Ekonomiya sa kanayunan kailangang palakasin

KAILANGAN umanong palakasin ang ekonomiya sa mga kanayunan para hindi gumuho ang bansa kahit na nagkaroon ng problema ang mga malalaking siyudad.

Ayon kay House committee on ways and means chairman at Albay Rep. Joey Salceda kailangan ang “truly Filipino system” na maaaring maabot sa pamamagitan ng Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa (BP2) program.

Ang BP2 ay nakapaloob sa Executive Order 114 na pinirmahan ni Pangulong Duterte noong Mayo 6.

“The EO was very clear: urban congestion is not the main problem, but is a symptom of something larger and more structural. The EO was explicit about the policy pronouncement: ‘the uncontrolled upsurge in the NCR brings to the fore longstanding issues on the lack of viable and sustainable opportunities in the countryside, unbalanced regional development, and unequal distribution of wealth.’ I don’t know where they get the idea that the EO wants to dump the poor to the countryside without addressing the underlying issues,” paliwanag ni Salceda.

Pasok din ang BP2 sa Dutertenomics, ang ulat ni Salceda kay Duterte na siyang naging socioeconomic agenda ng Pangulo.

“Dutertenomics has always been guided by the simple principle that all Filipinos deserve a comfortable life. That the urban dweller and those in rural areas deserve the same level of comfort and are entitled to a just share of national development.”

Ipinagtanggol din ni Salceda ang BP2 sa mga kritiko ng administrasyon.

“The critics make it sound like you can only attend to either the city or the countryside. That’s not the way we govern. They’re thinking as if there is a socioeconomic discontinuity between NCR and the rest of the Philippines. There is none. If you can develop the countryside and arrest rapid congestion in highly-urbanized cities, you can make conditions more humane in those cities. If you can develop value-chains in the countryside, you make affordable, higher-quality goods available in the city. And if you can lay-out a sustainable way of governing the city, you prevent sprawl from eventually invading the countryside. BP2 says that in other words very clearly.”

Panahon na rin umano umanong magkaroon ng “green, high-tech economy” ang bansa.

“As long as you have a digitally-enabled economy, why would you have to move to Manila if you can work in Albay and serve a customer abroad? Why would you have to move to Manila if you have a robust agricultural and agribusiness sector in the provinces? Covid-19 has unsettled our economic structures. As United Nations Green Climate Fund Co-Chair once, I think there is no better chance to restructure our economy around the principles of balanced regional distribution and modern, inclusive and sustainable value chains than now.”

“The critics will lodge the old talking points, but the President’s instincts here are correct. We need to build both sustainable cities and a progressive countryside,” dagdag pa ng solon. “In support of the President’s program, and as you have seen in the past several months, I have a plan for that.”