Think tank’s Leni takeover just ‘wishful thinking’

‘WISHFUL thinking.” This was how Malacañang dismissed Londonbased think tank Capital Economics’ outlook that Vice President Leni Robredo taking over from President Duterte would be a welcome change for investors.

Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo also accused the think tank of intruding into the country’s sovereignty.

“First of all, that is wishful thinking. They are intruding into the country’s sovereignty and the voice of the nation that elected the President overwhelmingly. They are interfering

too much on how our government runs the country,” Panelo said in a radio interview on Sunday.

In its November 15 report “Duterte health worries, Sri Lanka election,” Capital Economics Senior Asia Economist Gareth Leather pointed out Robredo’s “fierce opposition to Duterte’s authoritarian tendencies, including his willingness to undermine political institutions,” would bode well for the country’s investment climate.

“If President Duterte is forced to leave office through ill health, Vice President Leni Robredo, who leads the main opposition party in the Philippines, would take over as president. We don’t know much about what Ms. Robredo’s economic agenda would be if she took office, but given her fierce opposition to Duterte’s authoritarian tendencies, including his willingness to undermine political institutions, a change in president would probably be welcomed by investors,” the report read.

It also noted that approved foreign investments since Duterte took office have also been much lower than the previous years.

The report comes as Robredo was recently appointed by the President to be cochairman of the InterAgency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (Icad).

In a related development, Duterte recently threatened to fire Robredo if she will disclose classified information of the Philippine government to foreign individuals and entities.

On Sunday, Malacañang also warned Robredo that she may be “treading on dangerous grounds” as the latter demanded access to all documents, including classified data related to the government’s program on the illegal drug trade including its funding, and indicated plans to invite foreign personalities who have criticized Duterte.

“Even the prosecutor of the rejected Rome Statute ICC [International Criminal Court] that has no jurisdiction over the country has been welcomed by the anti-illegal drug czar. She may not realize it, but she could be treading on dangerous grounds. It could be an overreach of the granted authority; hence, the reminder,” Panelo said in a statement.

He stressed that ensuring that all the alter egos of the President are working within the scope and ambit, if the law is also within the constitutional duty of the Chief Executive. “The President is merely reminding VP Leni of the imperatives, as well as the limits of her appointment lest she transgresses it,” he added.

UNITED STATES and Chinese trade negotiators held “constructive discussions” in a phone call on Saturday to address each side’s core concerns of phase one of the trade deal.

China’s Vice Premier Liu He, the country’s key negotiator in the trade talks with the US, spoke with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer, according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry. The call was held at the request of the US negotiators, and the two sides agreed to remain in close communication, it said in a statement.

The phone call came after President Donald J. Trump’s administration signaled talks with China over the first phase of a broad trade agreement are entering the final stages. That’s when the most contentious and complex issues are debated, with no guarantee that another breakdown will be averted.

White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters late Thursday in Washington that “we are coming down to the short strokes” and are “in communication with them every single day.” Still, he acknowledged a deal was close though “not done yet.”

The last stages of trade agreements are often where talks break down, and Trump still hasn’t publicly indicated his approval. The two sides were close to concluding a pact about six months ago, only for the US to claim that China backed away from verbal commitments when the time came to sign the deal.

The two sides have held workinglevel video conferences focused on issues ranging from the details and timeline of Chinese purchases of US agricultural goods, such as pork and soybeans, to commitments to curtail theft of intellectual property that Trump is demanding from China, according to people familiar with the discussions.

US stocks rose to all-time highs and Treasuries edged lower on Friday following Kudlow’s comments. The S&P 500 reached another record and gained for the sixth week in a row, the longest streak in two years. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which past 28,000 for the first time, and the Nasdaq Composite also hit all-time highs.

The dialog on Saturday followed a phone call between the trade negotiators earlier this month, where the two countries signaled they’re getting closer to agreeing on the first phase of a deal aimed at reducing tensions in a trade war that’s slowed the global economy. The three spoke by phone at the time and separately released statements describing the call as “constructive.”