Poe: Q2 GDP growth ‘nothing to brag about‘, gov’t must spend more on health sector

FILE PHOTO: Senator Grace Poe during one of the Senate hearings. Photo from the office of Sen. Poe

MANILA, Philippines — Some senators on Tuesday weighed in on the country’s second-quarter 11.8-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth, with Senator Grace Poe stressing the need to spend more on the health sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We may have grown by 11.8 percent from the 17-percent contraction of last year but that’s nothing to brag about because much of it is base effect,” the lawmaker said in a statement Tuesday.

“What our people need urgently now is for the government to spend their tax money on the health sector by paying the hospitals and our healthcare workers while protecting and creating jobs.”

“Let’s keep our people safe and ensure that there will be food on their table. Then and only then can these growth numbers mean anything,” added Poe, chairperson of the Senate public services committee.

According to government figures, the country has exited its longest recession since the 1980s’ debt crisis as the Philippines’ GDP grew 11.8 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021.

This growth, however, was mostly due to the low base in 2021, when the economy shrank by a record 16.9 percent from April to June 2020 compared to pre-pandemic output.

“Economic growth may be at its highest since 1988 but let’s not lose sight of the fact that still, it isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels,” Poe continued.

‘Good sign’

Senator Joel Villanueva, meanwhile, saw the country’s GDP growth as a “good sign” but said it was “too early to tell” if this can be sustained, especially considering the reimposed enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila where “the bulk of the economic activity comes from.”

“Our recovery is hinged on our ability to control the spread of the virus. Aside from the continuous rollout of vaccines, we need to step up our contact tracing efforts so that we identify clusters and hotspots, and implement localized lockdowns as needed,” he pointed out.

“Implementing a wide-scale lockdown such as ECQ should be the last resort,” he added.

For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto believes that it would take a year or two for the country “to achieve GDP 2019 level.”

The COVID-19 pandemic started early 2020, following the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 in China’s Wuhan province in late 2019.

SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes the serious respiratory illness COVID-19.

KGA