Prepare for hard times ahead, GMA tells businessmen

Saying the government is bent on stopping kidnapping, President Arroyo asked businessmen yesterday to "prepare for hard times ahead" and help her administration guide the country through the current economic slowdown.

Mrs. Arroyo said she will ask American officials during her state visit to the United States, which starts tomorrow, to send agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the Philippines to help in the fight against kidnappers.

Speaking at the 27th Philippine Business Conference at the EDSA Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said the government is "doing what it can do in terms of governance" to stop kidnappings and improve the country’s investment climate.

"I need the continued support of the business sector," she said. "We need to work in tandem. The business of government is governance and the business of business is business. We’ll attend to governance, please take care of business."

Mrs. Arroyo said the Philippine economy has proven to be quite resilient as seen in its 3.4 percent growth, a low inflation rate, and a stable fiscal position.

"(But) the business sector should also do its part in continuing economic activity," she said. "I would not dare say if stats did not back me up and you have already seen them in business pages. Immediate contingency measures that we have put in place stand in good stead to meet immediate needs for macroeconomic stability."

Mrs. Arroyo said she has added economic security as part of her administration’s priority following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the US.

"Today in this annual meeting when we look at the world around us, it is important that we recognize and stress that world business conditions are more uncertain now and our priorities have changed since Sept. 11," she said.

However, information and communications technology sector continues to be a priority of the government, she added.

Mrs. Arroyo said Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto is working with her key aides to reform the country’s economy and that she and Secretary Vicky Garchitorena, head of Presidential Management Staff, met with De Soto last Wednesday.

"We discussed ways to end red tape in housing and business," she said. "This is what he is going to do in the Philippines. This would be a full-time job."

Mrs. Arroyo said De Soto and Garchitorena would work to use "sub-rosa documents," bringing them out into the open and making them eligible for legal transactions.

"It is a revolutionary concept that has already worked very well in many parts of Latin America and we being very Latin, I think our culture will be suited to the reforms that De Sotto told me he was able to achieve in other Latin American countries," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo did not say how long De Soto would be staying in the country to work on the project.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government would focus on fighting not only crime but also poverty as "rampant poverty" forces the poor to commit crimes.

"I am committed to making the Philippines a safe and desirable place for business and environment," she said.

Swift justice would be meted out to kidnappers and that her policy of "no tolerance for kidnapping, no negotiations for ransom and no backroom deals" remains, she added.

Mrs. Arroyo said she has ordered Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza to retire senior police officers who have not completed college, and to hire rookies with college diplomas.

Former Manila mayor and interior secretary Alfredo Lim will be named as "consultant against crime" in her administration, she added.

Mrs. Arroyo spoke about "Managing Transitions: Perspective and Strategies."

Meanwhile, Vice President Teofisto Guingona said yesterday industrialist Raul Concepcion must have meant "partisan politics" when he called for a moratorium on "adversarial politics" to help the country overcome an impending economic crisis.

"Partisan politics is what I think the businessmen meant because politics is governance," he said.

Guingona said the business sector’s proposed political truce is an "idealistic" statement which should be more specific by calling for a moratorium on partisan fighting.

"We are willing (to have a moratorium on partisan fighting) but it takes two to tango," he said.

Guingona said a political truce would not help the country’s economic recovery if the opposition will continue with a "partisan fight" while the government faces the challenge.

"Politics is the art of governance that makes the government necessarily engaged in it," he said.

Last Tuesday, Concepcion, chairman of Consumer and Oil Price Watch, called for a political truce because of the economic crisis facing the country. –With Pia Lee-Brago, AFP