MANILA - President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday met with his economic team to outline the incoming administration's priorities on how to help the Philippine economy recuperate from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marcos' Cabinet secretaries who were present in the meeting included the following, his office said.
- incoming Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez
- incoming Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno
- incoming Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman
- incoming Socioeconomic Secretary Arsenio Balisacan
- incoming Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma
- incoming Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan
- incoming Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual
"During the meeting, Marcos outlined his priorities and issued his marching orders that were mostly designed to tow the economy out of the woods after being severely battered by the still lingering Covid-19 pandemic," the President-elect's camp said in a statement.
His team has yet to give more details about the priorities that were discussed.
Marcos on Thursday said the Philippines should have an economic recovery plan that would guide the country's fiscal policies, including its debt repayment strategy.
He issued the statement a day after the finance department proposed imposing new taxes and deferring income tax reductions.
"We need to have an economic recovery plan and the fiscal policy will follow that," he said in an earlier press conference.
"Whatever changes in fiscal policy were going to undertake, we have to think it through properly...We have to be circumspect in sudden changes," he said.
Marcos is set to take over a country whose sovereign debt hit a record P12.76 trillion in April.
The debt-to-GDP ratio meanwhile has risen to 63.5 percent, which is higher than the internationally prescribed best practice of 60 percent.
Marcos earlier said he was not in favor of sudden tax movements.
"Hindi lang kuha tayo sa sin tax, kuha tayo sa oil, kuha tayo sa housing, kuha sa cooperative," he said.
"Kailangan talaga may plano tayo. Gagawin natin ang plano natin and the fiscal policy is going to follow that," he added.
(We shouldn't just get from the sin tax, oil, housing, the cooperative. We should have a plan. We will come up with our plan.)
Outgoing Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua earlier urged the incoming government to bare its economic plans to allay worries from the business sector.
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