The mess President Marcos Jr. has to pay for
The weight of P12 trillion in debt on his shoulders. (Photo: ABS-CBN)
The Philippines has now officially named its 17th president. In a time filled with tensions and worries about soaring inflation, supply concerns, and one of the worst states the economy has been in years, Marcos Jr. has his work cut out for him.
All he needs to do is to help the country recover from the massive blows it took during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shutting down the majority of economic activities while also trying to purchase vaccines for everyone was no cheap endeavor. Íf you needed a little refresher, the Duterte administration incurred P1.31 trillion in foreign debt for the pandemic response. The Department of Finance (DOF) claimed that it would take 40 years or two generations to repay all of that. Good luck trying to explain that to your grandchildren.
We already tried to speculate what the economy will look like under a Marcos Jr. presidency, with early reports of investors pulling out or holding back on further developments in the Philippines out of fear of what can happen under a government being led by someone who has been accused and confirmed of stealing and tax evading.
A big inheritance
Can the new government help fix or at the very least, improve the rough state the Philippine economy is in? The prices of goods are just getting bigger by the day.
Newly elected president Marcos Jr. is walking into one big mess from former President Duterte’s administration. The national debt stood at P5.88 trillion back in 2016. Six years later, it’s now at P12.76 trillion.
The infamous ‘Build Build Build’ program has skyrocketed the country’s bill to unreasonable levels—something that will be continued by the way. Maybe this time, they won’t be making P10 million footbridges that are so badly designed, we’re getting international recognition for it.
Back in simpler times, Inflation was at 1.6% in 2016. Now, we have a pandemic and a global conflict between Russia and Ukraine causing severe supply shortages alongside driving the inflation levels to 5.4% as of May 2022.
President Marcos Jr. has even come out to say that he “can’t do anything” about the soaring gas prices we’ve been seeing lately. So much for reassurance.
However, the newly elected president has stated that he would be focusing on jobs and prices during his term. Details regarding his plans are still very much vague for the moment so it’s another case of a wait-and-see.
Although, president Marcos Jr. did mention that one of his goals is to have a kilo of rice to only cost P20. An interesting concept for sure but something that was immediately shot down by Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar, calling it “aspirational” more than anything else. At least the new president has ambition?
All the people can do now is hope that the next six years of the Philippine economy still holds a few good plot twists. If President Marcos Jr. manages to tidy most of it up, he would definitely be proving a lot of doubters wrong. If he somehow makes the whole situation worse, the Philippines can probably say that they’re used to it at this point.
