Let the ‘Sulongs’ continue! (Sabong News)
Author
John Tria
Date
APRIL 04 2022
On April 5, 2022 the Sulong Pilipinas Consultative assemblies will hold another session, the last before the May 2022 elections.
The first Sulong I attended in 2016 hammered out the 10 point socio economic agenda of the Duterte administration, forming a key summary of many of the policy points for which have been passed and implemented, which include the Ease of Doing Business law, increased infrastructure, the free Tertiary Education Law, tax reforms laws which are now implemented that lowered personal and corporate income taxes giving room for purchasing power growth and business expansion. Other reforms were developed through the years, some noteworthy ones were recently passed that, as expected has increased investor interest in the country.
With what we have seen, the hard truth of these consultative venues such as Sulong Pilipinas is that they are more than just being mere sounding boards. They involve stakeholders in not only formulating policies, but ensuring the hard part: that these stakeholders participate in ensuring full implementation of the policy measures by the respective agencies of government.
This hard truth becomes even more apparent when we look at the current geopolitical milieu and its effects on local communities such as ours in Mindanao, such as pandemics and emerging infectious diseases, climate change and natural disasters, and global conflicts- all of which disrupt economic activities such as transport and trade- vitral channels through which the commodities we produce will flow.
This means more conferences like these will be necessary to not only craft but more importantly, to ensure implementation of policies and programs to push our growth further and meet middle income country status and NEDAs Ambisyon 2040-this goal must overcome disruptions.
With technology, meaningful participation can be ensured even more so that technology has enabled substantive participation even without flying to the physical venue. The emergence of hybrid meetings as a preferred mode of engagement allows effective documentation of the proceedings so that stakeholders can review progress ofmimplementation. We hope that the next government will continue these important processes.
Why?
Key here is to implement the reforms that strengthen local economic activities of the majority of businesses, the micro and small enterprises which include small farms and stores, the clear backbone of the Mindanao economy, such as the Personal Property Security Act, a law that allows personal properties other than land titles to be used as collateral for obtaining financing. This, along with the Bangko Sentral”s Digitalization program will ensure financial inclusion of more sectors, enabling them to better partake of activities.
Inclusion fostering policies such as these are vital for the Mindanao business sector, as they will help build the capacity especially of smaller enterprises that employ the majority of workers. Robust enterprises encourages the development of stronger supply and value chains for locally grown and produced goods, commodities and services. These will allow local enterprises to access more customers, and more suppliers that they can choose from. This allows cascading revenue growth and the accumulation of capital at the local level. In turn, local government revenues will also increase since local taxes will rise.
Having seen its benefit in helping craft and push implementation of necessary reforms, I hope that after May 2022, sulong-like consultative activities will continue on a regular basis.
Congrats to fellow Mindanaoan 1 lt Laiza Camposano Beran from Tulunan, North Cotabato for being the country’s first female air force combat fighter pilot. May you inspire others in your service!
Let us continue following health and safety protocols everyone!
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