THE Duterte camp on Tuesday assured stock market traders there will be no shake-up in the financial market under the presidency of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
“The perception of uncertainty always comes during the last few weeks of the election, but under the Duterte administration the stock and financial market will be protected and it will be business as usual,” said Duterte’s spokesman Peter Laviña said in a statement.
“Fostering fear and uncertainty is part of the scare tactic and black propaganda against presidential frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte.”
Duterte, who is running with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano as his vice presidential candidate, has repeatedly said he will provide business the proper atmosphere to prosper without sacrificing the general welfare of the people.
Laviña then drew attention to Duterte’s “Exhibit A” on how Davao City grew from its lethargy during the 1980s to become one of the most progressive cities in the country and listed as one of the most livable in Asia.
Laviña said Duterte had early on exhibited a very clear business policy. He recalled that Duterte set out to clean up Davao City of crime, urban rebels, street eyesores and traffic to make the city conducive to business when he became city mayor in 1988.
Davao City then was an experimental area of urban guerrillas and the streets were dominated by crime syndicates led mostly by scalawag cops and soldiers enjoying power during Martial Law.
Laviña recalled Duterte as saying: “Let me handle the cleanup and the business sector handle the economy.”
Since then, Duterte has had a clear policy to make investments welcome in his city.
In 1992, after the passage of the Local Government Code, Duterte pioneered the “Invest in Davao” project.
His basic guide was simple: “We welcome investments for as long as they do not abuse our labor, women, children and the environment.”
The project won support from the USAID program Private Investments and Trade Opportunities in the Philippines in crafting the first-ever Investments Incentive Code by a local government. It is now replicated by many LGUs throughout the country.
Laviña also cited the assistance of International Finance Corporation of the World Bank in cutting red tape in the business permit processing in Davao City. This led to the mayor’s firm policy to approve such permits within 72 hours and to impose strict discipline on city employees against graft and corruption.
He also cited the pioneering effort of Duterte to forge trade relations with Manado and Bitung, the airport and seaport cities of North Sulawesi just south of Mindanao in 1994.
This led to the formation later of the East Asean Growth Area sub-regional growth concept in the Asean region that includes Brunei, the eastern parts of Indonesia and Malaysia and Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines.