The final retaking of Marawi early this week seems to have been a game-changer that opened the floodgate to lots of good news.
The business community is looking forward to fat pickins from the multibillion-peso rehabilitation of the ravaged city. The Makati Business Club declared that “paths to peace are once again opening up.” The Management Association of the Philippines opined that “rebuilding should start as soon as possible, and with that comes many business opportunities”.
This optimism is good to hear from a Manila-centric business community that isn’t particularly fond of Muslim Mindanao. It’s a bit sad that it took the destruction of a city to open their eyes to the commercial, not to mention philanthropic, opportunities among fellow Filipinos who just happen to have a different language and religion—as well as living really far away—from the rest of us.
It might be a good idea for the country’s best-known politician from Mindanao to hold a pledging session with all these businessmen converts to Marawi’s cause, the same as what he did earlier for the Sulu region. As soon as their good word—if not yet their cold cash—is on the table, they can take their respective turns at the trough.
* * *
Going even farther, Duterte might also want to use the Marawi situation to enlarge the window for Islamic finance in this country.
The DBM has announced plans to issue P30 billion of bonds to finance the city’s rehabilitation, hopefully by next January. That will deliver on Duterte’s earlier promise to make at least P20 billion of government funds available. Bond issue size will be finalized as soon as the folks running the rehabilitation program complete their plans.
In this connection, it occurred to us that the financing might also include at least one tranche of Islamic finance, or so-called “sukuk” bonds, which are tailor-made to finance infrastructure projects. Such bonds did in fact finance the entirety of Malaysia’s public infrastructure over the past decades.
Clearly, this new type of bonds would be snapped up by the multibillion-dollar capitals of Islamic finance in the Middle East and among our Asean and South Asian Muslim neighbors. Such a deep reservoir of potential demand would drive down the overall costs of the entire Marawi bond issue.
Thinking farther ahead, it would also open up a whole new source of global capital to meet the financing requirements, not only of Marawi, but also of the future Bangsamoro state and, through the Bangsamoro, the rest of the new states in a federalized Philippine republic.
Some analysts might quibble that the country’s financial system is not yet geared up to offer Islamic securities. But at least one prominent lawyer—the managing director of one of the country’s biggest law firms, and a fraternity brod of mine—believes that those securities can in fact be offered even now, based on more creative and aggressive interpretations of current law and precedent.
* * *
On the anti-drug front, the Social Weather Stations continued with its usual striptease by disclosing that public satisfaction as of September with the campaign against illegal drugs remains “very good,” with a net rating of +63. The gross rating, 78 percent, was only one point below June’s.
Duterte’s post-survey decision to transfer leadership of the campaign from the PNP to the civilian PDEA has been uniformly well received. The European Chambers of Commerce, despite the noises being made by their countrymen in the EU bureaucracy and human rights NGOs, declared that “there’s no reason for us to leave the country or to think that investments aren’t coming.”
Even the Commission on Human Rights hailed the leadership change as “an indication that the administration is willing to listen”, and said they were “looking forward to a more collaborative relationship with PDEA.”
Based on what the PDEA’s been saying, they appear to have a new three-point agenda. One, focus on “high value and high impact targets.” Two, continue with their own “internal cleansing” reforms. And three, establish refuges for recovering drug surrenderees, presumably in collaboration with the folks in civil society, the Church, and LGU’s.
Without an alliance with those “rehabilitation force multipliers,” the PDEA by itself simply can’t look after all those hundreds of thousands of druggies. This is a well-thought-out agenda that deserves everyone’s support, especially from all those do-gooder critics who can now put their money where their very loud mouths are.
* * *
Finally, to cap off the good news:
Naia is no longer considered one of the world’s 20 worst airports, nor is it one of Asia’s 5 worst airports, according to “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports,” a travel website. These are infamous lists that Naia joined starting in 2011, which (by no coincidence) is also when the PNoy gang took power.
After that gang left office, numerous reforms were instituted by the new administration. Among them: restrictions imposed on general aviation to reduce travel delays; a new five-minute rule for pilots to take off after declaring their readiness to do so; construction of Rapid Exit Taxiways for departing aircraft; and cleaner toilets, more seats, free Wi-Fi, and well-wishers’ area inside the terminals.
In addition to the good news about Naia, four other local airports (Iloilo, Mactan-Cebu, Clark and Davao) also rejoined the list of the top 25 best airports in Asia. These are feathers in the cap for our beleaguered Transportation Secretary Tugade, as well as Naia’s general manager Ed Monreal.
* * *
Why have I been so optimistic in this space today? It’s because it’s my 65th.
My gratitude goes out to my wife and children and to the rest of my family, friends, schoolmates, brods, comrades, and colleagues who kept me company over the decades. Marami pong salamat sa inyong lahat.
Readers can write me at [email protected].