By Ben Rosario
While trying to downplay President Rodrigo Duterte’s remark that he can be a Malacanang successor, former Senator Bongbong Marcos said he is nonetheless ready for the presidency and will make good governance a priority of his administration.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (Manila Bulletin File Photo)
Appearing at the Nanka news forum on Friday, Marcos said improvement of the economy with the interest of consumers a priority is also an objective.
“I think the President is doing all of this tongue-in-cheek,” the only son of the late president Ferdinand Marcos responded to Duterte’s remark that he is willing to give up the presidency if the young Marcos will be a guaranteed successor.
But when asked what a new Marcos administration will consider three top priorities, the former senator ready stated that everything will have to zero in on the “return of good governance.”
“Hindi na kailangan magsabi ng top three, we just have to return to good governance,” he stated, notwithstanding the fact that his father was toppled due to accusations of massive graft and corruption during his extended term in office.
It will be recalled that the late president Corazon Aquino created a government agency, the Presidential Commission on Good Government, solely to prosecute the Marcoses and their allies on graft-related cases and recover billions of pesos in allegedly ill-gotten wealth.
Bongbong explained that cases have indeed been filed by the PCGG but so far none prospered.
Instead, the PCGG is now being sought to be abolished by Congress with the young Marcos interpreting the action as a hint that the country has to move on than be hindered by martial law issues that have already been resolved.
“Government has to return to a culture of service and not corruption. Kapag nagawa mo iyan, everything will follow,” he stressed.
Still, the former senator stated that he does not take Duterte’s statement “so seriously”, pointing out that the chief executive is fully aware that Filipinos need his help. “I know he is still needed by this country,” he said.
In the same news forum, Marcos stressed that consumer interest will also have to be on the front seat of his administration.
“We need more macro approach to the economy yet micro approach may help government earn more,” he said. “It cannot be all revenue side.”
He cited former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as being clearly concerned about issues affecting the country’s economy that she immediately held dialogues with the country’s economic managers on her first week as leader of the House of Representatives.