By Hilarion M. Henares Jr.
THE recent reunion of NEC and NEDA chiefs, Cesar Virata, Solita Monsod, Sixto Roxas, Jesus Estanislao, Vicente Valdepeńas, Armand Fabella, Cidito Mapa, Cayetano Paderanga, Cielito Habito and myself -- past and present economic czars and their staffs -- invites comparison between NEC and NEDA.
The National Economic Council (NEC) was born during the Commonwealth period under the 1935 Constitution, the first we instituted as a free people. The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) was born in 1972 when we lost our freedom under martial law.
NEC and NEDA, the highest economic planning bodies, had more or less the same functions. NEC was made up of 12 members equally representing the Senate, the House, the Executive and the private sector, and was headed by a Chairman who was ex-officio cabinet member. NEDA is composed solely of cabinet members, with the President as its chairman, and a Director General of cabinet rank.
The NEC representing the executive, legislative and private sector, was capable of national consensus on economic policy, a continuing commitment of the nation as a whole. The NEDA, composed solely of presidential appointees, can only commit the President, but not his successor, the legislature or even the private sector.
The NEC from 1935 through the first Marcos period was consistently Keynesian in orientation, following a policy of self-reliance and industrialization; the NEDA under Marcos, Cory and Ramos is consistently Smithsonian in orientation, following a policy of free trade and export-oriented agriculture.
The NEC period was marked by high GNP growth, second only to Japan in Asia. During the NEDA period up to the present, the Philippines became a basketcase second only to Bangladesh, while its Asian neighbors gallop towards being newly industrialized countries.
Sixto Roxas served eight months and I served the rest of his term up to 1965; we were the last NEC Chairmen under the Macapagal. Gerardo Sicat was the last NEC chairman and the first NEDA Director General at the outset of Martial Law.
The NEC had as chairmen Manuel A. Roxas destined to be the president of the Philippines, Miguel Cuaderno, Filemon Rodriguez, Alfredo Montelibano, Jose Locsin, Gil Puyat, Cornelio Balmaceda, Sixto Roxas and myself -- practically all of whom were not trained economists.
NEDA was led by Gerry Sicat, Vicente Valdepeńas, Cesar Virata, Solita C. Monsod, Jesus Estanislao, Cayetano Paderanga and Cielito Habito -- most of whom are trained and schooled economists.
Is it a coincidence that our greatest period of development occurred when NEC was in existence? The prewar period was characterized by an effort to free ourselves from foreign domination, during which was born the Philippine National Bank that freed us from the dominance of such foreign banks as Bank of America, National City Bank and Hong Kong Shanghai Bank. Every effort was made to be economically self sufficient with the birth of the National Development Company and its subsidiaries -- National Coconut Corp., National Food Corp., National Textile Corp., Rice and Corn administration, among others, liberating us from the monopoly of Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, and importers of food and clothing.
After the war, the Americans again reestablished their dominance of our economy with massive aid of $3 billion, accompanied by import liberalization of consumer goods in 1945-46. We ran out of dollars in 1949, forcing us to impose import and exchange controls as Japan and the rest of the world had to do. We defended the value of the peso to preserve our standard of living, and achieve a high rate of GNP growth. Even after we decontrolled in 1961, with tariff protection we maintained our high rate of growth, keeping our floating forex rate at P3.90 to one dollar, all the way to 1970 when Marcos, the IMF and the economists took over.
Under the NEDA, the nation plunged into an economic crisis. The dollar rate climbed from P3.90 to P6.43 per dollar, up to P9.06 in 1982, P14.00 in 1983 and P19.86 in 1984. When Cory Aquino continued the policies of Marcos and the IMF, the dollar rate became P20.81 in 1987 and P28.00 in 1990.
Respected economist Paul Samuelson once said that economists are like eunuchs, the castrated men who guard the sultan's harem; they know what is happening, they know how it is being done, they know how to do it properly, but they CANNOT do it themselves.
Indeed, the economists with the greatest impact on the field of economics, are NOT trained economists. Adam Smith was a divinity student. Karl Marx was an impoverished intellectual. David Ricardo was a stockbroker. Lord Maynard Keynes was a mathematician. Gunnar Myrdal is a lawyer. And the father of the European Common Market, Jean Monet, was a politician.
The best economists in the Philippines, under whose policies our nation prospered, were not trained economists at all. The most influential was the father of the Central Bank, Miguel Cuaderno, who was a lawyer. Gregorio Licaros was a lawyer-accountant. Salvador Araneta and Alejandro Lichauco are lawyers.
The greatest of our NEC Chairmen were Manuel A. Roxas, lawyer; Dr. Jose Locsin, doctor of medicine; Cornelio Balmaceda, business graduate; Filemon Rodriguez, engineer; Gil Puyat, a business graduate; and Alfredo Montelibano who was unschooled.
No comments:
Post a Comment