Palace welcomes favorable economic reviews
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Malacañang today welcomed the revised economic forecast of Goldman Sachs, which raised the country’s
economic growth projections.
Citing government’s pump-priming activities and the steady inflow of remittances, the investment bank, one of
the few major Wall Street firms to stay afloat after the global subprime crisis, projected the country’s gross
domestic product (GDP) to grow by 1.6 percent this year and 4.2 percent next year. The new forecasts were
higher than early projections of 0.5 percent for this year and 3.7 percent in 2010.
Government is targeting a growth range of between 0.8 percent and 1.8 percent this year.
“This is good news for everyone, not just economists or businessmen, because the only sure-fire pro-poor
strategy is economic growth. Government may act to improve the rules, level the playing field, or cast social
safety nets, but it is only economic growth fuelled by the private sector that can permanently lift our people from
poverty and bring us closer to the President’s dream of First World prosperity for our country within a
generation,” said Presidential Spokesperson for Economic Affairs Gary Olivar in a press briefing today.
Olivar also cited the report of the Philippine Stock Exchange this morning announcing a year-on-year increase of
nearly 50 percent in the net income of its listed firms for the first half of the year despite recession abroad and a
slowdown at home.
“This means the private sector is well positioned to play its role of wealth creation on the back of sound
economic fundamentals and government policy. It also portends greater liquidity as portfolio investors chase
these market fundamentals,” he added.
Earlier, Singapore-based DBS Bank also raised its 2009 GDP forecast growth for the Philippines to 1.6 percent
from 0.5 percent, citing the country’s “strong second-quarter rebound.”
Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that remittances amounted to $9.97 billion in the first
seven months of 2009, up 3.8 percent from a year ago.
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Palace urges lawmakers to regulate private hospitals
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Malacañang today urged lawmakers to craft laws or conduct inquiries in aid of legislation that would help
regulate the rising service fees collected by private hospitals.
Members of the Philippine Hospitals Association (PHA) increased their service fees today, allegedly to recoup
losses incurred by the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law last August 15.
In a press briefing, Deputy Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo expressed disappointment the executive branch is
hampered by limited laws to avert the rising of service fees by private hospitals.
Fajardo added the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) has reimbursed private hospitals between
P17 billion and P18 billion so far this year. She noted that private hospitals have other sources of profits other
than the 21 pharmaceutical products whose prices have been reduced by law.
She said since it is the Department of Health (DOH) that renews the licenses of private hospitals, government
and the administrators of private hospitals can talk about it and find ways to cooperate.
Presidential Spokesperson for Economic Affairs Gary Olivar, who also attended the press briefing, backed
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III’s challenge to private hospitals to open their financial books to see if they
are indeed losing money with the implementation of the Cheaper Medicines Law.
For her part, Fajardo added government is doing its best and using its power to protect public interest. The
private hospitals, she stressed, should justify their increase in service fees because it is part of their social and
moral responsibility to Filipinos.
Government is now implementing a 50 percent price reduction on some medicine under the maximum drug
retail price (MDRP) system and a 10 percent to 50 percent price cut on other drugs through the government-
mediated access price (GMAP) program. The programs were fully implemented last September 15.
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