* My column in BusinessWorld, January 28, 2020.
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The good news about the Philippines’ GDP growth of 5.9%
in 2019 is that it is high by global and regional trends. The bad news is that
growth is decelerating since 2016 and our GDP size remains small. With a low
economic base, if we keep growing by just 5-6% yearly, it will take us many
decades to be at par with the per capita incomes of our neighbors Malaysia,
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Thailand even if they grow only 2-3% yearly. (See
Table 1).
And an ironic thing about growth in 2019 is that while
government consumption was sizzling at 10.5% growth, capital formation or
private investments was contracting at -0.6%.
Obviously, more politics, more government taxation and
interventions were among the big reasons why private investments are
contracting and overall growth is decelerating: 6.9% in 2016, 6.7% in 2017,
6.2% in 2018, 5.9% in 2019. High inflation and decline in household consumption
(which makes up about 65% of GDP) immediately followed when various tax hikes
were implemented under the TRAIN law of 2017.
Now we see the selection of the UP Diliman Chancellorship
being colored by more politics. There are only two nominees — Dr. Fidel
Nemenzo, Professor at UP Institute of Mathematics and known regionally for his
research output and Math leadership, who is also the current Vice-Chancellor
for Research and Development, and Prof. Ferdinand Manegdeg, Dean of the UP
College of Engineering, who has no PhD.
UP Diliman (UPD) would have the highest concentration of
PhD faculty per 100 students in the whole country. Having a PhD is the minimum
requirement to be an Associate Professor. So if UPD is at the forefront of
advancing academic excellence in many disciplines, how could a would-be head,
an aspiring Chancellor of UPD, be non-excellent academically? That is a lousy
situation. Only more politics, not more academic achievements, would push this
kind of situation.
That is why many units and faculty members are alarmed
and they take explicit positions of supporting Dr. Nemenzo. A letter by UPD
faculty members submitted to the UP Board of Regents (BoR) had 452 signatories
including at least five Professors Emiriti, 70 Professors, 65 Associate
Professors, 182 Assistant Professors, 89 Instructors, and 28 Lecturers. The
growth of his support base is accelerating — unlike the Philippines’ GDP growth
which is decelerating.
Consider also my alma mater, the UP School of Economics —
100% of its faculty members are PhD holders and I cannot see anyone there supporting
someone who is not excellent in academics as UPD Chancellor.
Recently two pieces of fake news were being spread by
desperate groups who cannot cite academic excellence as an important factor for
UPD Chancellorship.
One is red-tagging, saying that Dr. Fidel Nemenzo is a
communist and if he becomes the Chancellor, lefties and commies will have a
grand time in UPD. Garbage. The Chancellor would be busy positioning UPD in the
forefront of advance science and technology research, and teaching to help
prepare the country in the current Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIRe) and
artificial intelligence (AI) advances. Outmoded claims of commie ideology would
be far from his concerns.
The secondpiece of fake news has been dragging former UP
President Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo, Jr. — Fidel’s father — into the UP-Ayala
Technohub deal. They say that a “leftist UP President” has produced an
“onerous” deal.
I will quote UP College of Law Professor Jay Batongbacal
in debunking this. Jay wrote in his public post on Facebook on Jan. 26: “The
contract was signed upon authority of the Board of Regents by UP President
Emerlinda Roman… These liars and idiots then rely on innuendo, implying that
since the process of converting the former idle lands of UP began during the
term of UP President Francisco Nemenzo, it was the Left that selected Ayala,
and therefore the contract is by the Left.”
More politics, more government taxation and policy
reversals midway have resulted in the country’s growth deceleration. We hope
that UPD will not be dragged into more politics. Academic track records and
vision by the nominee, support and respect by the academic faculty, alumni,
non-academic staff and students, should guide in the appointment of the next
UPD Chancellor when the BoR meet and decide next week.
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