Bets vow to make RP more competitive

MANILA, Philippines - Steering the country to competitiveness is a centerpiece of the programs of action of three presidential candidates.

In a forum hosted by the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation and the ANC Channel at the Asian Institute of Management yesterday, presidential candidates senators Richard Gordon and Manuel Villar and former defense chief Gilbert Teodoro Jr. stressed one after another the importance of improving the country’s educational system and stamping out corruption in helping the country attain global competitiveness.

“We have fallen out of competitiveness and the first thing that comes to mind is corruption. Leadership must provide an example that corruption must be eliminated right away,” Gordon told a panel composed of The STAR executive editor and columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan, CNN Beijing chief Jaime FlorCruz, and ASEAN Studies Center head ambassador Rodolfo Severino. “Education must be enhanced,” Gordon of the Bagumbayan party pointed out.

The event, dubbed “Presidential Policy Forum: Philippine Credibility and Competitiveness in the World,” was attended by journalists, members of the diplomatic corps and the business community.

“We must make sure that every laborer out here will make sure that when he comes out, it is Philippines incorporated,” he said.

“It is a great product because it is made in the Philippines,” he added.

“The Filipino is a great manager of his talents. What is important is to provide him with the opportunity upon which there is a rule of law, there is a regime of meritocracy,” Gordon pointed out. “That is why he succeeds abroad. When he works hard, he gets good compensation. We make sure that they feel that they are part of the process of making the Philippines A-1,” he added.

Villar, a successful businessman before he joined politics, said a culture of competitiveness should be ingrained in the minds of Filipinos.

“The next president should be able to compete with the other presidents like Thailand, Malaysia, China and the US. The next president must lead the nation into competing,” the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer said.

“We must establish that the Philippines is now ready to compete in all aspects of our lives, economic, social, cultural and in sports. This has to be seen everywhere,” he said.

Teodoro, for his part, said that in efforts to improve education, emphasis should be placed on pre-school and basic education. He also called for reforms in the tertiary and post-graduate levels.

“In pre-school level, we must start standardizing how we teach pre-school children - computer literacy, English speaking skills and other formative skills. Basic education reform, the road map is already there,” he said.

“We have to realign our basic education with international standards, with additional years perhaps. In tertiary education, we must rationalize scholarships and we should have more legitimate PhD and master’s degree holders,” Teodoro said. “We have the smallest ratio in the world.”

Teodoro also stressed the need for a long-term infrastructure plan and that such grandiose plan would require “political harmony” to take off.

“I am thinking of seamless interconnections between and among islands of the Philippines. This is not impossible,” the administration bet said. “If your competitors are doing it, you have to do it. We have to take advantage of increased external trade and we have to take advantage of regional bilateral free trade agreements when it is to our advantage to do so,” he said. 

24-7 work ethic

Responding to a question from former President Fidel Ramos on how the presidential bets intend to juggle the responsibilities of a chief executive, Villar said his track record as a businessman should prove his being an effective “multi-tasker.”

“I have been building teams all my life, in the field of business, in Congress, in the Senate. I have been doing these and I think that I am trained. I have experienced a lot in team-building and this is essential,” he said.

“First, on the personal decorum and lifestyle of a President. He should live honorably, with dignity and modesty. Number two, team-building is essential. It’s a concept on a shared vision, shared burdens. Adequate vision, adequate tasking, adequate burden-sharing,” Teodoro said.

“You cannot be nice all the time but you have to make sure that you keep focus, the vision is there, draw out the values. Make sure you motivate our people and nobody does a better job in motivating the people than Dick Gordon. I had the ugliest job of tourism with Abu Sayyaf and tourism with bombing. And we did Wow Philippines, it speaks for itself,” Gordon said.

Meanwhile, the camp of former President Joseph Estrada denied that he was avoiding presidential debates.

“He was not at the Ayala Alabang forum because he never received an invitation, and had to beg off from the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation-sponsored forum because of a previous engagement,” campaign manager and former ambassador Ernesto Maceda said.

Maceda said Estrada was an active participant in earlier debates including the ANC forum at the University of Santo Tomas and at the “Isang Sagot” sponsored by the GMA7 network. With Christina Mendez, Jaime Laude, Paolo Romero, Jose Rodel Clapano