HANOI – President Duterte is not at all worried by the recent downturn of the country’s stock market after drawing flak for drug-related killings in the country.
The President asserted that investors are free to leave the country, adding he is not a believer of the stock market anyway.
“Sabi tinatanggal daw ninyo ‘yung pera ninyo. Alam mo ‘yang sa stock market hindi naman ako maniwala diyan. Puro papel man ‘yan, shares of stock,” Duterte said in his remarks before the Filipino community here last Wednesday night.
“Unless I see that money converted into hard projects, eh di maglayas kayo,” Duterte said.
A foreign credit rating agency earlier expressed concern that the Duterte administration’s campaign against illegal drugs might hurt the local economic growth. The Philippines is unlikely to get a credit rating upgrade in the next two years due to Duterte’s unpredictability in domestic and foreign policies, according to Standard and Poor’s.
Meanwhile, corruption in government agencies will soon be “a thing of the past” under the Duterte administration.
The President has assured Overseas Filipino Workers that his government would eliminate red tape and corruption in agencies such as Immigration, Customs, and Internal Revenue Bureaus to provide efficient public service.
“Hindi ako nagbibiro. I’m telling everybody, every meeting sa Cabinet, sinasabi ko talaga, nandiyan sila, do not f*** with me. This will be a clean government. Let us give the Filipino a respite of the agony and suffering,” Duterte said in an assembly with the Filipino community in Hanoi last Wednesday night.
“You guys when you go home, there will be changes. There will be no harassments in the Immigration and Customs. I will not allow that. And itong mga BIR, mga ano, wala na ito, it will be a thing in the past,” he added.
(GENALYN D. KABILING)