“Ang hopes that beyond 2028, the next leader will also cooperate with the private sector to sustain and build on what the current administration has started”
THE Philippines remains one of Asia’s best-performing economies with its gross domestic product growth of 6.3 percent in the second quarter of 2024.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, among the major economic sectors, Industry and Services posted year-on-year growths in the second quarter of 2024 with 7.7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.
However, the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector posted a year-on-year decline of 2.3 percent.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio M. Balicasan told the Senate Committee of Finance in August the Philippines’ economic outlook remains promising in the near medium term.
He added growth in domestic demand is expected to remain firm and further improve as government continuously implement measures to among others, address elevated prices of food.
This brings to mind an interview of San Miguel Corporation Chairman Don Ramon S. Ang, also known as RSA, where he said the prices of food commodities were due to supply and demand.
He cited the increasing prices of chicken but offered hope that in “a few more years, one or two more years” when the planned SMC mega poultry in 12 locations will be realized, there will be additional supply of chicken in the market.
He said each mega poultry is capable of producing 80 million chickens – 960 million from the 12 mega poultry farms.
Last year, San Miguel Foods, Inc., a subsidiary of SMC, inaugurated the first Mega Farm in Hagonoy, Davao del Sur to boost the country’s food security.
“Produce more, produce more poultry, produce more rice, produce more corn, produce more fish equals reasonable price,” RSA said in the interview, adding if the country will rely only on importation, it will be more expensive.
In the same interview, RSA disclosed Filipino families continue to invest in the country and are bullish on the country’s economy.
Since its founding over a century and three decades ago, SMC has seen how the country’s leaders have made their imprints on the country.
For RSA, having worked as SMC honcho for decades, he too has witnessed how Philippine presidents carried out their tasks.
It was during his stewardship of SMC when the conglomerate began its partnership with the government in several projects in the infrastructure sector even as SMC remains apolitical.
RSA has officially turned over the management of SMC to his son but remains its chairman.
He said he does not need to ingratiate himself with the president when he voiced out that Filipinos will miss PBBM after 2028.
According to him very seldom does one encounter a leader who would be interested in the details of a project, revealing he was called by PBBM to discuss details on SMC’s airport project and its timeline.
Post-retirement, RSA is committed to complete the projects he started like desilting and rehabilitating rivers, expansion of toll roads, the new Manila International Airport, NAIA rehabilitation, MRT 7, among others.
His advice to the government: to continue working despite unfavorable comments.
He asks the Filipino people to be patient and urges them to discern truth from falsehoods.
“Filipinos are very patient. Filipinos are very intelligent.” He urges them to discern truth from falsehoods.
He hopes that beyond 2028, the next leader will also cooperate with the private sector to sustain and build on what the current administration has started.
(MTV, book author/publisher, is president and chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and also the president/executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection.)
