Palace: Excellent trust is result of political will

• Palace: Excellent trust is result of political will
• The President’s December net trust rating increased by +15 from the +60 net trust rating he received last September 2017.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. on Friday, January 12, announced the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing the President’s excellent net trust rating at +75.

The President’s December net trust rating increased by +15 from the +60 net trust rating he received last September 2017.

“The path that he had shown that he can exercise political will to defeat terrorists and violent extremists in Marawi. The fact that people’s optimism is at an all-time high. The fact that manufacturing output is at an all-time high. So all these indicate that the economy is growing as he promised. He has promoted the rule of law against the threat of terrorism and, of course, he’s winning the war against drugs,” Roque underscored.

Secretary Roque assured that the President and his team will remain undistracted in improving the lives of the poor and the marginalized sector, enforcing the law and fighting criminality, and curbing graft and corruption in government.

In the same press briefing, the President’s spokesperson mentioned that this is the first time in the history of the Philippines that an administration has promoted pro-people policies.

The President’s spokesperson is referring, in particular, to the free healthcare, free education, free feeding for malnourished children, and free irrigation programs of the government.

“(T)he President, for the first time, give free tuition through state colleges and universities, (and) the law providing for free irrigation, which I’m a co-author, is about to take effect,” Roque said in a press briefing held in Valencia, Bukidnon.

Roque recalled that during his stint in Congress, he authored two bills-the feeding program for grade school and kindergarten and the universal health care-which were passed by the House and were now awaiting action by the Senate.

In addition, Roque underscored that the government’s tax reform program would also create further economic stimulus leading to higher income for the people and higher tax collection for the government.

“By and large, the increase of the cost of commodities will not reach 1 percent as a result of the TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law). On the other hand, the benefits are tremendous. It’s not only (the) much-needed infrastructure that will be built, according to the Build-Build-Build program. It’s also the jobs and the other economic opportunities that will be created as a result of the Build-Build-Build,” he clarified.

Meanwhile, the government’s infrastructure and capital spending increased in November last year by P13.6-billion or 44.8 percent year-on-year, as reported by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“(This) is a welcome news. This means that our Build-Build-Build Infrastructure Plan has started to be rolled out,” Roque said.

Major projects that contributed to the growth in infrastructure spending included the completion of road infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), acquisition of various equipment under the Capability Enhancement Program of the Department of Interior and Local Governance (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), and payments of supplies and repair and maintenance services of patrol vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).

“We assure everyone that with the implementation of the first package of tax reform measures we will expediently and efficiently use public funds to usher in the Golden Age of Infrastructure in the Philippines,” Roque said.