It was a very good feeling, a relief to read banner stories for the day (The Phil. Star, among others) that list our country the Philippines as among the few who managed to stay afloat while most of the economies in the world are reeling from recession. The Fitch could have seen the resilience of our economy that managed to hover on the positive rating rather than nosediving into the realm of uncertainty as what happened to Iceland, most of Europe, the US of A, to count a few. I tried to look for reasons why we pulled it through in 2008: was it due to a better management of the economy? did good governance actually exist? Were economic policies laid out and implemented by our government proved right and effective? or was it all about dollar remittances by our overseas workers ( we call them aptly the OFW's)? Notwithstanding the corrupt culture that permeats our society today, was there sufficient fund after all, left for goverment to do governing?Perhaps, it was mere luck, or that God smiled upon Filipinos for being prayerful and close to HIM everyday of our lives?
Having been disciplined in other fields rather than economics and public administration, I sourced out information from the daily newspapers, the internet, books, tv news/documentaries if any, even the fastest information harbinger of all: the gossipers, in order that an ordinary citizen like this blogger can somehow confirm and be convinced that indeed the Philippine economy is among the three countries, China and Indonesia included that are least affected by the worldwide recession! Hallelujah! The Philippines? Lest I would be accused of being unPatriotic, I want to make a statement here. For forty (40) years since 1969, my country never pulled up from the mire of budget deficits, inadequate resources or income to fund development and expansion programs, worse, the delivery of basic services to Filipinos. It did not and still does not make sense to me how government function with deficits while clearly we see, we know, we witness the flagrant misuse of public funds by government officials since forty years ago. That misuse quantifyingly reduces public funds by as much as 50% obviously by automatic allotment of such percentage of the total budget outlay of the government to the pockets of people in elected offices as well as those in the career service. I do believe that the practice of securing personal profit out of the transactiions is rampant and is deemed acceptable in the already corrupted environment in government. We have become a nation of crooks as the ways of the crook is much a part of the Filpinos' psyche unfortunately.
Having been disciplined in other fields rather than economics and public administration, I sourced out information from the daily newspapers, the internet, books, tv news/documentaries if any, even the fastest information harbinger of all: the gossipers, in order that an ordinary citizen like this blogger can somehow confirm and be convinced that indeed the Philippine economy is among the three countries, China and Indonesia included that are least affected by the worldwide recession! Hallelujah! The Philippines? Lest I would be accused of being unPatriotic, I want to make a statement here. For forty (40) years since 1969, my country never pulled up from the mire of budget deficits, inadequate resources or income to fund development and expansion programs, worse, the delivery of basic services to Filipinos. It did not and still does not make sense to me how government function with deficits while clearly we see, we know, we witness the flagrant misuse of public funds by government officials since forty years ago. That misuse quantifyingly reduces public funds by as much as 50% obviously by automatic allotment of such percentage of the total budget outlay of the government to the pockets of people in elected offices as well as those in the career service. I do believe that the practice of securing personal profit out of the transactiions is rampant and is deemed acceptable in the already corrupted environment in government. We have become a nation of crooks as the ways of the crook is much a part of the Filpinos' psyche unfortunately.
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