House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday urged the Executive branch of government to take “extra action” to implement economic laws and polices passed by Congress and “transform these into actual business activity.”
At a lunch briefing with media, Arroyo said Congress has already passed several laws and policies to support the government, but stressed that the “area of government that is most responsible for the implementation is the Executive [branch].”
“The country already has a good policy framework in place, supported by good legislation,” she said.
“This cannot be done merely by making good economic policies and then stopping there—we need to take the ‘extra step’ to implement those policies and transform them into actual business activity,” she pointed out.
During the early years of President Duterte’s term, Arroyo said, the Executive branch has put in place a set of policies to guide the country’s economic and infrastructure development in the coming years.
“There will always be room for making new policy and legislation. But on the whole, I think it is time to pivot from mere policies to implementation. We must harvest the results during the final three-and-a-half years of President Duterte’s term,” she said.
For the remaining months of the 17th Congress, Arroyo said the lower chamber is prepared to give the implementing departments and agencies the support that they may need to the extent that they make this pivot from policy to action, “such as by way of House resolutions from the elected representatives of the people, or through the helpful exercise of House oversight functions.”
Anti-inflation measures
AS the lower chamber pivots from policy to action, Arroyo also said the chamber will provide support to the government on the implementation of policies to address inflation.
“People continue to worry about what economists call ‘inflation,’ although it seems to be softening now, and what ordinary people call ‘rising prices.’ We hear the term ‘supply-side inflation.’ My simple explanation is that this kind of inflation occurs when there is not enough supply of goods available in the market—food for example. This shortage of supply causes prices to rise. The solution, of course, is to increase the supply,” she said.
“When applying this example to the economy as a whole, this means we have to generate the economic activity that will produce more goods and services for the economy, and in doing so, create pay checks for the people involved in producing them,” she added.
While the Legislative branch has already enacted a set of laws in support of the economy, Arroyo said “this week, the House can report with confidence that it has already either passed, or is in the final mile of the effort to pass, the President’s legislative agenda as he announced in his 2018 State of the Nation Address.”
