Marcos says economy is ''key to the next administration''
Presidential front-runner former Senator Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. said improvement in the Philippine economy is the key for the success of the next administration.
"The key to the next administration is going to be the economy. The failure and success of the next will be how we handle the economic situation," Marcos said on CNN Philippines presidential interview aired Tuesday night.
Marcos is leading all pre-election surveys ahead of Vice President Leni Robredo ahead of the May 9 elections.
The first quarter gross domestic product will be announced on May 12, three days after the May 9 elections. In 2021, GDP grew 5.6 percent after 7.7 percent.
"We are not yet in the post-COVID (phase) but as we try to recover, we try to manage COVID... COVID changes everything. The economic managers are going to be key. The best economic managers are in private life. They are already rich... to ask them to come to government and to put all their assets to trust (account)... and to give up that very successful life is not an easy thing...," he added.
As he emphasized the importance of job creation and lowering of commodity prices, Marcos rejected possible implementation of lockdowns.
"Prices and jobs! jobs, jobs jobs, prices, prices, prices. When you do a survey about COVID to Filipinos, the concerns are number one unemployment, number two there's no money, no food," he said.
"The hardest thing is when we we're in lockdown... let us not implement lockdown. We already have vaccines. We learned more medically speaking... it's all about how to create jobs," he added.
Marcos also noted the importance for the government and the private sector to help the micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in terms of fiscal policy, providing tax holiday, and amnesty for those who failed to pay taxes because of the pandemic.
He also noted the need to improve agriculture to lessen imports and build more airports to further boost tourism and employment.
"Our airport in Manila is limited... I think the real capacity is 6.5 to 7 million passengers a year that is not enough we need to have more. We keep on talking about 10 million, so more airports should be built so there is no need to go to Manila. That can surely provide jobs and you need the infrastructure anyway. We really need infrastructure," he added.
Despite the limited budget of the government and the country's outstanding debt reaching P13 trillion, Marcos said he does not want to impose new taxes that may aggravate the hardship of the Filipinos.
"We should have a plan because our resources are limited and our debt is 13 trillion (pesos). That is why we have to get back. How are we going to do that? We have to be very careful with the little funds we have," he said.
He said he ''would not be very partial'' to imposing new taxes ''for the simple reason the people are already facing difficulties. ''Let's not make it more hard for them," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
