Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III defended President Rodrigo Duterte in the international community, saying his governance style is “non-traditional,” as the country’s top economic official sought to reassure credit rating agencies about the country’s sound fundamentals.
Dominguez, during his visit in United States along with the rest of administration’s economic team, assured foreign credit rating institutions that Duterte remained “fully engaged” in implementing his 10-point socio-economic agenda.
This includes inclusive growth, alongside the goals of eliminating crime and corruption and forging a lasting peace within the country and with its neighbors.
Meeting with officials from international credit rater Moody’s Investor Service, Dominguez urged them not to be distracted by the political noise generated by the President’s non-traditional type of governance.
“If you talk about the political noise, yes, there is. It’s inevitable for someone who’s shaking up the tree. It’s inevitable because of the personality of the President and people not used to this type of governance. But he’s fully engaged in [the administration’s] economic agenda,” Dominguez told Moody’s officials.
Moody’s was represented in the meeting by Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer; Atsi Sheth, managing director; and Matthew Circosta, associate analyst, of the sovereign risk group.
Dominguez told Moody’s executives that the Duterte administration would carry out its inclusive growth agenda while building on the economic gains of the past administrations and exercising fiscal responsibility.
Moody’s currently rates the Philippines as Baa2 with a stable outlook. The credit rating is higher than what Moody’s has given Vietnam and India.
Dominguez said Duterte had been meeting with Congressional leaders to push the overhaul of the tax system by introducing sweeping reforms in policy and administration.
The tax reform plan being proposed by the Department of Finance, the first component of which was already submitted to the Congress one Sept. 26, aims to ease the tax burden on wage earners and the middle class, as well as protect the country’s vulnerable sectors, while raising enough revenues to accelerate spending on infrastructure, human capital, social protection and agricultural modernization.
Dominguez said the first package of the proposed tax reform program was completed and submitted to the Congress less than 90 days into the Duterte administration.