As Philippines economy stutters, can Marcos keep promises on more jobs, cheaper food?
- With the country’s finances battered by the pandemic, the president has signalled his election pledges, including reducing the price of rice to 36 US cents a kg, can wait
- Analysts say if Marcos Jnr fails to ease the economic pain it will break his family’s legacy after he successfully rehabilitated their name
The government simply lacks the fiscal space to allow tax concessions, or spend big on building bridges, roads and ports after racking up debt to help cushion the impact of the pandemic. That’s forcing Marcos Jnr, the only son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, to take a different path.
The first signals from his new administration are that populism can wait. He’s vetoed a proposal to create a special economic zone and a free port covering San Miguel Corp.’s New Manila International Airport because it came at a cost to the government: tax revenue.
It’s not just companies for which Marcos Jnr is reassessing benefits. The 64-year-old leader recently tempered his campaign pledge to reduce the price of rice to 20 pesos (36 US cents) a kilogram as an aspiration and walked back on his support for suspending oil excise tax.
“The most important area will have to be the economy,” Marcos Jnr said in his first Cabinet meeting on July 5. His comments at a press conference days before assuming the presidency provided more insight into how he plans to manage the economy. Social programmes will be “very focused” because the government is “not so well funded,” he said.