Before a new and fancier tale of the “daang matuwid” can be spun, let us be a good-news spoiler, and let us state this in the language that majority of our supra-politicized citizens will not always understand.
The World Bank, in its 2016 Ease of Doing Business report, said that, of 189 countries it studied, the Philippines did not improve its ranking from 95th to 65th, as the Aquino Administration expected and short of announced for 2016. The ratings moved, sliding down from 95 to 103 among the 189 countries.
The ease of doing business is a global indicator of the good business climate an investor can expect when coming with a business in a country.
The International Finance Corp. (IFC) recently broke the downgrade news: a rain in the parade now readied by the Aquino Administration. Next week, Aquino plans an elaborately embellished Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministers’ forum in Manila. Here, leaders of the world’s biggest and most dynamic countries fringing the Asia Pacific region will be in Manila.
President Aquino sees this opportunity as one he can show how the Philippines is faring as the new Asian economic tiger. Or more correctly, how World Economic Forum billed “Asia’s new economic miracle” is governing.
And the WB report can be, finally proven to be hoax.
On this, the Department of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima locks and loads its verbal arsenal shooting at the WB, whom it claims as erratic and questionable. We pity the visibly incensed Purisima. After all, as an avid insurance broker for the Philippines, painting rainbows over death is a classic line he uses always. He put on the country’s dreamy but false economic make-up, using a cash stash of tax money to buy credit ratings from the world’s top credit rating agencies.
Now, no amount of make up can de-odorize the country’s overall ranking decline in most of the 10 sub-indicators of the Doing Business program.
To Purisima’s side is Guillermo Luz, of the National Competitiveness Council, who also came out flaring about the report alleging its use of unsound and erratic methodology.
But, protest, the Administration may, the whole world would always see this as a bitter country for failing to make good its miracle concoction. And so, BizNews Asia, bannered in its cover story. “If you want to start a business, don’t start it in the Philippines.”
Considering that there are 189 economies, the Philippine rankings belie the claims of Daang Matuwid.”
Coming still as a time when an international embarrassment of the planting bullet scam greets APEC leaders at the airport, there might be no stopping the tag that this government has been led by incompetent and corrupt. This time, unfortunately, there is no President Arroyo to blame.
One good thing from this, it’s telling the Aquino Administration that the few good things they have owned credit will now be ascribed to somebody else’s.
This is something the businessmen leaders of APEC will smell. For us, Ave Maria Purisima.
