‘Duterte had 4 great years’

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte had a “great four years” in office, Malacañang said on Thursday, despite the challenges his administration has faced.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. made the statement after Duterte marked his fourth anniversary as the country’s highest elected official on June 30.

“It’s been a great four years,” Roque said when asked to assess Duterte’s presidency. “Meronpotayongpagsubok perodahilmerontayong very sound fundamentals, makakaahon (We have challenges but since we have very sound fundamentals, we will overcome these),” he added.

Roque said the Philippines had one of the most promising economies “in the whole world” before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“We averaged 6.5 percent growth annually in the past four years, inflation is under control, interest rates were low. We had a record credit rating attesting to the fact nananiniwala tamaangatingmgaginagawang polisiya (creditors believe that our policies are right). So, it was actually a great performance as far as the economy is concerned,” he added.

The country’s economic growth from 2016 to 2019 ranged from 6 percent to 6.9 percent.

The Philippine economy grew 6.9 percent in 2016, 6.7 percent in 2017, 6.2 percent in 2018, and 6 percent in 2019, making the Philippines one of Asia’s fast-growing economies.

The country, however, suffered its first economic contraction in 22 years because of the pandemic.

The country’s gross domestic product declined 0.2 percent from January to March this year, according to the official data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

But Roque was optimistic that the country would recover from the impact of the pandemic.

“Du mating nat a yo sap unto na kin a kai lang and inn a ting bu ks an angeko no mi ya nang hindi na man ta yo mama taysagu to md ahilwa lang hanapbuhay (We reached the point that we have to reopen the economy so no one will die just because they lose their jobs),” Roque said.

The Palace official also noted that the majority of Filipinos appreciated Duterte’s performance.

“As far as approval [rating] of the President is concerned, hindi pobumababa‘yansa 80 porsyento ( it doesn’t go below 80 p er cent),”Ro que said .“So, approve po an gt a um bay an sam ga gina ga wang Pres id en te. K asama na din po di yanyun gk amp any a sap in ag ba b aw al na dro ga( So the public approves what the President is doing, and this includes the drug war).”