Geography, culture and politics, these are just some of the things that define a country. However, deviating from their native definitions, these words have so much more to imply. Geography does not merely speak of the structure or the location of a sovereign. It is denotative of an innate wealth – the kind of resources that makeup a country. Is it fisheries and agriculture or oil? On the same note, culture does not only tackle arts, norms and religion. Neither does it plainly label a people. It influences a more common perspective including a people’s behavior and tastes. Having considered their behavior – how they think – and their tastes – what they prefer, these serve as the bases of what they need, want and desire. Consequentially, these needs, wants and desires create consumption. As consumption takes center-stage, it manufactures demand which triggers production. Lastly, politics is not solely bound to power and/or its allocation. Politics entails a government that is more than just a system of representatives chosen by a people. It brings forth important roles and functions of the government: stability of prices, employment and steady growth. All these things concern one thing – the economy.

An economy refers to how wealth and resources within a region or country is allocated vis-a-vis production and consumption. It can also be regarded as a measure of how well a country has performed given a particular timeframe. An economy gives rise to the identity of a specific region or country.

By and large, the government plays a vital role in the economy. Nonetheless, it is a collective effort among its branches. The executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch all have respective functions and impact in the economy. For the purpose of this study, we are to focus only on the executive branch specifically the president and his role in the economy.

One of the primary, if not the mainstream, concerns of the president is to be able to run the economy ‘smoothly’. Hence, he keeps track of the country’s prices, employment and economic growth, and ensures that they are on normal levels. The president does not really have the control over the economy. However, he can make a big difference on how he would manage the economy through government policies, and how he would utilize his influence. The influence of the president is a vital aspect because the president is granted by the constitution with powers to convince Congress to pass or veto bills into becoming laws, provided that the budget permits. For instance, if the president decides to implement higher taxes and/or tariffs on businesses and successfully convinces congress in doing, this will cause the economy to incur a substantial bearing. If the president does otherwise, businesses and investors would be encouraged to do trade in which the economy will benefit from.

One of the major factors that put the Philippines into a better position economically would be the 2008 world crisis. During the event, the interest rates, GDP and inflation rate of all countries went significantly changed which put the world in a state of shock. The GDP of the Philippines during the event started at 4.153% (2008) and ended at 1.148% (2009) as compared to the US, who’s GDP started at 1.87% (2008) and ended at -2.47% (2009). In retrospect, we can see that our GDP was saved during the financial crisis due to the fact that the country’s GDP did not go as low as a negative value. The inflation rate of the Philippines was at 2.8% at 2007 where the first symptoms of the crisis were felt, spiked at 9.3% and ended at 3.2% as the crisis ended; in comparison to the US which had a 2.8%, spiked at -.0327% at 2009. We can see that the dollar deflated because no one in the US can afford to buy anything. The factors which salvaged the nation from the devastation of the 2008 global financial crisis were minimal exposure to foreign securities, low dependency on exports and large remittances of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW).

Coming from the previous administration of Former President Joseph Estrada, the Philippines is on the process of launching itself into a better economy under a new leadership. Looking at the tables, we can see a trend of increase in GDP is apparent until 2005 where the economy seemed to have “plateaued” until the 2008 global financial crisis.

As compared during Pnoy’s administration, the Philippine GDP has gone down from 7.632% during Arroyo’s administration to 3.7 %. The Aquino administration is trying to work out to decrease the government deficit through minimizing difficulty issuing debt locally and internationally to finance the deficits. As a result, the public debt has been reduced to below half percent of GDP during 2012. The unemployment rates on the first two years of Aquino administration were quite high compared during its predecessors. Thus, there are more starving Filipinos during his administration. The inflation rate hovered between three to four percent.

At this point, the Aquino administration has made its move on the internal aspect of the government wherein he becomes consistent with his political platform: Anti- Corruption. However, so far, the said administration has not yet made its move on projects that would either be utilized by the Filipinos. What the Aquino administration can learn from the previous administration is to increase projects that may encourage consumption for the Filipinos. As of today, we can assume that the Philippine economy has increase to 6.4% is because of the natural calamities and other one-time events that has forced the consumers and the government to spend. Also, the Aquino administration can tap into the mining industry in Mindanao. Despite the security and environmental risk of mining, if the government could find the right technology to answer these issues, then it would cause a huge increase in income.

But by far, the Aquino administration is still focused on both its government, as well as its international relation. Aside from its political objectives, a new aspect that the administration can add in its agenda is the focus on the economy. Now that the Aquino administration has established its political foundation, it may now set its focus on how to improve the economy because once the Philippines has stabilized its economic condition, all other issues can be tapped into.

Tables

|Year |GDP (in %) |
|2001 |2.894 |
|2002 |3.646 |
|2003 |4.97 |
|2004 |6.698 |
|2005 |4.778 |
|2006 |5.243 |
|2007 |6.617 |
|2008 |4.153 |
|2009 |1.148 |
|2010 |7.632 |
|2011 |3.7 |
|2012 (Q1) |6.4 |
|Year |Unemployment rate (in %)|
|2001 |11.125 |
|2002 |11.4 |
|2003 |11.4 |
|2004 |11.825 |
|2005 |11.35 |
|2006 |8 |
|2007 |7.325 |
|2008 |7.4 |
|2009 |7.475 |
|2010 |7.2 |
|2011 |7 |
|2012 (Q2) |6.9 |

|Year |Inflation rate (in %) |
|2001 |6.8 |
|2002 |3.0 |
|2003 |3.5 |
|2004 |6.0 |
|2005 |7.6 |
|2006 |6.2 |
|2007 |2.8 |
|2008 |9.3 |
|2009 |3.2 |
|2010 |3.8 |
|2011 |4.4 |
|2012 (Q2) |3.1 |