Mindanaotoday.com | Oro Chamber head gives PBBM an 80%
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. got more than just a passing mark for his one-year performance and policy directions, as spelled out in his State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 24, from an influential group of business owners in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao.
“I will give him an 80 percent,” said Raymundo Talimio Jr., who heads the 400-member strong Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (Oro Chamber), when asked morning of Tuesday, July 25, by this paper.
Talimio said he could have given an INC or incomplete because only about 20 percent of those spelled out in the 1st SONA has been delivered, one of these was the condonation of financial obligations of agrarian reform beneficiaries. Republic Act No. 11953, otherwise known as the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, freeing more than 600 thousand farmers from debt, was signed July 7, this year.
The President, he said, has five years to fulfill what were promised in the first SONA, July 25, 2022.
Talimio said they recognize the effort of the Marcos Jr. administration, hence the 80-percent rating, even if support for the promotion of micro-small-and-medium enterprises (MSMEs) was not mentioned in the SONA.
“MSMEs represent 99.5-percent of all business firms nationwide,” the Oro Chamber head, adding the investment profiles of business ventures in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao would show the same.
These, he said, need funding assistance, but the Department of Trade and Industry’s Small Business Corporation cannot solely handle due to fixed annual allocation. About a hundred thousand applications of MSMEs nationwide are pending with the DTI-SB Corp.
Meanwhile, the Oro Chamber, he said, would be keeping an eye on how the sovereign wealth fund would work after President Marcos signed into law Republic Act No.
11954, otherwise known as the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act of 2023 on July 18, this year.
He said returns of investments from funds granted to MSMEs could be recovered and plowed back within a year, but investing sovereign wealth fund in huge infrastructure projects necessarily need long gestation period.
“The Fund shall be used to make high-impact and profitable investments, such as the Build-Better-More program,” President Marcos said in the 2nd SONA which he delivered in 77 minutes at the Batasang Pambansa, Quezon City.
A group of internationally recognized economic managers shall oversee the operations of the Fund, guided by principles of transparency and accountability, he said. (30)
###