The following article was lifted from the facebook post of Mr. Motoo Konishi,
World Bank Country Director for the Philippines, 2012-2016
Distinguished Fellow, the Asian Institute of Management, 2016-Present.
Reflections on the Aquino Leadership and Administration
As we read and hear the outpouring of gratitude for President Benigno S Aquino III, highlighting
his accomplishments and his virtues, I wanted to write a bit about how much the World Bank
has learned from President Aquino.
World Bank’s institutional goal is to eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.
On this, President Aquino will tell you three things. First, unless you improve governance and
reduce corruption, you can never eliminate extreme poverty. Second, unless you can tackle
climate change and natural disasters, you can never eliminate extreme poverty. And lastly unless
you can grow the economy that lifts the entire country from bottom up and create meaningful
jobs you can never eliminate extreme poverty. Those three conditions for eliminating poverty
was really taken to heart by the World Bank.
The Aquino administration walked the talk. Here are some examples of things which the World
Bank learned as part of advising the Administration.
On Governance and Corruption: Philippines was one of the eight founding members of the Open
Government Partnership – a global partnership between Government and Civil Society to
promote transparent, inclusive and participatory governance; Anti-corruption effort in DPWH
brought down the cost of large national contracts by 25-30% (much of it due to elimination of
corruption payments); tax revenues improved from less than 12% of GDP (one of the lowest in
the region) to over 15%, including the passage of Sin Tax, and using the multilateral banks to
create the huge fiscal space which the current Administration is using to borrow to
finance the heavy cost of Covid-19 expenses. The improvement was so impressive that the
World Bank held conferences of heads of tax authorities in the region on how it was
accomplished. Support to DBM on Bottom-Up Budgeting to direct more resources towards rural
and poverty reduction programs and budget reform and transparency. Breakthrough work on
the Bangsamoro Peace Process and the Organic Law. And of course most importantly, the drive
for good governance led to one of the fastest economic growth rates globally, rivaling that of
China.
On climate change and natural disasters: The Bank, ADB and JICA were able to help NEDA put
together the Typhoon Haiyan Reconstruction Plan in less than six months after the typhoon and
delivered several billion dollars of assistance packages in matter of few months (again a new
record at the Bank). A complete game changer in the world of post disaster reconstruction
planning and it has now set a new global standard on disaster response. In addition, to reduce
and mitigate the financial burden caused by natural disasters, DOF instructed the World Bank to
create a wholly new Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (now a new product line
offered globally by the World Bank).
On improving the quality of growth and lifting the whole country from the bottom up, Aquino
Administration expanded the program to provide universal coverage of health insurance;
doubled the families covered under the Conditional Cash Transfer Program that pulled 7.7
million Filipinos out of poverty (largest and one of the best managed program of this type in the
world). And nearly tripling the budget for social services (education, health and DSWD – unheard
of increase in social services globally).
The Aquino administration was committed to delivering on its promises to the Filipino people
and knew how to maximize the resources available to them to ensure that these objectives were
met. We worked hand-in-hand with them in ensuring that only the cutting edge policy solutions
were proposed and implemented. My senior staff were practically embedded in many of the
Departments. We would scramble and work with our Washington teams to put together global
best practice notes in 24 to 48 hours. Many of the reports were produced in-house in Manila. The
Philippines Jobs Report and Mindanao Jobs Report both were monumental work produced by
teams led by our brilliant senior economist Karl Chua who is now the Secretary of NEDA.
Over the 35 years that I served at the World Bank, I have worked with Presidents and Ministers
in over thirty countries. But the four years as the Country Director for the Philippines has been
the most challenging, most impressive and most rewarding because of the Aquino leadership
and administration.
We witnessed and appreciated the difficulty and effort that was required to stabilize and turn a
country around that was in a downward spiral. We also saw first-hand the togetherness and
shared vision that is necessary to put a country on a true growth path. We were inspired to work
for a President and a Cabinet truly pushing to eliminate poverty and bring a brighter future for
its citizens. And we all know that this is because of the President’s unwavering devotion to the
Filipino People, to improving their lives, and to retake the position of Philippines as a nation to
be proud of and a nation that will succeed and excel in Asia.
Dear President Aquino, on behalf of all the World Bank staff who worked on the Philippines
during your administration, it’s been a true honor and privilege to serve you. Bravo for the pride
that you have brought back to the Filipino people.
May you Rest In Peace and thank you for the devotion and sacrifice you have made for this great
country.
Motoo Konishi
World Bank Country Director for the Philippines, 2012-2016
Distinguished Fellow, the Asian Institute of Management, 2016-Present
Requirement:
1. Look for news articles in the internet on the Aquino & Duterte administration’s policies on
governance and corruption, climate change and natural disaster among other that affect
international trade relations. In your opinion, was the present administration able to sustain or
surpass the achievements of the Aquino administration mentioned above? Explain. Cite your
references.