Need to Increase the Quantity/Quality of the Philippine Public Sector Employment I.

Ratio of public sector employment to total population vis-a-vis poverty level

1. Based on the Internet data on the ratio of public sector employment to total population and poverty level in 34 developing and developed countries, there is a strong negative correlation (r = -0.57922) that as the ratio increases, the population poverty incidence decreases.

2. One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the Aquino administration is the reduction of population poverty incidence from 26.5 percent (as of 2009) to 14.2 percent. Thirteen (13) Countries with population poverty incidence of more or less 14.2 percent have ratio of 2 percent (Indonesia), 3.2 (Chile), 3.5 (South Korea), 3.7 (Japan), 4.5 (Morocco), 4.7 (Jordan), 5.5 (China), 5.6 (Germany), 5.9 (Vietnam), 7.1 (U.S.), 7.7 (Belgium,Hungary), 9.1 (United Kingdom) and 20 (Russia).

3. It is stated in n the opinion-letter titled Take pragmatic approach (Inquirer, 09/13/13) that In the face of big budgetary deficit, past administrations pursued the streamlining of the bureaucracy in order to reduce cost, but the members of Congress continued to receive their pork barrel fund (Countrywide Development Fund) which increased over time. Now it is called the Priority Development Assistance Fund. But making the bureaucracy lean has been found to be a deterrence to governments effectiveness and efficiency in delivering basic social and technical services and in regulating the economy. The inevitable consequence is less performance in terms of results and impact but more in fund corruption, an example of which is the pork barrel scam . . . If the Aquino administration will continue the policy of making the bureaucracy lean at the ratio of 1.5 percent, the countrys MDG target of reducing the population poverty incidence from 26.5 percent (as of 2009) to 14.2 percent is more myth than reality. . . Therefore, the Aquino administration should do the pragmatic approach in implementing the 2010-2016 Medium Term Development Plan by starting to gradually increase the ratio of public sector employment to total population to reach the desired level, coupled with capability-building measures, among other imperatives. 4. Gerardo P. Sicat, who is a Filipino economist, educator and public servant. was the first Director-General of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Minister of Economic Planning and member of the now defunct Batasang Pambansa. He wrote about absorptive capacity. These are as follows: a. The delays in decisions concerning investment projects in the public sector reduce absorptive capacity. Indecision might be attributable to lack of courage on the part of the principals of government agencies to take responsibility for their actions. We should focus on this problem. b. Absorptive capacity is the ability to implement projects and investments so that they achieve their intended objectives. If issues arise at any stage in the process, having absorptive capacity implies finding the appropriate ways or adjustments to solve or wiggle out of the problems. c. Absorptive capacity is possessing the appropriate technical and managerial skills to oversee the completion of economic decisions toward satisfactory results . d. In this country and in relative terms, the problem of inadequate or low absorptive capacity resides more in the public, than in the private, sphere. The former is much more inflexible when it comes to addressing economic problems while private enterprises can act quickly in biting the bullet as well as in changing course as needed. II. Land Reform

1. Partylist Representative Walden Bello in his column titled Waterloo for agrarian reform? (Inquirer, 09/17/13) stated that The Philippines still has a chance of meeting the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people living in poverty by 50 per cent from 1990 levels if it resolutely carries out the right policies, National Economic Development Authority head Arsenio Balicasan said at a recent congressional hearing.

2. By integrating poverty, corruption, and agrarian reform, he Mr. Bello stated that The central challenges to the country are the radical reduction of inequality and poverty and the achievement of sustained and sustainable development. The completion of agrarian reform is a precondition for both. We must not allow the dazzling statistics on economic growth to blind us to this. . . Also, while the elimination of the pork barrel is a critical step in the battle against corruption, unless there are major gains in the battle against poverty, of which land reform is one of the key weapons, the gains in the struggle against corruption will be evanescent since the poor will be constantly tempted to resort to patronage by the powerful in order to survive. Patronage politics, recent events have shown, is one of the fundamental sources of corruption . . . It is not enough for President Aquino to not stay in the way of the redistribution of Hacienda Luisita. If the battle against corruption and against poverty that he intends as his legacy is to be successful during the rest of his term and beyond, he must transcend his class background and prioritize agrarian reform. III. 1. Anti-corruption campaign and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Among the 13 countries, the Philippines has the highest change in CPI score of 10

Corruption Perception Index (2010-2012)

percent from 24 percent in 2010 to 34 percent in 2012 shown in the Graph above. Of the 13 countries, the countrys CPI score is only 9th place from the highest score of 74 percent for Japan. 2. The GDP growth of the Philippines during the Aquino administration was 7.4 percent in

2010, 3.7 percent in 2011 and 6.3 percent in 2012 (see Graph below) whose average of 5.8 percent is better than the 4.2 percent average during the period 2008-2010. GDP Growth Rate

3. In the opinion-letter titled Seeing progress, poverty in mathematical terms (Inquirer, 04/30/13), it is stated that Therefore, the mathematical formula that must be adopted by the government is that reduction in poverty incidence is the product of GDP growth rate, CPI and inclusive growth combined. . . What is to be done? The news item stated that: 1) according to Norio Usui, senior country economist for Asian Development Bank, there is a need for a strong industrial base to give jobs not only to the highly educated college graduates, but also to high school graduates; and 2) the National Economic and Development Authority said it hoped to see improved results given new investments in infrastructure, agriculture and manufacturing. In addition, the government should invest more in a programmatic manner in capacitating peoples organizations and cooperatives in poor farming and fishing communities in the fields of marketing, technology, management and funding, which are the key success variables in business. IV. Priority Areas for Development

1.

