Did JC say in the newsletter he met Estrada in his last trip to Philipine?
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Wednesday May 20 2:50 PM ET
Estrada unveils broad economic program
Leading presidential candidate Vice President Joseph Estrada unveiled yesterday a broad economic program that includes expanding social safety nets, revising the Constitution and streamlining the bureaucracy.
Speaking before a luncheon gathering of business leaders at the New World Hotel in Makati City, Estrada also vowed minimum intervention in private business dealings, and asked the business community to help his administration push the Philippines economic recovery.
The countrys top business executives shed their past anxieties about an Estrada administration and openly expressed support for his leadership.
Estrada, clearly the runaway winner in the May 11 presidential race, told the business executives that he plans a major overhaul of the bureaucracy to address an expected large budget deficit. He also vowed to weed out corruption in government and take on monopolies.
Estrada said the reforms include reduction of the budget department into a bureau under the Department of Finance and abolition of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), an agency created by former President Corazon Aquino to recover illegally acquired wealth of the late President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.
For the first quarter this year, the country posted a P12.389-billion budget deficit, exceeding its target by 77 percent.
While the Ramos administration insisted it would post zero deficit during the first half of 1998, Benjamin Diokno, tapped to be economic planning secretary, said the revenue base remains soft, partly due to the Asian economic crisis which slowed down business activity.
Estrada also pledged to scrap the pork barrel funds of legislators which totaled P54 billion this year.
I will not be playing politics with them ... I will see to it that the pork barrel will be abolished, Estrada said, adding that 45 percent of the pork barrel is lost to graft.
He said he would take on monopolies and guarantee a government balance sheet free from minority interests.
My job is to level the playing field by enforcing rules that are few, fair and simple, he said.
The former movie actor and his aides also outlined before the businessmen a program of government that underscores transparency and crime prevention. He also vowed to promote exports, open more areas to foreign investment, bring down inflation and interest rates, and keep the peso at an internationally competitive level.
Estrada, who eyes a concurrent post of interior and local government secretary, said he would take the fight to the criminals, right to their very doorstep.
He pledged to arrest tax cheats and corrupt government officials, as well as return control of the police forces to the local government units.
Diokno said the Estrada Cabinet would create a special commission that will look into possible changes in the Constitution.
The Commission would decide the mode of changing and when it would be changed, said Estradas running mate, Sen. Edgardo Angara who looks headed for defeat in the vice presidential race.
Diokno also said they would ask Congress to give the presidency the power to reorganize sections of the government, including merging agencies with overlapping functions.
We are entering hard times and we need to streamline our government to be more efficient, Angara said.
He added the next administration would review the 11-year-old agrarian reform program so that it truly creates the climate for investment.
Incumbent Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon who was at the meeting, revealed that he has accepted Estradas offer to remain in his post.
Estrada later told reporters his program would be finalized after the business community has submitted its proposals. |
