Economy to improve if Estrada resigns, says Roco

The economy will improve the moment President Estrada resigns, Sen. Raul Roco predicted yesterday.

"If the President resigns on Monday, the stock market will increase by at least 50 percent, if not 100 percent, and the peso will settle at P49 to the dollar which may be its actual value in the market right now," Roco said in his weekly press conference.

He said the economy is not at a landstill as it has been going down. He expressed fears that it could even equal the economic crisis in 1983 when former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" was assassinated.

It noted that the peso made a deep plunge after the Senate voted against opening the second envelope on the Jose Velarde account with the Equitable PCI Bank.

Roco said that with the vote, the people concluded that the President could not longer be removed and confidence in the economy went down further.

"That is what they are saying — the bankers, the businessmen, the brokers. Imagine, brokers in the stock exchange walked out, classes were suspended," he added.

He said all of this boils down to the presence of a good leader and confidence. He expressed confidence that with a good leader, confidence would be restored and the country’s economy would bounce back.

"It will begin the rebuilding of confidence not because people will become better but because a new beginning is always good for business as long as we can assure stability," Roco explained.

He lamented that the political crisis has now divided the nation.

"The Bible says that when the sisters and brothers are against each other, when the father is against son, when the mother is against daughter, when husbands are against wives, then there must be a cleansing — and the leadership must cleanse itself," Roco said.