P-Noy's 4 R's... er 5 R's

Fresh from his recently concluded five-day state visit to China, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is still visibly ecstatic at the warm reception he got from his Chinese hosts. From the looks of it, P-Noy has apparently succeeded in thawing the country’s relations with Beijing that have turned cold by a series of unfortunate China-related incidents on the first year of his administration.

P-Noy personally expressed regrets anew before Chinese media he met last week in China over last year’s August 23 Luneta bus hostage incident. This came after survivors and families of eight Chinese Hong Kong nationals who were killed in this bungled police operation to rescue bus hostages renewed demands for public apology from P-Noy when they came back to Manila to mark the tragic event a year ago.

The Philippines has remained in the Hong Kong travel advisory black list since that Luneta incident. Beijing has kept its hands off Philippine appeals to lift the black list, citing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region enjoys autonomy from the central government of China.

While in Beijing, P-Noy witnessed the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the two governments to intensify the common fight against international drug trafficking. At least three Filipino drug mules have been executed in China earlier this year despite last-ditch appeals to Beijing by the Philippine government to save them from the gallows.

And the biggest sore point in the bilateral relations between the two countries came to a head in the renewed tension over the disputed islands, reefs, shoals and atolls around Spratlys in the South China Sea. Now officially referred to as West Philippine Sea, P-Noy and his Beijing counterpart, Chinese President Hu Jintao have reportedly reiterated the common desire of both countries for peaceful resolution of the territorial dispute even as both insisted their respective ownership claims.

The two leaders have also reportedly agreed to “reconfigure” the scandal-marred NorthRail project in the Philippines by the state-owned contractor China National Machinery and Equipment Corp. (CNMEC). There were reports that also taken up was the possible revival of the scandal-rocked national broadband network (NBN) project of the DOTC originally with the ZTE Corp. of China.

This was why Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Mar Roxas II was part of the official delegation of P-Noy in Beijing. The two projects were both undertaken by the DOTC during the previous administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. As a former Arroyo Cabinet member, Roxas who was the trade and industry secretary during that time has institutional knowledge on both projects that would certainly help him deal with the efforts of the current administration to re-do the contracts under better terms and conditions for the Philippines. 

Then DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza signed the deal for the Philippine government with ZTE vice president Yu Yong also during an official visit of Mrs. Arroyo in April 2007 in Hainan, China. The Arroyo administration had to subsequently cancel the $329-million NBN-ZTE deal amid public outrage stirred by Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on alleged huge kickbacks received by some Arroyo officials who are all currently undergoing trial at the Sandiganbayan.

Meeting Palace reporters last Monday after his China trip, P-Noy confirmed indeed the project that was shelved by his predecessor would be revived but it would a completely different one from the scrapped NBN-ZTE deal. For one, this project would now be handled by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and no longer by the DOTC. The Chief Executive disclosed the DOST, headed by Secretary Mario Montejo, is now in the process of making an inventory of the resources that might come in handy in case the new NBN project pushes through.

While also in Beijing, P-Noy witnessed the signing of nine bilateral agreements dealing with enhancing the economic and cultural ties of the two countries and about $13 billion worth of Chinese investments, but only $1.3 billion are in actual new business ventures and the rest are “pledges” only.

Making a pitch for investments in his speech in Shanghai before Chinese businessmen, P-Noy alluded to his administration’s being under fire currently from certain foreign business groups in the Philippines for not honoring contracts that were supposedly tainted with irregularities entered into by his predecessor.

Although he did not mention it, P-Noy obviously referred to the criticisms over his administration’s suspension of the Belgian government-backed project for the Laguna Lake dredging contract as well as the Roll-On, Roll-Off project with a private French company.

P-Noy justified his administration’s suspending these contracts signed during the previous Arroyo administration and subject them all to review amid suspicions of corruption and other irregularities that went into them. “Let me clarify that ensuring a level playing field today requires undoing the mistakes of the past. In some instances, this means reviewing contracts entered into without particular care for due process,” President Aquino told participants and delegates to the Philippine Eastern China Business Forum in Shanghai.

It was in this Shanghai forum last Friday where P-Noy first declared his administration’s “4 R’s” policy guidelines on how investment contracts, whether foreign or local, would be tested: Right Project, Right Cost, Right Quality, and Right on Time. “This is the only way to ensure that your projects will not be questioned by the public, or by succeeding administrations,” P-Noy impressed upon prospective Chinese investors.

But in his speech when he arrived back in Manila last Saturday night, P-Noy’s “4 R’s” in Shanghai became “5 R’s.” He added the 5th R as in Right People. P-Noy said this sends the message that investments would not only be beneficial to the businessmen but to the people as well.

In less than 24 hours, P-Noy changed the rules of the game of his administration. For business to prosper, stability and consistency of government policies are the basic and most important elements that business executives consider in any investment decision they make. Right?