Sit-Down with the Broadcast Media 01/23/2023

Foreign Switzerland There were a lot of interview requests that we couldn't handle just because we're so busy getting ready for Switzerland so I thought we'd have one with uh once we got back so here we are so there's a lot. to speak, so I think you can open the floor, well, good afternoon, Mr. President, welcome our friends in the

media

to this very special meeting with the president with our

media

, so today the president will receive two questions from each one. of you and let's start we have Miss Karen Davila from ABS-CBN News good afternoon Mr.

President I'm Karen and thank you very much for doing this so I'm going to ask you two questions but you have to forgive me that the first one The question will be, uh, we'll have a lot of context to the Agriculture. Our losses are driving farmers to despair. Some farmers are already taking their own lives in Davos. You said you would only resign as Secretary of Agriculture if you had checked off the items on your to-do list, my question is what is on that list and what specifically will you do to implement so that farmers feel a change in their lives today in the short and medium term.

In fact, I'm eligible to be the first because it's us. We have always been talking about production, production, not import, etc., and we always have to remind ourselves that you know what we are really talking about, the livelihood of farmers and not only the supply of food, but also the price of food . food, but also the livelihood of farmers and the future of farmers. I mean, I think it's a highly cited, highly cited statistic, that in the Philippines the average farmer is between 57 and 58 years old and the young people are not that interested in going into farming, so it's all these multifaceted problems that we face in terms of agriculture, so again in the short term, the increase in prices of food products is alarming and that is why now we have to do whatever we do, we cannot. we should import uh, I think my feelings about import are clear, but it is an emergency situation that has been caused by the aglet of the agricultural sector for many years and therefore our production is far below our demand, for Therefore, we should matter so much. because of the chaos that we saw involved when it came to sugar, when it came to onions, uh, we didn't know how much of the commodity was actually in the country that we're starting to control. now, so let's put in terms of sugar that I specifically mentioned before that from now on we will maintain a two month reserve stoppage which is to mitigate the speculation shortage, maybe you can call that hoarding. but it is a commercial practice and that is what we hope to avoid in terms of onions.

We are not producing as much as we consume and therefore we still have to import, but the import schedule for both sugar and onions, everything else. Commodities, the timing is very, very important, it's not just a global import at the beginning of the year, it has to come at the right time so as not to compete with local farmers, so it's a very simple first step. A box I've been in, obviously I've been able to pick now, but we're back to the production issue, so again we still have to implement once you know the value chain is there.

It doesn't matter that it is still working, but we already know what needs to be done, what needs to be done in each part of that value chain and we have the means and we have a plan, then we will have a secretary who will then take my place and we will implement that plan, so those are the essential elements I'm talking about. There is some reorganization that needs to be done in the Department of Agriculture for the simple reason that we are doing different things than what we were doing before, so the bureaucracy needs to be restructured in the same way.

I wanted to ask you. He said he has a to-do list that needs to be checked off. Could you share some? I mean, well, that's it, that's basically it. I mean, you know within those within that something like that in this I mean, if you get into the details, there are still a lot of things that we can and need to do, in terms of production, we have to help. we have to get into the farmers, but we are trying to adopt new techniques, uh, for, uh, for agriculture, that, actually, we will be able to use new technologies, new varieties start with the r d, uh or all that, you know, and especially.

In this area of ​​Agriculture, the general problem is climate change, we have a very difficult time, we are going through a very difficult time, scheduling these things because then the climate keeps changing, and that is one of the reasons why I also did contact with several other countries in my counterparts in several countries is that we are trying to develop what we call non-traditional supply suppliers and because of the price of fertilizers, the lack of export of wheat rice, of course, is Another thing is that We imported corn, we were going to have to import, but with the crises that have affected the global economy and with the supply chain problems that we see everywhere, so it is something that we have to solve and the way to do it is to have many sources of supplies so that no matter what happens, we have somewhere to go.

Hopefully they will be on their way in a few years. We will no longer have to worry about non-traditional supply because we will be able to produce enough for ourselves. Mr. President, regarding the Maharlika wealth fund, Congressman Joey Salsa talked about a redesigned fund and I wanted to ask you, he said, he described it as the securitization of 44 billion pesos and it will be listed on the stock market, they have legislators. opposition legislators who say that according to the law fifty percent of the revenue from the goccs must be remitted to the National Treasury and used for the budget, so how could it be guaranteed that the fund will not be used for money laundering of money? will accept private funding two in one day yes, we will do the first one first, first of all, the idea of ​​using the gocc is to put value in the fund model.

He approached Davos and raised himself. Don't know. I know why this news was made here immediately in the Philippines. People are very worried about that. I watched his interview with Congressman Edsel Edman, thank you this morning and I heard the comments that Congressman Jewelers made and his concerns that he. that had issued I agree with them funds cannot be used for raising children from the gocc what the government will spend on it is a proposal it is not something we have adopted uh the geocs are several problems because I remember one that we had we had a The little one meeting lasted about 15 minutes and that was proposed, but after the meeting I pulled senator as secretary Ben Johnson aside and we said yes about these things and I said it's too disruptive.

