Ramos vows to tackle crisis in final days

Ramos vows to tackle crisis in final days

MANILA (AP): President Fidel Ramos said yesterday that in his last 100 days in office, he will make sure the Philippines will be the first country to recover from Asia's financial crisis.

Although hurt by currency declines and stock market upheavals, the Philippines has been the least affected among Southeast Asian economies, mainly due to reforms set in place before the crisis struck last year.

"I want the Philippines to be the first country in Asia to recover from the ongoing regional currency crisis," Ramos said in a statement on his priorities before his term ends June 30. "We will make it happen."

Philippine presidents are constitutionally limited to a single, six-year term.

Ramos said signs that the country is recovering are evident, including a strengthening of the Philippine peso against the U.S. dollar, flourishing exports and a manageable inflation rate.

He had said recently that the regional turmoil that started last July was enabling the Philippines, once regarded as Asia's economic laggard, to catch up with neighbors badly battered by the crisis.

After he took office in 1992, the 70-year-old Philippine leader opened the economy to foreign competition, dismantled many trade monopolies and scouted investments worldwide, enabling Filipinos to taste economic progress after years of stagnancy.

He also undertook political reforms and sought peace with military, Muslim separatist and Marxist insurgents.

Foreign economic experts say democracy has helped the Philippines ward off the devastating effects of Asia's financial storm by keeping its financial sectors more transparent and providing better access to information that makes it easier to detect any economic ills.

Democracy also provides checks against official excesses and corruption that authoritarian governments such as Indonesia's lack, the experts say.

Ramos said he also will ensure the successful staging of the country's presidential, local and congressional elections on May 11 and the celebration in June of the Philippines' centennial of independence from Spanish colonialism.

Eleven candidates are seeking to succeed Ramos, including popular Vice President Joseph Estrada, the main opposition party's standard bearer; House Speaker Jose de Venecia of the administration party, and former first lady Imelda Marcos. Almost all have vowed to pursue economic reforms initiated by Ramos.