A few months ago, the existence of political dynasties was a hot topic nationwide. It was a common call all over the country. This topic is relevant to us. The Eastern Visayas region has several families controlling the politics in different provinces.
We will focus on two families that have held the leadership roles in the province of Leyte: the Romualdez and the Petilla families.
First off, data suggests that the province has not improved significantly over the past 40 years under the province's and the first district of Leyte's leadership.
The sad state of Leyte's economy is both surprising and disappointing. Over that forty-year period at the helm of power in this place, the economic indicators show they have been incompetent in managing economic progress.
A reduction from 23.6 percent of the total population who were statistically classified as poor to 21.7 percent of the population in poverty from 2015 to 2023. A 2 percent decline over 8 years in the short term is disappointing, particularly given the government budget, which reached billions of pesos annually. It is a monumental failure that a province so rich in natural resources and human resources, situated strategically in a region that connects Luzon to Mindanao, can have a dismal performance.
In a situation like this, it is reasonable to ask: Why?
Could it be that we are hit by typhoons each year? Many countries, such as Japan and Vietnam, are hit by typhoons every year, but they are progressive. They do not make the weather the main reason for their economic problems. The weather is often not a barrier to their growth. Case in point: they are achieving high growth rates.
For one, we know that we are typhoon-prone. Therefore, clearly, there should be a large number of projects that address this and promote economic activities that are not easily affected by typhoons. And there are many in infrastructure and agriculture. The problem here is the poor selection of projects, particularly those that do not have a significant role in increasing economic growth, those that are supposed to have a positive effect on employment and income, but do not.
The defects reveal poor decision-making and leadership that have little impact on the welfare of the population.
If the state of the region and the province of Leyte depend on government programs and projects, the persistence of poverty means that the leadership in the province of Leyte, especially in the first district of Leyte, which has a central role in the progress of the province, is not able to identify and promote projects of such nature and intensity that would lift poverty significantly.
The initiative is misplaced, amounting to a waste of funds and foregone growth opportunities.
As a closing note for this issue, here is a definition of a political dynasty that we can think about:
It refers to the systematic maintenance and reproduction of political power across positions and generations. So, in connection with the topic, do the Romualdez and Petilla families represent political dynasties in the province of Leyte?
In the next issue, more on this will be disclosed here.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews #IAmBack