Three hundred five billion pesos to be exact. That is the value of infrastructure projects recently approved for implementation.
How about the amount to be lent to micro and small businesses? Just a billion. Yet everybody knows that the backbone of the Philippine economy are these small time people in business who have nothing but their industry and gung ho attitude to make it or get ahead, no matter their situations, or no matter what.
The bulk of our population are dependent on such businesses. They employ a lot of family members and send the others to school. The employment opportunities big infra projects offer is nothing compared to those offered by micro and small businesses.
So why allocate only a billion for them? The only reason we could think of is the screwed up thinking of high ranking government officials. Who should be prioritized? It should be those who contribute more to the country’s economy rather than those personally known to the powers-that-be.
It is therefore just lip service the oft repeated remark that micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of the economy. Why is the President’s order to “build, build and build” infra projects?
It should be MSMEs, MSMEs, MSMEs and still MSMEs. Because if you don’t take care of the backbone, then the economy would continue being paralyzed, the way it has been since time immemorial.
Pour hundreds of billions of pesos on MSMEs and the institutions that should be assisting them like cooperatives and less formal lending institutions, and this country will be booming in no time.**