A call to media
 25 June 2009

.
My friends, we are in hard times, and we in media are once more called upon to calm the waves of uncertainty and the winds of doubt – especially self doubt.

The times call for us to go beyond being just information disseminators; we can be harbingers of hope, inkwells of inspiration, to draw for our people not only the roadmap to survival but the landscape of achievable growth.

After having protected our basic freedoms as media practitioners; we need to make sure that the freedom we have secured, will be a springboard to a better life for all, under shared interests and common goals.

We need to uphold press freedom with responsibility. And our responsibility is not only to tell the truth, but to make that truth bring comfort and benefits to the people we serve.

Let us tell our people, that while things are bad for now, our situation is not beyond hope. Let us tell them, that with the full support of the majority of Filipinos, we will weather the economic storm.

Whether by design or plain happenstance, we have a President whose policies and programs anticipated the financial contagion churning in the horizon.

At much cost to her political capital, the President took the bitter pill of economic reform, that gave us the resources to make significant and unprecedented investments in roads, bridges, ports and airports that made movement of goods, people and services less costly, safe and convenient. Our new investments in healthcare, education and social services enhanced our people's productivity and their sense of security.

We financed small but promising businesses through the highly successful Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Program that has lent P305.57 billion to 5.6 million beneficiaries since 2004, and in the process created some 2.5 million jobs.

We put up the Botika sa Barangay, where cheap medicine can be had; we implemented a Low-cost Housing Program, and an Expanded Health Insurance.

In other words, even before the crisis, and long before "stimulus" became the buzzword in threatened economies, we were already pump-priming our economy, in no small way.

Our Economic Resiliency Plan — bigger than many of the Southeast Asian countries – simply formalized and encapsulated the programs that we were already doing in a stimulating way.

Today, billions of pesos have already been poured into training of our workers, which the President said is part of the human infrastructure in the education and health care sectors.

The President, at all times, remains at the forefront in the initiatives to mitigate the impact of the world economic crisis. She just came back from visits to South Korea and Russia where she met with top government and business leaders to encourage more investments and find opportunities for more Filipinos to gain more jobs. Similar missions to other countries in Asia, the US. Europe and Middle East give the Philippines more than a sporting chance to draw their investments.

By the time you read this column, the President and I will be in Brazil for the same business and investment mission. We will be coming from a four-day working visit to Japan.

But in all these, we have yet to learn to look at our achievements and accomplishments more kindly – with lighter hand, softer eyes and an appreciative touch.

Let us listen to one with a detached perspective. Mr. Philip Bowring of the highly-respected New York Times in its May 5, 2009 issue, said the Philippines is outperforming most of its East and Southeast Asian neighbors. Mr. Bowring said the Philippines expects a GDP growth of 2 to 3 percent this year – a rate superior to its East Asian peers, except China and Vietnam, and a sharp contrast to the negative growth elsewhere.

Just a few weeks ago, the World Travel Fair held in Shanghai, China named the Philippines as the most popular destination in Asia.

Today, many of our countrymen are already feeling the results of our efforts. The first quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) says that more adult Filipinos are expecting their personal life to improve in the next 12 months.

Another survey by the SWS shows that in spite of the financial meltdown, self-rated poverty has been generally in a downtrend, declining from 59 percent in June 2008, 52 percent in September, 52 percent in December to 47 percent in February 2009. Hunger incidence continued to drop significantly from 23.7 percent in December last year to 15.5 percent in February this year.

Yes, there are also other aspects of the surveys that do not get written up. A February 2009 Pulse Asia survey, for instance, revealed that from last year's 22 percent, the number of Filipinos who positively felt that life would become much better went up to 29 percent.

The Pulse Asia results matched with that of Synovate, a global market research firm which found out in its February 2009 survey that 43 percent of 1,000 Metro Manila respondents were optimistic that the Philippine economy would soon turn around.

Besides the surveys on optimism among Filipinos, Moody's has maintained its positive outlook on the Philippines, while Reuters Poll has identified our country as one among four Asian countries to post a positive growth this year.

I bring to you my friends in media the challenge of optimism, the inspiration of growth. Share this with our people to inspire them to be engaged, to be involved, and to be more exuberant, in our common pursuit of a better life for all.

And so my friends in media, roll up those sleeves, toss out the doubts, rein in the politics and tell our people the real score.

[TOP] [HOME]