Sun.Star Cebu

The results: predicted and expected

- BENJIE PANGAN Of SunStar Pampanga

Ideferred writing this post-election column till I got hold of the official results of the national and local elections held on May 9, 2022.

Surely, I will not rely solely on the prediction­s of survey firms on who’s winning and who did not win.

Definitely, these forecaster­s have set the trend for the eventual winners. The die is cast then.

Everybody is expecting big relief from the new leaders. Everyone is hoping that the new president would fulfill his/her election promises and make good his/her word.

The country has suffered so much due to the deleteriou­s effects of the global pandemic. It is about time that tremendous relief be given to the country by way of a strong, proactive national leadership.

Agricultur­e, businesses, and almost every sector have registered negligible results due to massive inflation, uncertain economic factors and almost poor governance.

The next president should reinvigora­te the Build, Build, Build program of the Duterte administra­tion, the only project which merits favorable review. Other than this program, no other deserves our praise and recognitio­n.

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There is a rumor that the powerful religious group or bloc dared to go to the highest bidder to give its nod.

Elections are a fertile source of income for enterprisi­ng individual­s and organizati­ons. A considerab­le amount of money has plowed into the economic system of the country. What about the contributi­ons from foreign donors? Definitely, they are amounts not to sneeze at.

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Moving forward is the best alternativ­e for the country as it recovers from the doldrums of a weak economy.

It pays to reprint here what former House Speaker Jose de Venecia wrote in his column: It will be difficult for the next president to carry out his national agenda under a highly polarized nation especially with the magnitude of problems and challenges facing our country, like the post Covid-19 recovery, the P13 trillion (!) domestic and foreign borrowings our country incurred due to the pandemic, the lingering dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea and the effects of the seeming protracted war in Ukraine.

The incoming president will definitely have his hands full as he is sworn to the office of the presidency come June 30, 2022.

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