Biting The Bullet

Why is DTI Regional Director Ma. Eliza Pabillore complaining about the results of the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP), the flagship research undertaking of the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center’s City Competitiveness Program?
The AIM policy center came out last July 4, 2008 with the results of its 2007 study which ranked Cagayan de Oro 11th in terms of business competitiveness compared to 25 other medium-sized cities.
Cagayan de Oro shared the spot with Leyte’s Tacloban City.
Ms Pabillore said she “treat(s) the survey with a grain of salt” adding “the ranking does not reflect the realities on the ground.”
Ms Pabillore said, quoting from news reports, she could not understand why the city fared poorly when figures available with DTI and the local government showed that the city is enjoying a booming economy, has a good business environment, and local officials are responsive to business needs.
“Basically, we failed on perception-based surveys but fared well on indicators that are supported with hard data,” Ms Pabillore added.
As a citizen of this city I share Ms Pabillore’s dismay with the way the study turned out for us. We like to think of ourselves as a lucky to be living here, long considered as one of the top cities of Mindanao.
But I think we ought to take study as it is--- plain. No seasonings, no salt.
On its own, the data from the DTI Regional Office may show us doing well in the same areas covered by the PCCRP. The local economy is so robust that Ayala Land is at present investing in Cagayan de Oro, according to Ms Pabillore.
But this misses the point. The study, as I understand it, was made precisely to measure how well we are doing in relation to other cities. The study ranks the overall competitiveness of Philippine urban centers based on the following drivers of competitiveness: costs of doing business, dynamism of the local economy, human resources and training, infrastructure, responsiveness of the local government to business sector’s needs, and quality of life.
The study, to quote from the Policy Center’s primer, merely “constructs a benchmarking method that will aid individual cities in measuring their level of competitiveness in relation to other cities.”
So what is there to fret about? After all, we do need to know who we are competing against and how we are standing up to the competition. We can not afford to be complacent, secure in our mistaken belief that we are a cut above the rest.
And it is not as if we are finding ourselves suddenly at the bottom of the dung heap. In 2003, Cagayan de Oro was ranked 3rd among 13 medium-sized cities surveyed for business competitiveness. In 2005 we found ourselves in the 8th position among 15 medium-sized cities.
So besides stating the obvious, what the heck?
Instead of sulking in the corner, we should grab this golden opportunity to finally get our act together. Instead of saying “well if they had only done this, if only they had done that” we should be thinking of ways to finally arrest our slide to the abyss; we should be thinking of ways to beat the competition.
To illustrate just how badly we are misunderstanding this, let us take the example of Iloilo City. Iloilo City was among the top awardees of 2005 but was kept out of the top seven performers last year.
Iloilo City was ranked 8th (eight by golly and they feel bad about it).
But instead of trying to question the results, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas is immediately calling for a round table discussion to analyze and learn from the PCCRP survey in preparation for next year.
This on top of the city’s efforts to rebuild after the devastation caused by Typhoon Frank.
So now what do we do?
Now we ought to bite the bullet, do as they are doing in typhoon-ravaged Iloilo City, and begin thinking like winners.