by Irwin Allen B. Rivera

The academe’s calibre economist lends a big influence to the country’s top minds.

Dr. Gerardo P. Sicat, eminent economist and former Regent, is now a professor emeritus.

“To me it means recognition of a lifetime of work, and I am happy the University recognizes that. My own career has not been entirely given to the University but I feel I have contributed enormously to the University in some ways.”

Despite having worked outside the University for a considerable amount of time, Sicat has significantly contributed to the University—both in teaching and in his field of expertise, economics.

This Professor Emeritus in Economics has influenced a number of the country’s top minds and is instrumental in reforming the government’s outlook in policy-making.

“Economics could help determine what should be the wise policies that the country should adopt. It is a very intricate subject, and we need to have a leadership that understands the intricacies so we can move forward,” Sicat said.

The Professor said for the economy to improve, investments must come in, regardless of the source or who controls the national resources. This is contrary to the argument that Filipinos must have total control of public utilities—which for him is a misplaced nationalism.

Selectivity in foreign investment sources, Sicat said, deprives the country of capital and therefore employment. He cites the case of Thailand whose economic condition 25 years ago, was similar to the Philippines’ but had attractive policies on encouraging foreign investments.

Two other restrictions to the entry of foreign investments Sicat gave are infrastructure and radical labor.

He said inefficiency in transport wastes people’s time and puts transported goods at risk. Radical labor, Sicat said, means “there is always a group that says we must strike and demand higher wages, even when our productivity is not high enough. With globalization we realized that other countries can offer the same job environment, even better, at lower wages.”
All these things, he said increase the cost of doing business, the cost of decision-making and the cost of the movement of goods.

The recent rise in call centers is an example of the country’s human resources sought after by the international market. Filipinos have an advantage because of their command of English.

Sicat said this phenomenon may change as Asian neighbors offer better investment packages.

“You might have an edge today. Tomorrow China or India might have a lot of English speakers. Improving your edge means investments in education, facilities, more training programs and so. But that is true for almost everything from handicrafts to factory workers,” he said.

Sicat shares his knowledge on economics through his writings and lectures.

“I wrote books in economics to teach people how to reason out the issues better. A lot of my writings are along these lines: to improve the basic framework, to create improved competitions and remove monopolistic influences oftentimes given to fellow Filipinos,” he said.

Two of the most notable books he authored are Economics and The Philippines: Industrialization and Trade Policies. First published in 1981, Economics remains widely used here and in Indonesia where it has also been translated into Indonesian. It was re-released recently as three shorter books. Meanwhile, The Philippines: Industrialization and Trade Policies (1971), which he wrote with John Powers and was widely circulated, spawned a lot of additional studies on Philippine industrialization issues.

He has also written articles that appeared in various newspapers and journals including the Philippine Economics Journal, Philippine Review of Economics and Business and Public Policy. His various discussion papers at SE include “Philippine Economic Nationalism,” “Notes on Infrastructure: Then, Now, and Tomorrow” and “Political Economy of Philippine Political Reforms.”

Sicat began his career in the University in 1957, working as research assistant at what is now known as the National College of Public Administration and Governance. By 1958, he became an assistant instructor in Economics, and remained in the University until 1970. He edited the Philippine Economic Journal for eight years during the time he was professor.

Outside of UP, Sicat chaired the National Economic Council (NEC, 1970-1972) at the age of 34. There, three years into organizing the government’s economic planning machinery, he was made to head the newly-created National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) as its director-general in 1972, a position he held concurrently as Minister of Economic Planning until 1981. Sicat was also chairman of the Philippine National Bank (1981 to 1983), a member of the Batasang Pambansa (1979 to 1981), and worked for the World Bank from 1985 until his retirement in 1997. He however remained in close contact with the University as Regent from 1970 to 1984.

Although he was not always physically present in UP, he was one of the key people that shaped the University’s direction.

Sicat was in the government supporting efforts toward improving the School of Economics (SE) at the time of National Scientist Dr. José Encarnación’s deanship, as well as that of UP Visayas.

For SE, he saw to it that the School had a good building, and that its program for public affairs was doing well. He also made sure that support for UP Visayas in Miag-ao was extensive.

“I was Regent at the time and head of NEDA. I saw to it that enormous amounts of leverage were put so that the Governor of the province and the assemblyman at the time were focused on supporting the growth of UP. That was how we got the campus in Miag-ao fully intact,” he said.

Sicat finished his undergraduate and masters degrees in Economics in April and May of 1958 respectively; went on to finish his Ph.D. in Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963; and his BSFS again at UP in 1975.

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Note to correct errors in the news article:

This biographical sketch upon his appointment as Professor of Economics Emeritus was published in the broadsheet of the University of the Philippines. It is quite accurate and was based on the interview with Dr. Sicat by the author, Irwin Allen B. Rivera. However, it was in error in two minor but interesting respects.

[1] “The paragraph concerning the reorganization of the economic planning machinery of the government.” He served as Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC), then the highest economic planning body in the government, a Cabinet post for its chairman. The article says that he organized the planning machinery during his time of almost three years in the NEC post. That was not the case. He was appointed to Director-General to head the newly created and more powerful National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). In this position he reorganized the planning body from zero-base. He filled the new agency with its full staffing, hiring all the new economic officials from the abolished Presidential Economic Staff and the National Economic Council. He also organized the regional development councils and the regional economic staffs of the NEDA. He therefore had the chance to choose the best people available then for an entirely new and important government agency.

[2] “Degrees received from UP.” The last paragraph concerning his degrees at UP often causes confusion. It crowds the receipt of three major degrees in two years of graduation. This seems impossible in the UP. But it happened at least once! This is the main reason for the confusion. Dr. Sicat studied in the UP during five years of study, from 1953 to 1958. He initially wanted to study for medicine – so he enrolled in the pre-med curriculum. Late in mid-course, he shifted to the study of foreign service degree program – a course managed by the UP Political Science Department. But during this period, he also studied more economics beyond what was required. In 1957, he finished his first bachelor’s degree, BSFS (cum laude) – FS for foreign service. He finished his undergraduate studies with a full year’s extra studies not credited for his course. These were courses in economics, history, mathematics, chemistry and biology that were not credited to the first degree. After 1957, he studied for one more year for the MA in Economics (while working as research assistant at the Institute of Public Administration, now NCPAG (National Center for Public Administration and Governance). He had hoped to finish his MA degree the next year. But his MA thesis was not read on time by his thesis critic, Dr. Cesar Adib Majul, who finished it later during the summer. He graduated therefore in May, 1958 for his MA. Disappointed in April, 1958 that he would miss the main graduation period with his higher MA degree, he applied to graduate for the AB in view of his extra courses in Economics that were not credited to his earlier degree. The head of the Economics department and his adviser, Dr. Amado A. Castro, recommended his graduation with the AB (cum laude), crediting all the other courses that he took beyond the curricular requirement but meeting all the requirements for the AB Economics degree.