I admit Leni Loud Robredo is partly right in telling President Duterte about taking care of economics but the problem is does she really know basic economics? This is a challenge that would certainly continue to discredit her position. What does she know about basic economics and does she see that the 1987 Constitution's pro-oligarch constitution is indeed a major contributor to bad economics?
Does she want to address the "presyo ng bilihin" or the prices of commodities? She should go back to the rule of supply and demand which includes the world market. No president can control the prices of gasolines from rising or falling -- though I think the excise tax needs to be considered on how much. She wants to address the prices of commodities in the local scale? Why not focus on agriculture programs and improving the rural farm areas? We could start by abolishing 4Ps and reallocating the budget to agriculture programs around the Philippines. This would start to allow more rice to be produced which in turn can fill in Filipinos' demand for rice on the table for starters. The law of supply and demand is beyond the government control. Has that ever been into her head that supply and demand are laws of nature? What's next? Does she want to prevent typhoons from kicking into the Philippines?
Does she want to address unemployment? Solutions are not found in the silly 4Ps program for the reason that it's making people lazy or letting the government give jobs when it can't give everyone who's looking for work their jobs. The ratio between Filipino businessmen to Filipinos seeking for jobs is very high. There's too many Filipinos looking for work and too few job providers in the Philippines. If there's a scarcity of local supply then shouldn't the solution be to import supply where there's more for that season? Why do you think you should import lumber from another country when it's not lumber season in the Philippines? The solution is also through removing unreasonable restrictions towards Foreign Direct Investors. Before you shout "invasion" then it's time for me to ask them, "Then tell me why countries with open economies still have their national sovereignty?" It's because FDIs themselves are not colonizers. When they do business in countries not their own then they must secure proper government permits, right?
Does she want to address incompetence of the business sectors? It's the truth that no competition means no competitiveness. Unfortunately, she may have the mindset that economic competition is a battlefield rather than how Adam Smith would view it as an invisible hand to drive the economy. One good reason why incompetence happens is because of a lack of competition. Let's think about this scenario -- if you were the only person selling bulalo in town then why bother to make your services better or modernize your settings? Instead, in the face of competition -- you must modernize whenever necessary like make sure you've got updated technology going on. But why will the oligarchy bother to upgrade and innovate if there's hardly any competition? Again, why won't those economic neanderthals get it into their super thick skulls that you can't have competitive thinking without the existence of competition?
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