FIRST SAY:
“If you look at international comparisons of countries, you’ll see that the ease of doing business in this country is terrible. And it’s improved quite substantially but it’s slow improvement. We need to do so much more,” says Arsenio Balisacan.
Balisacan also noted that eliminating potential concerns of investors, including issues on lagging digitization, should likewise be at the forefront of the country’s measures for economic development.
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Good news keeps coming out of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Remember that one of the Monetary Board (MB), in its June 27 meeting, aired the expectations for inflation figures in 2025 and 2026 as easing further toward the midpoint of the target range.
The target, of course, is for the inflation rate to stay within two to four percent, which is the average in most economies.
External forecasters who responded to the survey of the BSP last month favored a lower inflation forecast for 2025 at 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent result in the May survey.
Interestingly, the mean inflation forecast for 2024 was maintained at 3.7 percent this year, which is the upper end of the 2 to 4 percent goal.
Headline inflation eased to a four-month low of 3.7 percent in May. Average inflation stood at 3.5 percent in the first half.
It is well to note that the BSP has been keeping borrowing costs unchanged since it delivered its 450-basis-point increases from May, 2022 to October, 2023, which brought the guiding interest rate to a 17-year high of 6.50 percent.
Owners of small businesses who rely on bank loans for their capitalization, buyers of houses and cars, and stock market retail investors are all dreaming of lower interest rates in the country to boost their business activities.
But independent economists from the private sector see only the first signs of relief in 2025 and 2026.
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First, the good news. The Philippines was able to record an all-time high deployment of Filipino seafarers in 2023, according to Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.
In all likelihood, this record accomplishment was extended during the first half of the year, since there has been normal deployment of maritime personnel and no internal labor constraints have been monitored in the country.
Next, the bad news. The politically motivated terrorism by the Houthi rebels from their land bases in Yemen to their operational flashpoints in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea continues without letup. This has led to great displacement in commercial shipping, as container ships and big cargo vessels skip Egypt's Suez Canal to evade being victimized by the Houthis in the Red Sea. The rebels are attacking all ships with even remotest ties or relationships to Israel.
The Houthi rebels' cause is not just to gain more political power and influence inside Yemen, possibly to take over the government itself. But lately, they have been more and more involved in helping their brother Palestinians in Gaza, where the Hamas fighters are still locked in a war with Israel's security forces. The Houthis' patron and financier, Iran, is with them in this struggle. Also recently, the United States has been flexing its military muscle in the Middle East, with an eye on Iran itself.
The Philippines may be far from the scenes of battle but is suffering from the war's consequences, and not just in the fields of diplomacy and foreign relations. Our peace-loving, courageous and industrious seafarers have been harassed, kidnapped, and killed in the Red Sea---albeit for just doing their jobs on board ships.
Also, oil tankers and other vessels have to take the long route near the tip of Africa and sail on to the Indian Ocean on their way to Asia, adding much to the travel time, costs of fuel, insurance and labor. These all translate to higher oil prices in the Philippines, which, unlike its neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia, does not have its own sources of oil.
While Cacdac is happy that the demand for the country's maritime seafarers continues---some 500,000 Filipino seafarers are now gainfully employed all over the world---the problems and troubles awaiting them at sea also persist.
The DMW chief said around 30 percent of all local seafarers are still awaiting deployment and thus it has become imperative for the Marcos administration to institute measures to really secure the welfare of all Filipinos working at sea.
Just last month, President Bongbong Marcos' policy called whole-of-government-approach proved effective in effecting a safe and quick rescue of the 22 Filipino seafarers aboard thE MV Tutor which was attacked by Houthi rebels while sailing in the Red Sea.
Secretary Hans Cacdac called it one of the fastest rescue operations ever in the Red Sea, as US Navy personnel snatched to safety some 21 Filipino seafarers aboard the ill-fated MV Tutor. The rescued ship workers were ferried by the American ship to the Port of Manama in Bahrain.
Cacdac said the team of DMW, Migrant Workers Office (MWO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), under the ‘One-Country Team Approach’ led by the Philippine ambassador in Bahrain, all did their part in completing the successful rescue.
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