Senior Deputy Speaker Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. (Facebook)
The Philippines can do better than the upgraded Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast of the World Bank (WB), as far as Senior Deputy Speaker Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. is concerned. "[The country] could do better than the World Bank forecast," Gonzales said in a statement Friday, June 9. On Thursday, House Speaker Martin Romualdez welcomed WB upgraded forecast wherein the world body said that it expects the country's GDP to grow 6.0 percent this 2023. It earlier projected a growth of 5.4 to 5.6 percent. According to Gonzales the first nine months of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in office “were a high growth period,” noting that the economy grew by 7.6 percent and 7.2 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. The GDP growth during this first quarter of 2023 was 6.4 percent. “So barring calamitous man-made and natural events, we should be able to do six percent and even beat the [WB] forecast this year,” said Gonzales, who is the second highest-ranked official in the House. “The President has repeatedly declared that he wants to get poor Filipinos out of poverty. The Speaker and the House have been trying to help him achieve his goal. Let us all join hands in realizing this vision,” he added. “Let’s ignore any political noise that comes our way. Let’s remain focused on helping President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and our Speaker Martin Romualdez in keeping the economy on the high growth path by enhancing conditions that would attract investments and create job and income opportunities for our people,” he further said.