Estrada sets out tough reform agenda

Estrada sets out tough reform agenda

MANILA (Reuters): Joseph Estrada, an ex-actor who becomes the Philippines new president next month, has taken the first step to dispel deep suspicions he might sacrifice reform for populist policies, analysts and businessmen said.

Estrada won the May 11 vote with the biggest number of votes in the history of free Philippine election, largely because of his huge popularity with the masses.

But one of his first moves following victory was last week to address top Filipino businessmen -- who had for the most part spurned him during the election campaign -- when he promised to weed out corruption, make the country safer and speed up reforms.

The pork barrel funds, handed to Congressmen to spend on local projects but which commonly disappear in graft, will go, he said.

"I think that would be quite a strong show of leadership should he accomplish that," said First Philippines Holdings Corp Managing Director and former trade secretary Peter Garrucho.

He also pledged to accelerate outgoing President Fidel Ramos's reforms by addressing the needs of the long-neglected agricultural sector to sustain economic growth.

Agriculture accounts for a fifth of economic output and 40 percent of the country's labor force.

He promised too to make the country, where guns and kidnapping are rife, safer and to fight graft and corruption.

"The question now is how can Estrada get the cooperation of Congress to pass his legislative measures without the pork barrel," said Joel Mendoza, vice-president for research of Banco Santander.

But other analysts believe he can do it.

"Mr Estrada is able to make these promises because, as his advisers frequently say, Mr Estrada is beholden to no one," management consultant Michael Alan Hamlin wrote in his column in BusinessWorld.

"While Mr Estrada relied on a good many individuals to support his campaign in many important ways, none of them can claim to be fundamentally responsible for its successful outcome. For once, the supporters, financial backers and interest groups need the candidate more than the candidate needs him," Hamlin said.

Hamlin also said Estrada's agenda commits him to venture into areas the present administration has avoided -- cutting bureaucracy and abolishing the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).

The PCGG was set up in 1986 when Corazon Aquino came to power in a "people's power" revolt which overthrew the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Its task was to recover the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies has in 12 years has failed to do much.

Overall, Estrada's program addresses the needs of both the business community and the poor, economists said. Businessmen would see a continuation of Ramos's market-friendly policies and the masses, agrarian reform and food security.

"Eating three meals a day means refocusing on the agricultural sector...On agrarian reform, Estrada is more level-headed in the sense that he's not just looking at the distribution of land but the increase in productivity of the agricultural sector," Santander's Mendoza said.

But insufficient state funds, due to a slowing economy, may hinder Estrada from immediately addressing the needs of this sector by building more infrastructure, analysts said.

"You're not going to see dramatic changes in the short term but if you can address these two issues after six years, you're going to create a more stable economy and which will allow the Philippines to grow at a faster rate," Mendoza said.

"In the long-run, you cannot actually support technology-based industries without a stable base of demand."

-- By Lilian Karunungan