Political battlefield

MAY 9, 2022 is the second Monday of May and in our Constitution that is the date for Elections 2022. There are 228 days in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 and 365 days in FY 2021, or a total of 593 days of serious nation building and recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. The Duterte administration has a total of 776 days to go before it ends its term on June 30, 2022. Recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), both lessening the potential relapse and rebuilding the economy, are the two problems the administration would have to address in its remaining days in office.

The key milestones are the coming State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July, the passage of the budget for FY 2021, redefining of the legislative agenda for the remaining time in office, preparing for elections under the “new normal” and rolling out the Buid, Build, Build (BBB) program as the pump-priming initiative to be the main driver for recovery and ensuring that with a relapse, the capacities are there to respond to another crisis. FY 2020 will end up in a deficit-spending manner, hoping that the two drivers of the nation’s economy — the overseas Filipino workers and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry — will be able to rebound effectively as new markets open for the former and new industries embracing BPO platforms come into play under the “new normal.”