We have seen a lot of news reports about Makati business Club President Ramon del Rosario supposedly disappointed at mayor Rudy Duterte’s seeming lack of knowledge about economic issues before his speech at the Makati Business Club on the same day the failed Trillanes caper broke out last week. Curiously, some media outlets have stretched this story so far I am still reading it today. I guess it has fallen into the grinding wheels of some candidates propaganda mill to be crushed and repackaged into next week’s news.
What exactly is the controversy here? Eyewitness accounts of those who attended the meeting swear that many of the MBC members nodded in approval and gave a thumbs up sign to Mayor Duterte’s frank expressions, even smiling at some expletives. Perhaps he was expressing the things many of them in their suits and ties find hard to say in the polite environment that is the Makati Business Club.
In an earlier meeting of the same organization, Mar Roxas apparently dazzled the group with his knowledge of the jargon and economic news that MBC-types like to hear “Whartonesque” knowledge gained from his undergrad days, and talk no end about how he was able to build the Business Process Outsourcing Industry (a claim that many dispute), and how much better things will be if he continues Daang Matuwid. Had they been satisfied with whim, they would not have invited mayor Duterte. The attendance was reportedly bigger.
Significance of the DOF and Stock Exchange mock polls
In a related development, it seems that Mayor Duterte won in the mock polls conducted by the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) among its members, and the Department of Finance (DOF) employees. Of course, government employees aren’t allowed to campaign, but I believe that they are not barred from participating in mock elections. These two bastions of economic knowledge and activity practically gave their approval to the feisty Mindanao Mayor, credited with creating the anchor city that gave the Davao Region the highest Gross Regional Gross Domestic Product (GRDP) in the country in 2014.
This victory by Duterte is basically a slap on the Mar Roxas electoral machine. Were they unable to connect with these supposedly supportive constituencies?
If there is any business organization that should be loyal and sympathetic to the continuity of Daang Matuwid, it should be the PSE, having broken index records several times within this PNOY administration. Likewise, if there is an agency that should be averse to a Duterte presidency, it should be the Department of Finance, which requires that Philippine presidents not rock the boat on monetary policy and demands continuity in its perspectives, having maintained these since the Arroyo administration. As such, it should be an agency that ought to be sympathetic to mar Roxas or Grace Poe. Perhaps there are things that DOF employees know that we don’t. Or there are many things about Mar Roxas that we ourselves have yet to uncover. One thing is for sure. Most of those in these agencies will not vote for him.
