Recto: Marcos economic Cabinet group is 'A-team, investment grade'
Outgoing Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto on Friday, June 3 said the economic team of President-elect Ferdinand ‘’Bongbong’’ R. Marcos Jr. is what the market might rate “premium investment grade
Recto, described by his colleagues in the 24-member Senate as the ‘’economist,’’ said Benjamin Diokno, Arsenio Balisacan, Alfredo Pascual, Mina Pangandaman and Felipe Medalla are topnotch professionals whose skills and experience fit the country's post-Covid reconstruction needs.
Diokno will head the Department of Finance; Pangandaman will be the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) secretary; Balisacan will return as head of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA); Pascual as Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) secretary; and Medalla as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor.
Recto said these professionals possess "the vision to chart our progress and the virtues of hard work and honesty to grow our economy."
‘’Their combined expertise should make us hopeful that the first bill President BBM (Marcos) will send to Congress, the 2023 National Budget, is a feasible battle plan that combats joblessness, food insecurity, manufacturing lethargy, weak health system, and the education crisis,’’ Recto pointed out.
Recto said another urgent document that must be prepared by the new administration is the country's Five-Year Medium-Term Economic Plan.
‘’There is no better crew to oversee the drafting of this guide out of the economic doldrums inflicted by the pandemic than this A-team,’’ he added.
Recto said their selection is proof that insofar as this key segment of the Cabinet is concerned, the president-elect admirably used professional credentials as the sole hiring criteria and never factored in politics in his decision.