Expats give GMA high job ratings

Top executives of multinational companies (MNCs) doing business in the Philippines have given President Arroyo a high performance rating during her first year at Malacañang but expressed concern that deposed President Joseph Estrada remains a destabilizing factor in her administration.

These sentiments were expressed by 250 chief executive officers (CEOs) from 38 MNCs operating in the Philippines who responded to the survey conducted by international risk consultant Peter Wallace.

Wallace presented to Mrs. Arroyo at Malacañang yesterday the survey results of his AYC Consultancy Inc. at the Philippine Corporate Update Program he jointly organized with Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas II.

In his presentation, Wallace told the President that while the survey results point to a high approval rating of her administration, it, however, came up with a perception from the foreign business community in the Philippines that the country is still susceptible to political instability largely due to issues related to Estrada.

Wallace particularly cited survey findings that 75 percent of the respondent CEOs showed they believe the President is ‘performing reasonable well under the circumstances" compared to 13 percent who viewed her as "not meeting" their expectations.

However, 11 percent rated the President as "doing an excellent job" while none of the respondent CEOs answered she is not doing good enough or performing poorly. Two percent of the respondents gave no answer.

Based on this survey, Wallace noted, the survey population was almost divided equally in half on their perceptions of the political stability of the country.

The survey showed that 49 percent of the respondent CEOs believe the Philippines is "politically stable" while an almost equal number of 44 percent see the country as "politically unstable."

On their perceptions of the Estrada, 55 percent said they believe the ousted leader "still has the potential to create destablizing impact" while 26 percent believed otherwise with 19 percent replying "Don’t know."

On whether Estrada should be allowed to go to the United States for his knee surgery, 73 percent responded "No" while eight percent replied "Yes" and 19 percent checked "Don’t know."

On whether Estrada has been "treated unfairly by the justice system," 79 percent replied "No" while eight percent replied "Yes" and 13 percent "Don’t know."

In his opening remarks in the same forum yesterday at the Palace, Wallace told the 250 participating CEOs that he does not believe Estrada could still mobilize his supporters to the Arroyo administration in the same magnitude they did in the pro-Estrada siege of Malacañang on May 1 last year.

"Politically, we believe Estrada is a spent force but he must be tried and judgment rendered before any accommodations can be made, including any trip to the US," Wallace said.

"It is a watershed test case for the courts, and the President. If (Estrada) is allowed to escape, the Philippines is headed for serious trouble," Wallace warned.

Wallace, however, expressed the general sentiments of foreign business community about their "guarded optimism" with investors’ confidence returning to the Philippines "due to a government that is seen to know what it is doing."

He cited specific economic indicators showing stability is returning to the country’s economic recovery under the 13-month-old Arroyo administration.

"There are attempts to pull the President down, to destabilize from various groups. But, as we’ve seen already, they are not succeeding," Wallace pointed out.

"The chance of a coup succeeding is nil. And negligible chance one would even be attempted. But rumors can inflict damage, so it needs to be addressed fortrightly," he urged.

Wallace identified the problem areas that the Arroyo administration must focus its attention to based on the survey findings.

The "biggest deterrents to business operations" ranked in order of concern by the CEOs were peace and order; low consumer incomes; declining margins; peso instability; competition from smuggled and fake goods; taxes and tariffs; labor costs; competition from imported products; regional competitiveness in manufacturing; cost of imported raw materials; and labor disruptions/relations.

Wallace, however, cited the survey findings that 55 percent of respondents believe the business outlook for the Philippines is better than last year while 24 percent said "same" as last year; only eight percent said "worse" than last year and 13 percent made no answer.

He said the survey indicated that the Philippines comes second to China as a preferred investment site with Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Hong Kong following in that order.

The respondents of the survey who came from these 38 MNCs composed less than one percent of the total of 3,300 large establishments in the Philippines which have paid P6.8 billion out of the P490 billion total government tax collections last year or contributed 1.4 percent.