weighing a decision to take out a loan for a car or a home.
If a politician had been named to head the Department of Finance, for instance, say as part of a deal with the opposition, the inevitable uproar would have slowed the economy.
Bunye was understandably upbeat in announcing the appointments. "The ongoing revamp projects a renewed sense of continuity and direction towards the realization of the President's 10-point agenda, as a new team is brought in to pull the economic carriage forward," he said.
(A curious choice of metaphor, that. Bunye's image assumes an "economic carriage" that is not only under-powered but even non-motorized. For the carriage to move, the new economic managers have to pull it forward. What, is the carriage stuck in a rut?)
Now the burden is on the appointees to work smart, and to work as a team. (Already, Lotilla has been warned by his former teacher, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, that he had only six months to show he was up to the job.) Their challenge is to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty at home and to restore institutional confidence abroad. More than ever, these twin objectives are mutually dependent. They define the nation's best interests.
posted by Dante at 12:07 AM
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