IT’S now over for the presidency of former Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte and he leaves behind a legacy of infrastructure development’ which is credited for the country’s rapid economic recovery that majority of Filipinos now believe will be the template of governance for the country’s new chief executive.
On taking his oath today during his inauguration at the National Archives (erstwhile the Senate of the Philippines more than five decades ago), former senator and now 17th president of the Republic, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., succeeds to lead a country in an economic growth trajectory that has brought it to 8.3 percent growth in its gross domestic product (GDP)—this despite the economic difficulties brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
It is indeed a promising development for the new president and Filipinos now expect from Marcos Jr.’s leadership a continuance of the successes of his predecessor. And speaking of successes, the Duterte administration has done much to provide a comfortable and peaceful life for the citizenry.
Duterte ushered in a so-called ‘Golden Age of Infrastructure’ through the ‘Build Build Build’ (BBB) program” he initiated, which includes building and upgrading our railway systems, revival and enhancement of our train network, construction of subways, highways, roads, bridges and new ports and airports and the building of classrooms for our youth’s education.
This is of prime importance because the lack of infrastructure development in the Philippines has long been pointed out to be the ‘weakest link’ in its overall economic development.
Economic recovery
And Marcos Jr. recognizes that the delivery, completion and continuity of the BBB program of the Duterte administration will not only drive the economic recovery of the country amid the pandemic and in the post-pandemic era but will to some degree, enhance, improve and further develop land, air, sea and inter-island connectivity and mobility—thus further activating rapid economic recovery.
The new chief executive also realizes that this will facilitate balanced development and, to a larger extent, diffuse economic activities and development from the country’s urban centers towards rural areas and the countryside.
The transport-related infrastructure projects will not only ease traffic and road congestion in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other traditional urban areas like Metro Davao and Metro Cebu but will also facilitate transporting people and goods from one island to another.
Yet with the Marcos presidency now at hand, Marcos Jr. will certainly face numerous challenges and one of the many crucial concerns awaiting the former senator includes the apparent threats of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides this is the mounting challenge of putting the country back on the path of economic recovery—sustainably and consistently alongside responding effectively and efficiently to other socio-economic and political challenges and issues that the country is faced with, like curbing corruption, addressing the relatively high unemployment and underemployment rates, giving more incentives to small and medium enterprises which are the backbone of the Philippine economy and even the mounting task of introducing substantial reforms and changes in the political structure of the country.
Many Filipinos are hankering for constitutional reform, more explicitly changing the political form of government from presidential to parliament and even changing the country’s political system from a unitary state to a federal one.
On the other hand, Filipinos also want the next administration to build on the poverty alleviation efforts of the Duterte administration, which lifted around six million Filipinos before the pandemic hit the country.
Given the country’s many challenges, Filipinos have vowed to support the new administration under the leadership of the son of the late former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Duterte’s daughter vice-president ‘Inday’ Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Both leaders have called for unity and the country will indeed unite and rally behind the Marcos-Duterte-Carpio administration to ensure continuity and a prosperous, more developed Philippines—as proven by the attendance and reception seen in the inauguration of BBM as president of the Republic.
