'Politics may derail Philippine growth'

'Politics may derail Philippine growth'

MANILA (Agencies): President Fidel Ramos said yesterday early campaigning for the presidential election would derail the Philippines' economic momentum.

He expressed concern that campaigning by a dozen people girding up to run in the May 1998 election and succeed him was delaying passage of vital legislation intended to sustain the country's economic growth.

Lower House Speaker Jose de Venecia, a senior leader of Ramos' Lakas party, joined the presidential scramble yesterday by launching his candidacy, following in the footsteps of defense chief Renato de Villa and Ramos' sister Leticia Ramos Shahani.

"I have said it over and over again, premature politicking and early focus on campaigning ... will detract from our momentum," Ramos during a provincial visit to Tuguegarao, north of Manila.

Still pending in Congress is a tax measure intended to widen coverage of income tax payers and restructure corporate taxes.

Officials have projected the country's economy to grow at between 7 percent and 8 percent this year from last year's 6.8 percent.

The Lakas aspirants, including de Venecia, de Villa, Shahani and Finance Secretary Roberto de Ocampo, have languished at the bottom of popularity polls, well behind opposition aspirants.

Vice President Joseph Estrada, a former movie actor popular among the masses but distrusted by big business, has consistently topped the surveys.

The dismal showing by Ramos's party colleagues in the surveys has encouraged speculation that Ramos might engineer a constitutional change to allow him to run for reelection.

Ramos has boiled down to its culinary essentials the stuff by which successful Philippine presidents are made: never eat like a pig and work eight days a week.

Asked for advice to his successor, the 69-year-old former general had four tips: "Do not eat too much; do not drink liquors more than what the doctors prescribe; avoid high cholesterol foods such as lechon (roast suckling pig); and work eight days a week."

The first three were the exact same advice he was given by his doctors in December after Ramos underwent surgery for a cholesterol-clogged carotid artery.

However, they also advised the certified workaholic to ease up and to find other forms of physical activity besides golf.