President Benigno Aquino III has just achieved a triumph that has eluded every Filipino President in our history and matches, and perhaps exceeds, the triumphs of America’s most successful President in the twentieth century, FDR.
Against all odds, President Aquino took on and bested the Catholic Church, the tobacco industry, the liquor industry, Filipino billionaires, such as Eduardo Cojuangco, Lucio Tan, former First Lady Imelda Marcos and our great and highly popular world boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao.
The President’s victories will have clear and immediate benefits to the Philippines. But, more importantly, they are a signal to the world, including international bankers and investors, that the Philippines is governable and can achieve, within a democracy, what many believe can only be achieved through authoritarian governments, such as the economic progress in China and Singapore.
Family planning and Sin taxes Could help double our income and create millions of jobs
Family planning has been the key to economic growth in Japan, China, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. We oppose the authoritarian type of family planning that has led to China’s one child per family laws. But, we do note that over 80% of Catholics in the United States, including Filipino American Catholics, practice family planning even though it is strongly opposed by the Catholic Church.
The percentage of the population in the Philippines that support family planning could be just as high as in the US. The vast majority of our poor understand that ten poor children per family is not a recipe for quality education, adequate housing or good jobs. Unlike other Asian nations that support family planning, either informally or formally, our poor nation’s population continues to explode. It was less than 35 million when President Marcos first came into office almost 45 years ago. Today it has tripled to over 104 million.
With over 80% of our population being considered poor by the standards in other Asian nations and at least 20 million that the United Nations contend live in extreme slum conditions, these reforms were long overdue.
Although our great and well-spoken boxing champion Manny Pacquiao may be correct in his statement made only a few days after his losing battle with Marquez that, “Only God has power over this,” there may be another interpretation. Specifically, it is for the people of the Philippines, not the Church to interpret God’s will.
The substantial increase in the sin taxes on tobacco and liquor may be equally admirable triumphs for President Aquino since the tobacco and liquor industries spend more in trying to defeat these tax increases than what is lawfully spent in any Philippine Presidential election.
Long-term positive consequences of a strong Democratically elected leader
It has been a long time, far too long, since our nation has had a strong and respected democratically-elected leader. The accomplishments President Aquino achieved just before Christmas will be an immediate Christmas gift to the people, much as President Aquino stated when he signed The Sin Tax Reform of 2012 at Malacañang. The Sin Tax Reform laws will generate a minimum of $500 billion pesos over the next ten years since the tax increases are indexed to inflation.
Equally important in the short run and far more important in the long run, these Presidential successes are a signal to the international banking and investors communities across the world that the Philippines is on its way as our next successful Asian nation. This will almost immediately enhance the Philippines’ credit rating from junk to investment-worthy and thereby help promote economic growth rates that could soon rival those in China.
Because the sin tax revenue will be allocated for universal healthcare (including new public clinics and hospitals) and encourage the modernization of our substandard infrastructure, economic growth is likely to surpass virtually every Asian nation. This includes Japan, Vietnam and Korea. Also due to family planning, it is likely that we will curtail our unsustainable population growth (tripling over the past two generations and more than twice the growth rate throughout the rest of Asia). We will also finally be able to properly plan for job growth at home. Perhaps within less than a generation, as Thailand and Korea have demonstrated, our best jobs will be in the Philippines, not in the United States, Singapore or the Arab world.
A large number of Filipino Americans talk and dream about returning to the Philippines when they retire. Perhaps these reforms will also encourage our well-educated and inspired Filipino American youth to also return to the Philippines to help direct our motherland toward a bright and glorious future.
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Faith Bautista is CEO of the National Asian American Coalition, Chair of San Diego’s Housing and Economic Development Advisory Task Force and a national leader on economic development and job creation. Cora Oriel is the President of Asian Journal and the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Asian American Coalition.
