“Politically, the government has weathered challenges to its authority and stability,” he said.
As a result, Gordon said international credit rating agencies have given the country a vote of confidence and that there now seems to be a “prevalent sense of optimism in the air.”
He said getting politics out of the way as some have suggested is not the right course for the country.
“Because of our perpetually quibbling politicians and sometimes murderous politics, the idea of a political respite may sound appealing. But it is a mirage,” he said.
Gordon stressed that “governance and politics are crucial to sustaining our economic momentum.”
“There is no way forward outside of democratic politics and sound policy and administration,” he said.
Gordon sees three key political challenges that are critical at this time:
* Holding free, credible and speedy elections in May and commencing the process of automating the conduct of elections and other electoral reforms;
* Affirming the rule of law in the country, and all that it connotes of public order, national security, effective judiciary and transparent laws and regulations; and
* Effective executive-legislative collaboration in taking down the long standing roadblocks to economic modernization like the poor state of infrastructure and social services in the country.
“Each of these is a test of Philippine political credibility. As with Don Quixote’s windmill, we will soar or sink depending on how successfully we meet them,” he said.
Gordon said the May elections are crucial not only because the electoral results will have grave repercussions in policymaking but because they are now seen at home and abroad as a test of the country’s capability to hold credible elections.
He said the great controversy over the 2004 presidential elections has served as national wake-up call to fully reform our electoral system.
“Reform will not come easy however,” he said.
He said with the passage by Congress of election law amendments that authorize the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to use an automated election system in order to ensure transparency, credibility, fairness, speed and accuracy in our elections, it creates a paradigm shift in elections management in the country.
“What matters in the May elections is not so much who wins in the balloting - the administration or the opposition. What matters is that we are able to hold free, credible and speedy elections. If we meet this test, we all win. Fail it, and we all lose. And that includes the country’s economic momentum,” Gordon said.
Gordon added that the second challenge the country deals with the country’s ability to maintain and ensure the rule of law. And the third important factor would be effective executive-legislative collaboration.
Gordon said effective executive-legislative collaboration can overcome the major obstacles to accelerated economic growth and modernization.
He identified the major obstacles as the modernization of the infrastructure of the economy, the improvement of education, the improvement of public services, and eradication of graft in government.
“When Congress and the executive collaborate, we can see how beneficial it can be to the nation. The passage of the sin tax law, the e-VAT (expanded value-added tax) law, and the bio-fuels act are just examples of this. When they are bickering - as in the distressing failure to pass a national budget for some years now - he nation is held hostage. The economy starves,” he said.
Gordon further said that the infrastructure gap is a “glaring hole in national competitiveness” and must be filled by decisive and energetic action of government.
He said that there is no way of eradicating poverty. “There is only one way of ending it - by growing out of poverty,” Gordon added.
Gordon urged government to invest more in education saying “the more you learn, the more you earn.”
