Palace credits gains to people’s trust in President

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda PHOTO/INQUIRER

Malacañang welcomed the “significant gains” in the country’s global competitiveness.

“The rise in competitiveness of the Philippines can be directly attributed to the resurgence of the people’s trust in the leadership of President Aquino and his governance. This is further reflected in the trust in the public institutions and the public officials who serve under President Aquino,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, when contacted by phone Wednesday.

Lacierda described the significant gains as “concrete affirmations of the success of the reforms which we continue to implement and foster.”

He said this marked improvement built on last year’s impressive jump from 85th to 75th.

Lacierda observed that notable gains were made with respect to Philippine public institutions (94th, up 23 places) and public trust in politicians (95th, up 33 places).

Justice system low

“This represents a steady renewal of social trust and the strengthening of our institutions as a result of the reforms the Aquino administration has pursued since 2010. Contributing to this favorable ranking are strong scores in transparency in policy formation (up 23 places) and fairness in awarding of contracts (up 19 places),” said Lacierda.

Improvements were also noted in minimizing the following: diversion of public funds (up 27 places), wastefulness of government spending (up 23), and irregular payments or bribes (up 11 places).

Lacierda, however, admitted that the justice system continued to be rated low.

Ranked 111th, the quality of judicial decisions in particular will have to be dealt with by the new leadership of our courts, he said.

The macroeconomic environment (36th, up 18 places) has also sustained its gains, with budget management, national savings rate and general government debt all rating high, he added.