GOV'T PROCUREMENT ACTIVITIES TO BLUNT EFFECTS OF GLOBAL ECONOMIC WOES - CHIZ

Senator Chiz Escudero today said the government's procurement activities, if prudently practiced, can help protect and promote the country's labor and manufacturing sectors in the face of the global economic melt-down.

Escudero, Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee said by buying local products for the government's consumption needs like supply and materials for its construction projects, the country has a failsafe way to keep jobs, or even hire more, create business, raise taxes, conserve dollars, retain talent, prevent factory closures and kill smuggling.

"This is a simple way of stimulating the economy without costing the government big money. Most of the prescriptions offered to shield the country from the financial meltdown almost became a bidding war on who can spend the most taxpayers' money as if writing a check will write off the problem" Escudero said.

As the one with the biggest shopping money around, Escudero said the government should start adopting a stricter policy to buy locally made products.

Government consumption expenditures accounted for almost 6 percent of the GDP last year and 6.48 percent in the second quarter of this year.

For 2009, the national government alone, not counting LGUs and government corporations, is set to procure P130 Billion worth of infrastructure projects; P50 Billion worth of supplies; P19.6 Billion worth of machinery, equipment and furniture.

Not included in the above, Escudero added, is the probable importation of P70 Billion worth of rice next year.

He said a Buy Filipino Campaign, which will include stepped up government purchases of local products, will help the manufacturing sector's diminishing share in the GDP, which further slid from 21.02 percent in 2007 to 20.29 percent in the second quarter of the year.

The senator said he will seek an amendment in the national budget that would manifest a clear domestic industry bias in government procurement for as long as quality of goods is not sacrificed and its prices remain competitive.

Section 23 of the General Appropriations Act for 2008 he said, now uses the phrase "locally-available"- which could mean imported items already in the market- instead of the previous "locally made" in describing the goods and services that can be procured out of appropriated funds.

In his proposal, Escudero would include prohibiting the lock-out of Filipino goods in so-called tied loans offered by donor countries.

The ZTE Fiasco should prod us towards this direction, he said. "We should stop falling prey to foreign assisted project peddlers, compulsively buying whatever ODA (official development aid) salesmen are giving. If we are the ones paying for the loans then we might as well have the right to choose".