The Philippines should make its cities more competitive, inclusive and better governed to support the rapid increase in the number of Filipinos living in urban areas today, a joint study by the government and the World Bank said.
Released on Monday, the “Philippines Urbanization Review: Fostering Competitive, Sustainable and Inclusive Cities” report said the Philippines is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in East Asia but it is at a critical juncture. About 45 percent of Filipinos live in urban areas today, the report added.
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The Department of Finance (DoF) has has concluded a study identifying three major contributors to poverty reduction that could also help speed up the government’s quest for inclusive growth for Filipinos.
Already setting the policy direction for the government’s medium-term economic program—greater investment in infrastructure, conditional cash transfer (CCT) and micro-lending programs—accelerate poverty reduction and spell financial inclusion – according to the DoF’s first major research paper for the year, released on Monday. Looking back at the peace process at Biak-na-Bato, which enters its 120th anniversary in 2017, it may well be seen that the conditions past still mirror the situation today. The 1976 Tripoli Agreement. The 1996 Final Peace Agreement. The Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro. The Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms. The Philippines have long suffered from internal struggle, and it has hampered our path of progress.
What can we learn on the peace process from the Pact of Biak-na-Bato? A global bank has raised concern about the delayed passage of the Finance department’s tax reform program, saying that holding the much-needed tax reforms hostage in Congress would negate the government’s ambitious infrastructure spending plans for the next six years.
ANZ Research economist Eugenia Fabon Victorino said stalling the approval of the first tranche of tax adjustments would leave the Duterte administration’s pipeline of infrastructure projects unfunded, and would also keep agencies from preparing to adopt new tax collection methods. The Department of Finance (DoF) has already submitted the first package of its proposed tax reform plan to the House of Representatives, which involves adjusting the income tax brackets for individual earners. The revenue hole will be plugged by the removal of some exemptions to value-added tax (VAT), coupled with higher duties on cars and fuel, as captured by House Bill (HB) 4774. President Rodrigo Duterte’s socioeconomic agenda was unveiled in his trip to the Middle East last week and will be called “Dutertenomics,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Monday.
“Dutertenomics” aims to widen the gains of economic development, address inequality and uplift the quality of life of all Filipinos, the Cabinet official said in a statement. Lopez said the President’s visits to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar significantly strengthened diplomatic relationships, resulting in stronger commitments to enhance bilateral trade and investments. A ranking Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) official said the Finance department’s tax reform proposal will help ensure price stability in the country.
Last March, the House of Representative’s Ways and Means Committee approved in principle the first package of the Department of Finance’s (DoF) Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) and decided to form a Technical Working Group (TWG) to study it further. Finance officials hope that lawmakers will give their thumbs up on the tax reform measure by the middle of this year. The Philippine government (GPH) and the National Democratic Front (NDF) peace panels on Wednesday finally agreed to declare a joint interim ceasefire, a key demand of President Rodrigo Duterte.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier scrapped the peace negotiations with the NDF after attacks on soldiers by the communist armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), which ended its unilateral ceasefire with government last February. Peace negotiations were however revived following successful back-channel talks. Elections for barangay (village) officials will likely be moved to May 2019 and synchronized with the midterm polls as well as the planned plebiscite on constitutional changes, a ranking House member bared on Sunday.
Rep. Sherwin Tugna of Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption party-list, chairman of the House electoral reforms committee, made the projection following fresh calls from President Rodrigo Duterte and Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno to postpone the barangay polls for a second time. But unlike last year’s move in which the barangay polls were postponed and incumbents were allowed to served for another year in a holdover capacity, President Duterte wants to scrap the barangay polls in October and appoint barangay officials instead. "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." (Wallace Stanley Sayre)
The student population may have been experiencing an imbalance in the means and the representation to voice out their interests. Therefore, they choose either not to vote or to abstain. They are trapped into an either-or option, though in this diversified age, they should have multiple options. It is hoped that this short article may be of help for future research on student councils nationwide. Also, since they say that the university is the microcosm of Philippine society, and the leaders of tomorrow are the youth of today, it is expected that it may also be of help to the nation in general. Most analysts view voter turnout as an important factor that needs utmost attention in the current democratic system. To this day, it is recognized as the foremost legitimizing factor of any democracy of its type. While automated elections managed to keep turnout at certain levels, which are definitely higher than it was during the 1990s (when apathy became the paramount issue), why is turnout in such a high-level election fluctuating? Whatever happened to the leaders of tomorrow? The Duterte administration aims to fully automate all government procedures and processes by the end of its term in line with one of the targets under the 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan (PDP), economic planning officials said on Monday.
“The President [Rodrigo Duterte] doesn’t want people queuing [for government procedures], and how will you achieve that? Then you have to go for automation of many of these procedures,” Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said. |
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