‘Quality’ of next leader crucial in sustaining growth

The country’s strong economic growth is seen to continue at least in the early years of the incoming administration, but the quality and competencies of the next leader will be highly crucial in sustaining the momentum and locking the gains achieved during the term of President Aquino.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines and the ING Bank Tuesday, Makati Business Club chair Ramon del Rosario Jr. said the economy had a lot of momentum behind it that the early years of the next administration would likely see continued growth.

However, he stressed that the kind of leader who would be elected on Monday would play a highly critical role in moving forward the Philippine economy.

“I think the quality of the next President makes a difference, that’s why I believe it’s important that we make the right choice,” Del Rosario said.

The MBC chief expressed apprehension about the possible victory of Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and his disappointment in the economic policy stand made by the Aquino administration’s bet, Mar Roxas.

According to Del Rosario, one of the things that the public should carefully do is to listen to the things Duterte has been saying. He said he was usually hopeful candidates would do as they promised. But this, he added, was one of the few times that he was hoping Duterte would not do what he was promising to do.

“Let us recall what he has promised to do. (Duterte) said there would be a lot of fat fish in Manila Bay because the 100,000 suspected criminals would be dumped there because he would order them killed. He has repeated in many instances that if suspected criminals resist arrest, his orders were for law enforcers to kill them… He also said he would arm them with pre-signed pardons so they would not be interfered by the do-gooders and human rights advocates. He has made it known that he was not going to tolerate the Ombudsman, Commission on Human Rights or Congress to interfere with what he had to do and he said they should stay out of his way … If Congress would threaten him with impeachment, Duterte said he would abolish Congress. He talked about setting up a revolutionary government as he described himself as a socialist,” Del Rosario said.

“The image that this creates in my mind is a disturbing one which I think indicated the lack of respect for the rule of law. To my mind, the rule of law is extremely important if we want confidence in our country. The rule of law is the foundation upon which confidence is built and when confidence is built, investments are expected to flow. Investments are what will create jobs and if we don’t have investments and we don’t have jobs, we will have a problem moving forward,” he warned.

Del Rosario was quick to note however that he was not predicting a bad government under a Duterte presidency.

“There is a fair chance that it’s just tough talk. And there’s real hope he would form Cabinet of outstanding, competent, credible and honest people which could erase many of the doubts of people like me… I’m not predicting it will be a bad government. What I’m saying is that we have to make sure we understand what we are getting into if we are inclined to vote one way or another. We have to make sure we understand who and what we are voting for when we select the candidate we’re voting for,” he said.

As for Roxas, Del Rosario expressed his disappointment over the former’s stand regarding Constitutional restrictions.