[T]he PDP target is for AFF exports to annually by 6.4%. Under PBBM, not only did they not increase by that 6.4% a year, the value of real exports actually contracted by a dismaying 12.5%.
Menu Home Articles Media Reader, Join Me DOOR NUMBER 1 OR DOOR NUMBER 2? How to (Not) Make Data-Driven Choices November 13-19, 2023 Reader, let’s do a mental exercise. Put yourself in place of a head-hunter, or a Human Resource expert, or, let’s be honest, PBBM. You are tasked with looking for the most …
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From the data, one would have to conclude that the imposing price ceilings on rice were a complete failure. Yet to hear it from the President himself, EO 39 was a success. But what evidence do they have to support this conclusion? Let us see.
Did EO 39 succeed in keeping the prices of rice within the caps it had set? Here are the hard data, as provided by the PSA: Instead of prices going down and staying at the levels of the price ceilings, they did the opposite: they increased substantially over the period during which the caps were in place.
You see, Reader, there is no such thing as “the price of rice in the world market”, as quoted above….PLUS, the latest FAO Rice Price Update came out on Sept. 8, one day after the Romualdez press release. It shows that the August rice price indices were higher compared to those in July, and even higher compared to August 2022:
And do you know, Reader, that in August. 2018, the average retail price of rice was P44.66. Yes. The price of rice 5 years ago was higher than the price of rice now, which has alarmed our government so much that they are calling for a price ceiling.
Why is there a news blackout on Speaker Martin Romualdez’ involvement in the Okada case? It was filed in the US and featured in Bloomberg and Japan Times. Yet nothing in major Philippine print and broadcast media!
Real GDP growth rate for the 2nd Quarter 2023 has been estimated at 4.3% by the Philippine Statistics Authority. .This is much lower than anyone’s expectations.
Question: If judging BBM on the country’s economic growth versus the ASEAN 5 opens a can of worms, then how should he be judged?
The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2022 is the basis of Inconvenient Truth #8: The Philippines has the lowest score, and the lowest rank, among the ASEAN-5 as far as the Rule of Law is concerned. What is so galling is that eight years ago, in 2015, the Philippines had a score (0.53) higher than everyone else, except Malaysia (0.57). As you can see, Reader, the Duterte administration really brought down the Philippines Rule of Law score and ranking – from 0.53 to 0.47, and from 51 out of 102 to 97th out of 140. . One would have hoped that the BBM would see those scores and ranks going up, but judging from what is happening in the de Lima case and what happened in the Remulla fils case, that gleam of hope is fading. In the Philippines, the rule by law still reigns supreme.