What’s good about PBBM’s 1st 100 days? Salceda answers
Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda can mention multiple bright spots within the first 100 days of the Marcos administration–a milestone that will officially lapse on Saturday, Oct. 8.
“Overall, the President’s first 100 days have been a stabilizing period, amid global disruption,” the economist-solon said in a statement Tuesday night, Oct 4.
According to Salceda, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s first 100 days in office have had “competent appointments, drama-free management of disasters and crises, and a focus on the most essential matter: agriculture”.
“President Marcos is treading carefully but decisively on critical areas, including agricultural imports, tax policy, and the management of the Covid-19 pandemic,” added the Bicolano.
In the same statement, Salceda gave a more forward-looking take regarding measures that, in his view, “would accelerate PBBM’s (Marcos) reform agenda”.
“First, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has already issued an opinion that renewable energy is not covered by the 60-40 restrictions on foreign equity. The amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the Renewable Energy Law must be effected as soon as possible,” he said.
“Second, on enforcement rules in the offshore gaming regulations,” Salceda said, “there is a clause in the POGO Tax Law which specifies that enforcement agencies may automatically exchange information among each other.”
“The issuance of guidelines to that effect will make tax enforcement more effective,” said the Committee on Ways and Means chairman, who was the principal author of the law.
Salceda further said: “Third, the most crucial economic priority for the President in the final months of 2022 will be the management of the transition from pandemic to endemic stage. A sense of normalcy in our lives will be the result of a sense of confidence in our health institutions.”
Lastly, Salceda said: “Fourth, an executive order to improve our economy’s capacity to earn dollars, including the lifting of unnecessary deployment bans, ease of doing business for BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) and export industries, facilitating the work of freelancers, and the full reopening and promotion of foreign tourism.”
“This will be a countervailing force against the bleeding of foreign currency, especially given the limits of the effectiveness of our monetary policy,” he noted.