ALLINA MAE I.

PONGAN March 10, 2020

BSA-1A 9:00-10:30/ TF

Summary and Reflection:

DRAGS AND DRIVERS IN 2020
(No Free Lunch)
By: Cielito F. Habito

Another year had passed and every other country had been through a lot of economic
downfall moments as well as our very own country, the Philippines. Yet as the year 2020 begins
to roll, we are welcomed with a series of jolts to drag down our economy with flowing issues
either internationally or nationally. Like the issue on oil price hikes in the Middle East and the
COVID-19 virus that is poised to crimp growth prospects in our own tourism and manufacturing
sectors, among others. Nationally, the Taal Volcano’s eruption has caused substantial damage to
natural resources near it which causes disruption in manufacturing operations in the Calabarzon
and President Duterte’s intensified attacks on major business entities that set the total investment
growth in the Philippines to fall ground down and to a near halt. These first-month jolts surprised
us that prevent us to have a kick start for the new year. Our perennially underperforming farm
sector has remained sluggish and is growing slowly than our population does as well as the
growth in deployment of overseas Filipino workers become slower that possess a bearing in the
foreign exchange inflows of exports and remittances which is inclined in the foreign direct
investment (FDI) of the Philippines. But looking on the brighter side, the Philippine economy
also possesses certain long standing and recent strengths and opportunities that could be
harnessed to help drive growth in the year ahead and beyond. If we look on the positive side of
the rapidly increasing population growth, we can say that our economy is coupled with the
abundance of human resource with relatively young labor force which is looked as an advantage
that will persist in coming decades relative to our comparable peers. Our country has a lot of
natural resources that needs to be cultivated properly which will surely enhance and would be the
saving grace on our economic growth for this year and for the years to come.
“Our list of drags may dominate our list of drivers, but we enter 2020 hoping for the
best”, is the ending phrase as what the author of this article, Cielito Habito wrote. I also believed
that no matter how many negative issues that bring our economy down, we can surpass it as long
as the people and the government is in one direction and is having a tight grip on each other’s
hand to build a better economy which is growing little by little but constantly. Those drags were
not new to us since the Philippines had been poured by it so many times if we can recall
happening in the past years. We were known to be persistent and full of aspiration as the time
challenged us with so much economic downfalls that we have surpassed. The Filipinos remain
strong amidst many circumstances that we have to go through year after year. And if the
government programs that aims to uplift the growth if our economy has been implemented and
formalized thoroughly like the “Build, Build, Build” then remarkably our economy will pave the
way for more opportunities and can be a great way for economic boosting. We have to turn those
drags into a more positive input which will then become drivers of our economic growth.