Scary future?

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

Vice President Sara Duterte just confirmed our worst fears for our country’s future: she is running for President in 2028. She is ill-prepared for the challenges of the job. She couldn’t even handle the Department of Education (DepEd) for a year.

Informed of the news, BBM reportedly said “Good luck.” Asked by reporters if BBM was being sarcastic, the Presidential Spokesperson said she couldn’t tell. I guess, BBM was saying, “Good luck to the country.” That I can understand.

Our tragedy is the absence of a viable candidate to run against her, one who is everything that our current politicians are not: honest, patriotic, intelligent and able to run our government in the most transparent manner. No Mary Grace Piattos.

It is difficult to think that a country of over 100 million many of whose citizens have proven their capability to successfully run world class corporations and organizations abroad is unable to put up one candidate that will for the first time run this country right.

Then again, even if Filipinos accidentally elect a very capable person with high ethical and moral values, well trained in the art of statecraft and with good executive skills as the next president, what can he or she really do to correct over 70 years of corruption and mismanagement?

Indeed, we should probably first revise the Constitution and try a parliamentary form of government. The presidential system has failed us. We elect a president and the senators for six-year terms and during that time, they can steal from the Treasury all they want and don’t have to worry about being thrown out of office.

A parliamentary system gives us the opportunity to reset things if the Prime Minister or the party in power fails us. A simple vote of no confidence is all it takes to start fresh.

We don’t need ambitious military officers and their civilian co-conspirators to plot a coup. Right now, only a military vote of no confidence can change our government, and that’s too destabilizing as it is not provided for in the Constitution.

Our current single six-year term is insufficient to undo decades of neglect. To correct the effects of 70 years of mismanagement, a capable and ethical president would need to move beyond personality-driven politics and focus on deep structural and institutional transformations.

I know, these are big words and big concepts but we really need structural and institutional transformations, whether we keep our presidential system or move to parliamentary.

We need to institutionalize accountability and transparency in the government. Technology can help but only if we are honest enough to make it help.

There are experts who say we should move away from annual budget cycles that encourage short-term “pork barrel” spending. Implement instead a Medium-Term Expenditure Framework aligned with a long-term national roadmap. Let us respect the hard work of economists who crafted the Ambisyon Plan.

We must also clean up the justice system. No amount of tax benefits will get us the foreign direct investors we want because the bad reputation of our justice system is well known.

The best justice system that money can buy, is often heard to describe our justice system. That’s why former president Rodrigo Duterte is being tried in The Hague by the ICC and not in a local court, in case Sen. Bam Aquino needs a reminder.

Our big problem is our economy. Don’t be dazzled when cabinet members talk of our economy as the fastest growing in the region based on GDP and other metrics. Here is a good observation from former socioeconomic planning secretary Ciel Habito:

“With hindsight, the revelations tell us that our economy’s seemingly robust growth performance reported in recent years had been flimsier than it actually was.

“A limitation of our gross domestic product statistics is that government construction, which counts as investment spending in the GDP accounts, is measured using government data on fund disbursements for infrastructure projects.

“But as has become evident for many years, disbursing the money is not the same as actually using the money for its intended purposes.

“We now see how huge sums of that money actually went to the purchase of luxury cars, lavish parties, and other conspicuous consumption, rather than spending that builds capacity for more future production, which is what fixed investments represent.”

The reality is, our economy rests on two wobbly legs, OFWs and BPOs. The full-year OFW remittance inflows reached $35.63 billion, representing 7.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, the lowest share since 7.2 percent in 2000, a 25-year low.

Is it reasonable or sustainable for us to expect foreign countries to continually employ OFWs?

AI and US President Donald Trump are serious threats to migrant workers and our over $40 billion business process outsourcing industry.

Then there is food, whose prices are often unaffordable to common people. A good, intelligent and honest president can make a bold difference in our agriculture sector.

Shift agriculture from subsidies to systems. It is currently inefficient due to land fragmentation and poor logistics. A new president should not be afraid to dump the current agrarian reform program which is obviously a big failure.

Instead, push for land consolidation where small plots are managed as one large plantation. This allows for mechanization that is impossible on 1-hectare lots.

Pay attention to the logistics infrastructure. Redirect “pork barrel” funds to cold chain hubs and regional production centers. Currently, up to 30-40 percent of produce rots before reaching Manila; fixing this immediately lowers food prices.

Scale up existing agri-tech startups that provide real-time weather and soil data to farmers, reducing crop failure risks from climate change.

In six years, an honest and capable president can’t build every factory, but can lower the cost of doing business (power, logistics, and corruption) so that the private sector finally feels safe enough to invest in Philippine production.

Right now, it is downright scary with or without Sara.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco.