4 weeks ago
6
February 19, 2025 | 12:00am
There’s no doubt we have enough Filipinos with good working brains that should have been used to elevate our country’s economy a long time ago.
Now the window of opportunity may soon pass as the older generations exit. Tests show a good part of today’s population have been badly educated and mentally stunted to have the brains needed in today’s highly competitive digital age.
Agriculture and manufacturing, two areas of our economy where we have been badly overtaken in the region, could have been stellar performers if only our political leaders used our available brains.
But the well-educated Filipinos of our generation had to go abroad not only to earn a good living but to be appreciated for what they had to offer in terms of brainpower.
Filipino doctors, engineers and other scientists are among the best in the world. Belatedly recognizing this, our government has a token “Balik Scientist” program, supposedly to entice those drained brains to return and help the country progress. But those who did return experienced frustration. They do not even have the basic facilities to do their work, not to mention the proper budgetary support to conduct needed scientific research.
When the pandemic struck, we only had a handful of specialists working at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to identify the virus. Those tested had to wait days to find out if they were infected. By then, they have either recovered or have died. Because the virus keeps mutating, our virology experts must determine what new strains we are getting to guide our infectious disease physicians in handling patients. So, there was talk about putting up a virology institute so that we could be ready to address future viruses.
Unfortunately, it was all talk. As I pointed out in a previous column, BBM was given a chance to show his priority. The Science and Technology Secretary met with him at Malacañang and asked for funds to complete the construction of the building to house the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines and the Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control.
Apparently, they were able to convince some Filipino virology experts working abroad to return and do their research here. BBM reassured the DOST officials that “We will find money for this when we are able to identify the specific items (other projects) not ready for implementation.”
That is a nice way of saying that nothing is forthcoming. If BBM was honestly supportive of this vital health related project as he claimed, he would have allocated funds from his own budget.
A few days before, that was what BBM did when the Tourism department asked for P500 million, about the same amount DOST needed, to fund a questionable national branding campaign.
Our failure to use our brains has resulted in the mismanagement of our country. For example, our shameful agriculture output dwindled to an eight-year low in 2024, falling by 2.2 percent to P1.725 trillion. PSA data showed that this was the lowest since the P1.722 trillion recorded in 2016 and was also 2.2 percent lower than 2023’s P1.76 trillion. Given that we have world class quality experts in agriculture, how can this happen?
Dr. Fermin Adriano, one of the more eminent professors at UP Los Baños wrote in a recent opinion piece how a prominent international economist viewed our situation.
“Daron Acemoglu, MIT economist and main author (Harvard political scientist James Robinson is the co-author) of the much-acclaimed book, Why Nations Fail, observed that Philippine agriculture was a classic case for their work, which theorizes that the role of institutions (governance) is critical to whether the country develops or not.
“Acemoglu noted that the Philippines had world-class agricultural experts in the International Rice Research Institute and the UP College of Agriculture, whose faculty members studied agriculture in the US in the 1960s and the 1970s. The country sent experts to neighboring Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, which amply demonstrates the existence of high-quality human resources in the Philippines.
“But why is Philippine agriculture now a laggard in the region?“ he asked.
The answer is obvious: Our problem is our politics. The decisions our clueless populist politicians make are often self-serving. National interest is hardly considered. So, why consult the experts at Los Baños?
“Take, for instance,” Dr. Adriano wrote, “the manner by which legislators butcher the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA). They allocate agricultural development projects per congressional district instead of concentrating these in areas where the biggest productivity gains can be achieved.
“A classic, but verging on the ridiculous, case was where expenses for irrigation facilities were allocated to congressmen representing highly urbanized districts…”
Dr. Adriano cited a comprehensive study by the World Bank on the provision of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) also revealed three shocking findings. One, there was hardly any objective criteria used (i.e., such as poverty situation, potentials for economic growth, jobs generation, etc.) to determine where the FMRs should be constructed.
Most were dependent on what the congressmen wanted.
There is the National Center for Transportation Studies at the UP College of Engineering.
The NCTS is a research center that focuses on transportation studies and engineering. We invested in the training of the experts at NCTS but I doubt if they have been widely consulted to help devise solutions to our dreadful traffic problems.
We have urban planners and designers who are well regarded for their work in the Middle East and Singapore. But they aren’t appreciated much in their own country.
Our government should start listening to topnotch Filipino experts. This is the only way we can hope to improve the prospects for our nation’s future. So far, our politicians are using their brains to legalize plundering in our national budget and that only drags our country further down.
Let’s use our brains for our country’s good for a change.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco
