Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has rebuked the country’s business leaders, telling them point blank to “stop scaring yourselves and start looking at the country’s economic fundamentals.”
He urged them to reconsider their “unjustified hostile posture” toward President Rodrigo Duterte.
“In ten years, every controversial remark this President has spoken will have been forgotten. But the sweeping tax and economic reforms he had instituted will stay and keep the country headed towards prosperity,” Salceda told the business leaders during the membership of the Makati Business Club on February 27.
“Even his most controversial policy decisions are based on some ‘universalizable’ principles. This president is very clearly pro-growth, if we could just get our heads out of the sand and actually look at the country’s policy direction,” he told the participants in the event.
“For instance, on the ABS-CBN issue, it appears that businessmen are taking the President’s previously-inflexible stance to mean he will suppress media opposition to his policies. That’s simply wrong and contrary to evidence: The CBCP, which is more ideologically opposed to the President, got its franchise enacted into law already under Duterte,” Salceda pointed out.
He said the ABS-CBN franchise application will be tackled shortly. “Even the contentious water concessions will probably be extended, under the Asian Development Bank’s mediation,” he said.
He also pointed out that PhilWeb Corp. was hit not by selective policy, but by Executive Order 13, which seeks to optimize revenues from gambling.
“Even now that PhilWeb has been acquired by Duterte ally Greggy Araneta, its license has not yet been issued by Pagcor,” he added.
By and large, Salceda said the President has been “making the right moves” and “enacting correct policies.”
He cited TRAIN 1, excise taxes on sin products, CITIRA, PSA, and the most significant infrastructure buildup last seen in 1954 after the war reparations, and 1974-1977 during the Marcos GOCC borrowing binge, “but this time, we are doing our infra push sustainably, with record low debt-to-GDP ratio.”
“I don’t understand why we are spooking ourselves. In truth, the more businessmen try to scare themselves, the bigger the opportunity becomes for businesses who keep calm and pay attention to the real policy issues,” he said.
“Be scared if there are issues on national macro-economic fundamentals. Actually, we’re growing at rates that cannot be scoffed at anywhere in the world. And we’re managing things despite global headwinds. As with all passing crises, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he stressed.
He noted that some business analysts keep giving a “sell” advice against all reasons.
“I say, look at the fundamentals. If it’s just over-acting, which many people often indulge in these days, buck the market panic. Go ahead and buy,” he advised.
Truth to tell, “among many Presidents, only Duterte bets his life and all his political capital to get needed economic policies done. And he delivers,” Salceda concluded.