The Table below indicates that out of total population in 2009, there were 1.61 million fishers or 25% of 6.43 million which is the number of farmers and fisherfolk in the country.

2. Graph below is the NSCBs 2009 latest data on population poverty by province. The average for the 3 major islands are 19 percent for Luzon, 35 percent for Visayas and 40 percent for Mindanao. Given the increasing trend of the self-rated poverty by SWS surveys between 2009 and 2012, the official population poverty incidence could have increased further. In poverty reduction, priority should be given to Mindanao followed by Visayas.

3. The 2009 Poverty Incidence Map by the NSCB shows the colored areas from green which indicates the lowest percent population poverty incidence at 0-10 percent to red which indicates highest

poverty incidence at 60.1 to 97.5 percent. One can easily see that Luzon has the least poverty level while Mindanao is the most poverty-stricken area.

2009 Poverty Map of the Philippines NSCB)

4. Based on the data presented in the Graph below, certain relationships can be determined as follows: a. At western Mindanao, ARMM (part of which is Sulu) with 2 nd highest population incidence at 45.9% and Zambo peninsula with 3rd highest population poverty incidence at 43.1 experienced significant in 2011 GDP growth rate from 2.3 to negative 1.0 and 3.6 to 0.! %, respectively. In ARMM, agriculture contributes a very high 63% of the total GDP but the very 5% share of industry indicating imbalanced agro-industrial development leads to high poverty and decreasing GDP growth rate. Underdevelopment and high poverty level in ARMM are expected to exacerbate the worsening conflict in Mindanao.

b. In Zamboanga peninsula, while there is apparent improvement in the catch of sardine (tamban) due to the tamban fishing ban, it could be the declining total marine fish catch that contributed much to the declining GDP growth. c. While at eastern Mindanao, Caraga has the highest population poverty incidence, it experienced the highest GDP growth rate from 7.4% in 2010 to 9.6% in 2011. Economic growth benefits may have redounded to the benefit of big mining companies. d. Davao region and Soccsksargen have the lowest population poverty incidence at 31.3% and 35.7% and with GDP growth of 4.1% and 4%, respectively. The two regions which are located in central southern Mindanao have well developed agriculture (big plantations) and fisheries (tuna fishing and canning). e. Northern Mindanao is a growth center region which includes Cagayan de Oro and Iligan which makes it the 3rd lowest in population poverty incidence.

V.

Philippine Fisheries Sector Production

1. Among its neighbouring countries, the Philippine total fisheries production growth has been on the decline after 2010 as shown in the Graph below, particularly the marine fish catch by both commercial and municipal fishers.

2. According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics Fisheries Situationer (Jan-Dec 2012), Seaweed production at 1,751,070.64 metric tons was 4.88 percent lower than last years record. The top producing provinces suffered infestation of ice-ice disease throughout the year. The unfavorable weather conditions combined with strong winds and rough seas brought negative effects on seaweed production in Tawi Tawi and Sulu. The uncontrolled presence of sea turtle and siganid fry in the area during the first half of 2012 caused damages and destroyed seaweed plants. In Zamboanga Sibugay, scarcity of good planting materials was noted. There were reports that most of the seaweed farms were washed out and covered with silt deposits caused by flash floods. The sudden change of temperature and existence of sea grass negated production output of Palawan. Meanwhile in Bohol, many operators opted to temporarily stop seaweed culture due

to high cost of farming materials and the continuous drop of its buying price. The presence of epiphytes in the seaweed farms caused poor growth of the plant thus reducing production output. 3. It is the fish culture production that increased in volume by 14,148 metric tons or by 3.8 percent between 2011 and 2012.

Source: Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) 4. The Philippines is the aquaculture center among the ASEAN countries with the establishment of the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) Aquaculture

Department in the country. However, its aquaculture production is relatively minimal as compared with that of its neighboring countries. Just like in the farming sector, one main reason is the inadequate delivery of technical services. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) under the Department of Agriculture (DA) had devolved its fisheries technicians to the LGUs in the advent of the implementation of the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1999. But due to lack of manpower at the level of the LGUs, said technicians were/are assigned to the nonfisheries field of work. While non-government organizations (NGOs) engaged in the fisheries sector provide technical services to the LGUs and peoples organizations (POs) in undertaking coastal resource management (CRM) and aquaculture projects, said services are not enough to meet the demand of the POs and private entities relative to their aquaculture projects, namely: milkfish floating cage culture, mud crab pen culture, tilapia culture in ponds and cages, among others. Prepared on 09/17/13 by: Edmundo Enderez