ROMUALDEZ TO PBBM: ‘KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, MR. PRESIDENT’

Speaker Martin Romualdez (left) and PBBM

SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Friday cited the major accomplishments of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. during his first year in office.

“The President did well on Year 1. Keep up the good work, Mr. President,” Speaker Romualdez said.

The President will be one year in office tomorrow, June 30.

For Speaker Romualdez, the most notable accomplishments of the Marcos administration are in the areas of helping ordinary Filipinos, sustaining economic growth, promoting the country as an investment destination, and in foreign relations.

He said the President did his best in trying to address the Filipinos’ daily-life concerns like rising consumer prices and lack of housing.

“Shortly after assuming office, he was confronted with spikes in the price of certain commodities like onions, which were selling for as much as P800 a kilo, and the basic staple rice,” he said.

Through a combination of measures, and with the help of Congress, the administration was able to bring down and stabilize the price of onions and rice, he said.

He noted that the House Committee on Agriculture and Food led by Chairman and Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga had conducted an investigation that exposed price manipulation, hoarding and cartels behind onion trading.

The House leader said the President decided to revive his father’s grassroots Kadiwa stores to buy farmers’ produce and sell agricultural products at low prices.

“He has a genuine concern, compassion and empathy for the poor,” he stressed.

The Speaker pointed out that in the area of housing, the President also had to draw from the experience of his father’s administration by resuscitating housing programs like BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services), which was a project of his mother, former minister of human settlements and First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

The Chief Executive has also launched Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino and ordered the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development to construct medium-rise and high-rise condominiums for the poor and government personnel, including soldiers and policemen.

Speaker Romualdez said sustaining the country’s economic growth is another noteworthy achievement of President Marcos.

“The economy grew by 7.6 percent and 7.2 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, and 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year. Those growth periods were the first nine months of the Marcos administration. I sincerely hope we could sustain it,” he said.

He said the impressive growth during the President’s first six months in office was the result of the Chief Executive’s decision to reopen the economy despite the lingering threat of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He added that multilateral financial institutions took note of the country’s economic expansion, which prompted the World Bank to upgrade its 2023 forecast from 5.4-5.6 percent to six percent.

The House leader emphasized that President Marcos actively promoted the country as an investment destination in his several trips abroad.

In these missions, the President likewise forged closer diplomatic, economic and cultural relations with the countries he visited, including the United States, he said.

“He has cultivated our ties with our old, reliable ally and partner, the US, and renewed bilateral discussions with China to uphold our interests in the West Philippine Sea and our exclusive economic zone,” he said.

Because of his remarkable accomplishments and his genuine concern for the poor and national interest, Speaker Romualdez said President Marcos remains immensely popular.

He noted that in the March survey of Pulse Asia, 78 percent of respondents approved of the President’s performance, with 80 percent saying they trusted the Chief Executive.

Publicus Asia’s second-quarter survey showed the President’s approval rating rose to 62 percent from 60 percent in the first quarter.

Some 68 percent of respondents in the same survey said the country was on the right track.

In another poll taken by OCTA Research Group in the first quarter, 54 percent said they expected their quality of life to improve, up from 51 percent from the previous survey; while 50 percent, from 46 percent earlier, stated that the economy would get better. (ai/mtvn)