Legacy

FIRST PERSON

- ALEX MAGNO

How will the Bongbong Marcos administration be remembered a decade hence? This administration will not be remembered for any centerpiece construction project. Congress chopped up the infrastructure funds into small, easily looted morsels, thereby preventing the President from building anything remotely monumental. The President allowed the legislators to run amuck with the budget.

This administration will not be remembered for any revolution in our agriculture. Bongbong, in the first stage of his term, held on to the agriculture portfolio but introduced no new program. Over the past three years, we have become even more dependent on importing food. Our uneconomical subsistence farms inhibited improvements in productivity.

This administration will not be remembered for restoring fiscal sanity and taming our propensity to incur debt. On the contrary, the past three years saw our deficits balloon and our debt grow exponentially. The money was used mainly to buy public approval: subsidized rice, fare discounts and the various cash transfer gimmicks. All of them failed to buy victory in the midterm elections.

This administration did not take a major step forward towards more equitable wealth distribution. There was no program to accomplish that. The massive corruption involving the political establishment further widened the gap between rich and poor. Food inflation outstripped wages.

This administration did not rebuild the economy's industrial core even if the President's numerous trips abroad was packaged as investment-seeking missions. With the thin power reserves we have, we could not support industrialization even if we had a viable program to achieve this.