Act now for the country, bizman urges Aquino

Thursday, July 14, 2011

THE regional head of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) urged President Benigno Aquino III to stop blaming the previous administration and start taking positive actions for the country.

Roberto Montelibano, PCCI-Negros Occidental head, gave Aquino's one-year-old presidency a rating of five to six out of 10 for his performance in his first year in office.

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"Let us look at the future. I think there are a lot of opportunities for the Filipinos. So let us correct the shortcomings of the previous administration," he said.

Montelibano also said that the Aquino administration claims to have a lot of savings but said, "I think it is because the government is also not spending." "There are a lot of infrastructure projects that are supposed to be undertaken. I think what's not good are those foreign contracts which were cancelled. The legality of these projects should have been established first," he said.

"If we would like to lure foreign investors in the country, including here in Bacolod City, we should assure them of stability and not that, at the middle of everything, the projects would be cancelled,” he pointed out.

Montelibano also suggests to the government to prepare already for the zero tariff on sugar by year 2015.

"This is the last year where tariff is still high for sugar at 38 percent. Next year it will be lowered to 28 percent and so forth until it reaches to zero. The sugar farmers along with the administration should already devise a means how to put in place to save the sugar industry. We cannot keep on blaming Coca Cola or Pepsi Cola. What Coke has done is a technical matter and they imported legally," Montelibano added.