he old boy network
is at work again, with senators who ought to know better expressing support for
the appointment of former Sen. Ralph Recto as planning secretary and director
general of the National Economic and Development Authority.
They defended Recto’s qualifications, citing his sponsorship
of the expanded VAT law when he was chairman of the committee of finance despite
the unpopularity of the measure. This is the kind of independence, grounded on a
purportedly thorough understanding of the economic issues involved, that makes
Recto the right man for the job. Or so they say.
Speaker Prospero Nograles was even more fulsome in praising
Recto, saying the latter saved the country from economic perdition for
shepherding the EVAT in the Senate. Without the EVAT, the government could have
been thrown into a fiscal crisis by now, he said.
They completely missed the point. Heading NEDA, a body
envisioned by the Constitution to be independent, requires technical expertise.
From the time of Gerry Sicat, NEDA chiefs have been, with one singular
exception, economists with outstanding credentials, starting with a PhD. This
was in recognition of the technical requirements of the job.
Gloria Arroyo broke the mold with the appointment of Romulo
Neri whose highest academic achievement is a master’s degree in finance. With
Recto’s appointment, the bar has been lowered to an undergraduate degree.
That’s the minimum requirement for an entry-level post at
NEDA. Those taken in are sent off to a one-year masteral program in development
planning. The best and the brightest are then packed off to foreign schools for
their doctorates.
Recto, however bright he may be by virtue of his genes (he is
after all a grandson of Don Claro), will surely be out of his depth in the
NEDA’s institutional environment.
And for the last strike against him, Recto is a politician
who makes no bones about his desire to get back to the Senate.
NEDA’s function is to see to it that government resources are
spent on projects and programs with the biggest social returns. It routinely
adjudicates conflicting claims on the budget of the government as well as on
loans and aid from bilateral and multilateral sources.
The least of the considerations used by NEDA in evaluating a
project is how many votes it will generate for the administration or for any
particular person with political ambitions.
Recto may swear on a stack of bibles he will not use his
position to advance his political ambitions, but who would believe him?
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian
Development Fund, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation? And, above all,
the Filipino people?
Recto’s supporters should spare us. His appointment is pure and simple "bayad-utang."
