MANILA, Philippines -- The government should learn its lesson from the botched telecommunications project with China, an opposition senator said.
Senator Francis Escudero said the government must buy only local products for its projects and in the process generate jobs and raise revenues.
"This is a simple way of stimulating the economy without costing the government big money," Escudero said.
"Most of the prescriptions offered to shield the country from 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.
He said government consumption expenditures accounted for almost six percent of the gross domestic product last year and 6.48 percent in the second quarter of this year.
For 2009, the national government alone, excluding the local government units and government corporations, is set to implement P130 billion worth of infrastructure projects; procure P50 billion worth of supplies, P19.6 billion worth of machinery, equipment and furniture, Escudero said.
He said this did not include the possible importation of rice worth P7 billion.
Escudero said that if the government would strictly implement "buy only Filipino products and services," it would help the manufacturing sector's diminishing share in the GDP, which slid from 21.02 percent in 2007 to 20.29 percent in the second quarter of this year.
The Senator added that he would also seek an amendment in the national budget "to show clear domestic industry bias in government procurement for as long as quality of goods is not sacrificed and prices are competitive."
He pointed to section 23 of the General Appropriations Act for 2008, which used the word "locally-available" instead of "locally made."
He said "locally available" meant imported items available in the local market.
"We should stop falling-prey to foreign assisted project peddlers, compulsively buying whatever official development aid [ODA] salesmen are giving. If we are the ones paying for the loans then we might as well have the right to choose," he said.
