Recover and sustain

ALOT are still at stake for our economy now that the elections are over. Not a few have expressed grave concern over the possible reversal of the country’s impressive pre-pandemic economic growth if the people we elected last week would mess with the economy in the next six years. All the economic gains we have achieved will be put to naught and our people cannot fully benefit from them if our new leaders could not sustain our growth.

The challenge to the next administration is to maintain the momentum for economic reforms. The country’s ability to sustain economic momentum is mostly due to the reforms implemented by the Arroyo and Aquino administrations all throughout their successive terms, then followed up and sustained by the Duterte administration and buoyed by the fiscal discipline that was employed by their respective economic managers.

There is no doubt that the platform of good governance has effectively resulted in a healthy economy and an improved living condition of the Filipino people. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck, bringing with it not just health woes but also economic setbacks. If our next leaders and economic managers are ineffective, the country would have a hard time recovering. We must safeguard and sustain the reforms we have painstakingly put in place. Let us not throw away the gains we have made. Let us work together to sustain the reforms that made our economy robust and attractive to both local and foreign investments.

Surely, there’s a lot to be done. The major task is not only to recover and sustain our economic growth, but also to make sure that this growth is felt by all of our countrymen.