NEXT Monday, President Duterte is due to give his penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA). I hope its primary focus will be the Nation’s fight against COVID-19.
The bad news is that despite all the rigorous and carefully gradated quarantine enforcement, we are currently losing the battle. There have been more deaths, almost 400, in the week ending 18 July than in any other week.
We now have over 1,700 fatalities, small compared with the United States which has over 140,000, but more than we would have predicted at the beginning of the month.
What to do?
Unlike many in the US, we are not prepared to trade lives for economic gains. Therefore, I see no alternative to the implementation of the stringent actions against the virus. After some initial hesitations, it is now apparent that compulsory wearing of face masks in public is necessary.
Compliance is vital. Disturbing accounts of drinking sprees in public places even under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) should not recur.
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There is a lack of vital economic information which I hope SONA will rectify. Specifically, we are not aware of the current level of national debt to gross domestic product ratio. This important statistic reached a high of 74.5 percent in 2009 but since then, due to both the Aquino and Duterte administrations, it had been reduced to around 40 percent. By international standards we are doing well.
Recently, due to both the COVID-induced economic slowdown and increases in expenditure on amelioration programs, we would expect the debt/GDP ratio to increase. But by how much?
The worldwide picture is grim and recent reports confirm that indebtedness is now greater than gross domestic product. This means that the world average is now over 100 percent. The Philippines is in relatively good shape and due to its past track record in liquefying loans in a timely manner, we do not currently have problems in acquiring loans.
Many first world countries, including the US and UK, have a fairly serious indebtedness problem which means greater pressures for businesses to open early and, to those concerned with avoiding loss of life, prematurely.
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COVID-19 provides challenges to the world of education. US President Trump seems to assume that schools can re-open at the beginning of the US school year in September. As befits a federal system, many State Governors are demurring. At the time of writing it is not clear what will happen.
The Philippines is relying heavily on parents to provide the necessary facilities and supervision for students to progress their education.
I believe it would have been helpful if the Legislative branch of government would exert some oversight. There are legislative aspects which necessarily would be helpful by defining areas of responsibility for both parents and the Department of Education. It may be recalled that there was widespread concern that our education system produced internationally poor results in the standard of English, Mathematics, and Science for 15 year olds in 2018. This was due to be discussed by the relevant Congressional Committee early this year. I guess COVID-19 side-lined the discussions.
Disappointing!/PN
