Aquino on successor: Filipinos won’t settle for less

The Filipino people would not settle for less from his successor in 2016, President Benigno Aquino III told business and civil society leaders at the 23rd Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) on Friday.

“We see today a people who have felt the effects of good governance—and who will refuse to accept anything less. My countrymen will continue to demand integrity, accountability and sustainable, inclusive growth even after I have stepped down from office. They will demand the continuity of the successes we have reaped,” Mr. Aquino said at the PECC general meeting in Pasay City.

The PECC is a tripartite group of business and government leaders as well as members of the academe that tackle policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region in their private capacity.

‘Front and center’

It is the only nongovernment official observer of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec). The Philippines hosts this year’s Apec, which will culminate in the Leaders’ Summit on Nov. 18 and 19.

The President said the Filipino people are the “front and center” of his governance agenda, proving themselves as the “country’s greatest resource—from the time they rose up against a dictator to reclaim democracy, to the time they voted for meaningful change in 2010 and even to the present day, as they fuel our resurgent economy.”

Empowering the people, he said, is the best way to guarantee a sustainable economic growth.

“What our government has done over the last few years has been to stimulate a virtuous cycle of empowerment, where the growth of business, industry and the wider economy is spurred by the participation of the dynamic, innovative and hardworking Filipino people,” he said.

The President noted the “success” of such a strategy. He said it proved the “simple fact that economic progress is inseparable from the progress of the people.”

“Good governance works. Reform works. Even more encouraging is the fact that transformation has not just taken place in our institutions and our economy; it has taken place in the mind-set of Filipinos,” Mr. Aquino said. Nikko Dizon, Philippine Daily Inquirer