CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. yesterday urged his colleagues in the House of Representatives to remain committed to working on measures that would sustain the country’s economic growth.
He made the appeal in reaction to the World Bank’s decision to upgrade its economic outlook for the Philippines for this year from 5.4-5.6 percent to six percent.
“Let’s ignore any political noise that comes our way. Let’s remain focused on helping President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and our Speaker Martin Romualdez in keeping the economy on the high growth path by enhancing conditions that would attract investments and create job and income opportunities for our people,” he said.
Gonzales expressed confidence that the country “could do better than the World Bank forecast.”
He said the first nine months of President Marcos in office “were a high growth period.”
Gonzales noted that the economy grew by 7.6 percent and 7.2 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, and by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.
“So barring calamitous man-made and natural events, we should be able to do six percent and even beat the World Bank forecast this year,” he said.
The Pampanga lawmaker said economists are wont to say that a country has to be on a high economic growth path for several years to successfully reduce poverty among its population.
“The President has repeatedly declared that he wants to get poor Filipinos out of poverty. The Speaker and the House have been trying to help him achieve his goal. Let us all join hands in realizing this vision,” he added.
Gonzales pointed out that the House has already accomplished a lot toward this end by way of delivering on its promise to approve priority administration bills, having passed 33 out of 42 urgent measures during the first regular session of the 19th Congress.
“But much still has to be done. Let us continue working on measures that would improve the country’s economic conditions and investment climate. Let us do the additional reforms and improvements businessmen and investors, and especially our people, are clamoring for,” he stressed.