Of miracles and scandals

FROM May 21 to 23, Metro Manila will be host to heads of state and business and civil society leaders from over 30 countries  at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia – a first for the Philippines.
With top-caliber participants to the WEF, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said they “are people we would like to expose to the Philippines.”
Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez, Jr. believes that the WEF meetings would open the opportunity for the Aquino administration to showcase “The Philippine Miracle” — the country’s economic turnaround under Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III’s watch.
“While the effects that people are seeing are quite astounding, they are far from difficult to explain. There is tremendous benefit to good governance,” Jimenez said.
In a statement, WEF said “the meeting of some of the region’s most influential people would be held against a backdrop of impressive growth rates and an ambitious journey toward regional integration and trade liberalization,” as reported by Inquirer.net.
“The WEF refers to itself as an independent international institution committed to improving the state of the world by promoting partnerships between governments and the private sector. Its members in the Philippines include conglomerates Ayala Corp. and SM Investments, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., and global port giant International Container Terminal Services Inc.,” Inquirer.net further reported.
With the theme, “Leveraging Growth for Equitable Progress,” WEF participants will weigh on opportunities for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Community “to promote greater inclusion across the region,” through a program founded on three pillars: achieving equitable progress; advancing models for sustainable growth; and realizing regional connectivity.
WEF Founder and Executive Chair Klaus Schwab said: “Over three billion people live in ASEAN, China and India, and in 2014, the whole East Asian region is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the world. Such progress is impressive only when industry and government leaders are fully committed to equitable distribution and inclusive growth.”
According to a Philstar.com report, the Philippines will be spending at least P70 million on the 23rd WEF-EA, which will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City.
Meanwhile, the Aquino administration is unapprehensive about the ongoing corruption scandals which involve key government officials.
At a roundtable discussion with Philstar.com, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said that “the Philippines is very, very open. I think this is really more (because we are) a democracy. At the same time, we are very transparent. But beyond that we’re still a very stable nation, compared to what’s happening in Thailand and Indonesia.”
De Leon also pointed out the credit rating upgrade bestowed upon the country by global debt watcher Standard and Poor’s (S&P), elevating it to ‘BBB’ with a stable outlook — the highest rating ever given to the Philippines.
At this (chaotic) juncture, where it seems that the pork barrel scam has become more of a wild goose chase (with multiple versions of the “Napolist” notwithstanding), it may be difficult for a lot of Filipinos to take this “miracle” in without a heaping of doubt.
But perhaps, with all the attention the country is drawing from these top-tier world and business leaders, it should be enough for us to introspect on a bit of optimism.
(AJPress)