DAVAO CITY—The Mindanao business sector is banking on the government’s assurance that it’s ready for the conduct on Monday of the presidential and local elections, wishing “it would be clean, orderly and honest, so that there would be smooth and peaceful transition of power.”
“Of course, we don’t want any hint of fraud because we want the voice of the people be heard cleanly in the result,” said Vicente T. Lao, president of the Mindanao Business Chamber (MBC). MBC is the umbrella organization of 44 local business chambers and industry and trade associations on the island.
A considerable number of business chambers have distanced themselves from the conduct of the elections as in the past, he said, explaining this as a show of trust and confidence “on the Commission on Elections that it would do its job.”
“Let us just hope that the electorate would be vigilant and guard the sanctity of the ballots,” he added. “And we hope that groups like the Namfrel [an antifraud watch group] would help.”
But Bonifacio Tan, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., would want a full assurance of electric power on Monday.
“Remember that we are on an electronic system, and any power failure on that day would surely make a huge disruption and, in all likelihood, increase suspicion of fraud,” he warned.
Like Lao, Tan said the business community in Davao City would want the Comelec “to make sure that the system is foolproof, including the tally and the counting.”
“The voters would just go there to cast their votes, and, therefore, the Comelec should ensure that the choice of the electorate is protected,” he added.
‘Must-do’ list
The business sector would only wish for the next administration to “improve the economic gains under the Aquino administration.”
In the recent Makati Business Club meeting with presidential candidates, this city’s mayor, Rodrigo R. Duterte, currently the frontrunner in the presidential polls, said “the business leaders expressed the need of Metro Manila to solve the transport problem, peace and order.”
“But what they asked Duterte, along with the other presidential hopefuls who appeared [at] the MBC forum, is to state [their] economic platform of the government.”
“Because business wanted also to make its own posturing when the new administration would be elected to power,” he added.
Tan, on the other hand, said the next president “should address corporate taxation in the country and reduce it to a level [on a] par with neighboring Asian countries.”
The Philippine corporate tax is currently at 30 percent, compared to other Asian countries’ 20 percent to 25 percent, he said.
“And more important, the new administration should find ways to bring down power rates, which [at its current rate and state] is really discouraging for investors,” Tan added. “We cannot invite them here, especially the manufacturers, because electricity is a major component of their operation.”
A discouraged manufacturing sector would also mean reducing the chance to offer more jobs to many people in the community, he said.
“And, perhaps, the next administration should look at the wage-hike demands of labor,” he said.
“We understand that workers would really demand for increase in wages, but investors would also want to earn. So there must be a move to strike a balance,” he said.
The income level may be also pegged at the level with the Asian countries “but, of course, to exclude the better economies of Malaysia and Singapore, for instance.”
“We cannot peg it [income level] with that of Malaysia, for example, because it has several industries, but lack the manpower, so it offer high salaries,” he said.
“Basically, these are the things that business would want to be addressed,” he said.