Former Senate President Manuel Villar is pressing for the adoption of a new economic model that will help the Philippines survive the global economic crunch, generate or preserve jobs and spur growth nationwide.

But he warned the economic managers against simply copying models that other nations are using to rebuild their economies. ?Many of our economists should realize that based on what is happening in the US and in Europe, we have to think on our own and come out with an economic model that is suited to the Philippines,? Villar told a meeting of foreign journalists in Manila. ?It?s no longer true that what is good for others is good for us.?

The new economic model should include factors such as the vital role played by migrant workers whose remittances have kept the economy afloat, Villar said.

?Nations have followed Milton Friedman, who espoused managing the economy through monetary tools, or John Maynard Keynes, who pushed for active government intervention in the marketplace and monetary policy the world economy is giving rise to the need for a new economic model,? Villar said.

The upside of the global financial meltdown is that nations have begun acting together as one to try and stave off the crisis which, at the very start, was brought about by economic models of the International Monetary Fund.

?Now, governments all over the world are heavily interfering in private institutions,? Villar said, noting that nationalization was a key word being used to protect taxpayers? money that were being injected into troubled companies.

Villar said perhaps the most shocking realization that came out of the crisis was that the International Monetary Fund?s economic models were now pass?.

?[The IMF?s] prescription has always been the same: reduce or end any restrictions on global flow of capital; don?t defend the domestic currency by purchasing it with foreign reserves?let it fall until it stabilizes in the market; and raise interest rates as high as necessary to keep capital in or attract capital to invest,? Villar said. Ceferino Acosta