The Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) commended President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his “exceptional candor” in his 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA) regarding systemic governance challenges.
The business group said Marcos’s forthright acknowledgment of governmental shortcomings, particularly his condemnation of excessive political corruption, resonated profoundly with the business community and the Filipino people.
“This corruption is not merely a moral failing; it is a primary driver of our country’s entrenched poverty, deepens social inequities, and critically undermines our national economy,” FFCCCII president Victor Lim said in a statement.
“It manifests in perceived massive wastages, fuels perennial fiscal and budget deficits, and necessitates unsustainable borrowing – diverting resources desperately needed for genuine national development,” he said.
Lim said the FFCCCII “strongly endorses” the President’s focus on bolstering essential social services and uplifting the quality of education as foundational pillars for inclusive progress. He added that the FFCCCII offers its “vigorous and unequivocal support” for Marcos’s commitment to combat corruption, especially “ghost projects,” which he called “a direct and unconscionable theft from the Filipino people.”
The FFCCCII also called for rigorous, systemic, periodic, and transparent audits and performance reviews across all government agencies and projects, saying it “demands more than recognition; it requires political will, national unity and decisive action.”
The group urged the administration and lawmakers to enact profound, systemic anti-corruption reforms.
“We need strengthened institutions, unimpeded transparency, robust accountability mechanisms, certainty of punishments and unwavering enforcement of the rule of law,” the FFCCCII said.
“Only through such fundamental systemic reforms can we restore public trust, ensure efficient use of public funds, unlock sustainable economic growth and genuinely uplift the lives of all Filipinos,” it said.
The FFCCCII expressed its readiness to support the administration in the critical endeavor for the future of the nation.
