The rise of the peso and its remarkable performance especially at the start of the year was met with a lot of enthusiasm.  This raised expectations that the Philippine economy might finally be on the right track to recovery.  From a record-high P56 to $1 exchange rate, the peso breached the P52 to the dollar level fueling hopes that it will be maintained at that level or even gain further.

Even analysts expressed optimism that the country could get a higher credit rating because of the positive developments.  A lot of credit has been attributed to the dollar remittances from OFWs particularly during the holidays, which is expected to continue till February.

OFWs and their families may be complaining that the continued strengthening of the peso has lowered their budget allocation.  They may now have to adjust to the smaller peso equivalent of the regular dollar "padala."  Others especially exporters have quickly jumped into the fray carping about the adverse effects on their businesses.

And here comes "Mr. Palengke" Mar Roxas eager to burst the bubble, deriding those positive economic indicators by calling them meaningless.  It's precisely this kind of populist grandstanding that we don't need right now because what we want to see are positive economic developments amidst all the bad news.

In the mid '80s, the country's foreign debt stood at around $26 billion.  At an exchange rate of P15 to the dollar, that was roughly P390 billion.  By 1992, the government was paying more than P100 billion to service the foreign debt.  This amount was eating up more than half of government revenues from taxes, fees and treasury bills.  Last year, the foreign debt has reached a staggering P5.3 trillion.  One result of the huge foreign debt is the increase in budgetary deficits.  Of the P1 trillion proposed budget for 2006, nearly one third would have gone to debt servicing.  Clearly, those figures are hard to discount.

Those who are bent to douse cold water on people's hopes for a better economy and therefore, a better life—like Mar and his ilk—have failed to mention, however, that the peso's strong performance has meant huge savings in our foreign debt.  The government was able to save at least P15 billion in foreign debt payments last year since the peso surged in November.

Those savings could translate into more health services, education or more housing projects that will benefit the poor.  As Finance Secretary Gary Teves pointed out, every peso gain in the exchange rate saves the country about P5 billion.

Businesses that rely on imported raw materials also stand to gain from the appreciation of the peso.  Obviously, in terms of less dollar payments for the cost of these raw materials.  We import a lot of oil because our economy and our businesses are dependent on this commodity.  That's certainly one area where the positive impact of the peso's gain will be felt.  It could also mean lower interest rates, which is quite a relief for small and medium businesses.

The trouble is these party poopers try and spoil the upbeat mood just when some good things start to happen.  Take the Southeast Asian Games for instance.  When the whole country was rejoicing over the victory of our Filipino athletes, some negative people just couldn't help themselves, spreading the canard that some athletes were taking drugs.  That was really so un-nationalistic, disheartening and downright nasty.  There is no question that the athletes and their supporters worked hard for that great victory.

Sure, the dollar inflow from the OFWs is temporary.  At the same time, anybody can argue that it's a sad reflection on the situation in the country that Filipinos have to go elsewhere to look for jobs.  But what can we really do?  There's no choice at the moment, but to send our people abroad because there are no jobs available now.  That's a fact of life.

What Mr. Palengke, the populist senator conveniently overlooked, is that we need all these positive developments to eventually prop up the economy.  It goes without saying that a lot of hard work is needed before the effects can be immediately felt.  No doubt, it will take a lot of time before we can really say that the economy has become stable again.  But we have to start somewhere.

Mar does not see anything good in "looking at the sky and seeing a good alignment of stars foretelling a bountiful harvest even though the croplands have yet to be farmed."  Ordinary farmers could tell you that it takes some time from the moment the crops are planted before the harvest season comes.  To hope that it will be a bountiful harvest should not be a bad thing.  In fact, it is the hoping that makes all the difference because it gives encouragement despite the backbreaking work.

It's not also a question of the government taking credit for all those positive developments or even for trying to give false hopes to the people.  But the fact of the matter is, every gain the peso makes would help in cutting down the imports bill and the cost of paying the country's foreign debt.  That is a balancing act that the government has to achieve.

Nevertheless, it should be clear that it is not government's responsibility to ensure that businesses take a hefty profit, or even to make sure that prices of basic commodities are lowered.  The task of government is to implement the EVAT and other necessary fiscal reforms, to put convicted criminals into jail, to balance the budget—in short, to govern.

The little gains that the peso makes and the other positive developments that go with it may not mean a big deal to Mar because he decidedly comes from a wealthy family.  But it is a big deal for most Filipinos because we need these positive developments for the country's economy to gradually grow and strengthen.  The road to growth has to start somewhere—and perhaps it can begin with the surge of the peso and the positive responses of the international business community to our economic performance and reforms.  And that is a big deal.

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