I think each government has its own Charter, how will it do it? Then you will review all those Statutes to align them with the mahali kafan, that and that is not the purpose of the gocc number one, number two, what is a lot of revenue that goes to the national government, but suddenly that, suddenly, uh uh. it will go away so I'm not sorry it won't go away it will go to the maharlik and it won't be able to be used for the national government budget and we have a lot of things we would like to appropriate over the next few years and we will need those funds so I don't think it's a viable proposition at least not for us.

I have seen it. I know there are other sovereigns about that idea that worry us. The fund being used as a money laundering device implies that private money will be put into the fund, but yes, private money will be involved in the fund, but it is not to see, it is not to say that it is not, it is not a savings account, let me put it there and it stays there. no, what will happen is that the mahalica fund will serve as the seed fund for the sovereign wealth fund and that the fourth sorry, the 40 billion 30 billion 40 billion, whatever comes in at that time is going to serve as seed money for the fund now, every time we partner, do a G2G with Japan, for example, or do a PPP with some big team, so that's just the time the money comes into the fund to be used for the programs they are not like that at all and in fact even on our part we will only deploy funds when there is a very specific project to pay for, so the money laundering network will simply not come into play, that's okay thank you very much miss Karen.

Dávila Olivia CBN next we have Miss Cheryl cosm from TV5 good afternoon, Mr. President, I am Gerald quasim representing TV5 and summer honor 10.1 pH and a news item, six questions. I'm negotiating. Well, my first question concerns the positions and their administration first, just a little over a month ago you granted leave to former PMS chief Naida Angpings after she asked for personal time for herself and her family, which which made him appoint her ambassador to France, considering she never held any diplomatic position before this and who will replace her, well, huh. I need Jesus, sir, okay, well, the situation with the secretary and then with the secretary Naida Ang pin was that it was a personal decision on her part.

She had some personal problems that she had to resolve and she said I can't do my job while I do. I'm having to go through this and that's why I need to go and think about it and she came back and said maybe she can find something that she can't handle and I told her. What do you think? And she said, "If she could appoint me to a diplomatic position, she has not formally held a diplomatic position, but she has been working with the Foreign Service for years and years and years and did not work at the United States Embassy." Philippine Embassy in the United States, she worked in China, she worked in all the areas that we were slowly opening and she said that she and she had already been working for years in it.

Foreign Service Qualification Exam, so I think that's what she's going to plan to do now from before, so now we'll formalize her wishes, but again, the reasons for this are personal, so I don't think it's my responsibility. to talk about that, you know it's his choice, okay, like what I said, first the possessions in your administration, okay, about the Irwin tool, for um, it was reported that you will appoint him as one of your presidential advisors. If so, what not? It hasn't, actually, hasn't been part of the plan for Erwin. I know we had other plans for him.

No, not as a presidential advisor, I would still be part of his administration. I hope so. I hope so. Because whatever we say, difficulties. who faced the commitment appointments and the time he was running the dswd he did a very good job so we can't lose that type of asset so we will find something that he We can do it we can take advantage of his good instincts when it comes to Social Service Mr. President, I still hold another position in your Administration, um, foreign comments, it may, it may still be, um, so that's what I bring to the position. is that when I make a decision I say this is what we have to do this is the plan each of you follow this plan you do this you will do that and if not then I have I can I can uh um punish you I can push you aside, push you to other positions , etc., etc., but generally speaking, if the president asks you to do something, you will do it, if someone else can do it, they probably will, but they may not, so we don't want to. to eliminate that room for maneuver from that system and this is my second question, just a few weeks after his visit to China.

The Chinese Coast Guard chased away Philippine fishing boats in Ayungen Seoul, what message does this send to you and what happened to President XI? Jinping's promise of a compromise, well, we haven't reached that compromise yet, um, and if the timing of what we call tracking is what they do, they follow our fishing boats and that incident happened right after. He had returned from China, so we immediately used that mechanism that I talked about, now we can even immediately contact the Chinese government and hopefully, even if our counterparts on the other side can bring this issue to the attention of the two presidents, we have done that. but that doesn't stop us from continuing to produce proteins and continuing to send verbal notes about this, but you know, this is a long process because it's something new.

I just hope we can come up with something. kind of deal because I don't see the value for the Chinese in making these fishing boats unarmed, they're not, they don't pose a threat to anyone, so I think it's something we can achieve in the near future. in the short term, thank you, Mr. President, thank you Cheryl cosm from TV5, next we have Nelson lubao from net 25. to meet with you in person foreign foreign foreign inflation that's what keeps me up at night every night is how to reduce the inflation so I'm determined to mix to reduce uh to make sure that inflation starts to come down uh in the first quarter normalized good foreign foreign Philippines can play this role in fostering or encouraging cooperation that we participated in the event in the issues and discussion and in our efforts in the community of foreign nations I'm the new kid on the block nobody knowswho am I well foreign laws in this fragmented world thank you, thank you very much NelsonDubai 25 and on this side of the room, sir, we have Jun Soriao from untv, Mr.

President, regarding the Philippines, leading the economic recovery and performance not only in Asia Pacific but throughout the world. it's the foreign Bank of America interactive area, it's quite a process, but they learn about us, but we certainly learn about them as well, so that's also very important, thank you very much, thank you June, sorry, Yahoo TV. Next we have Mela Les Morris for pizza. good afternoon mr president before sir this is the only one that confirms november november president um numbers and that's why we have tried to be very ready for that the Apec again is one of those that I really have that a Philippine president should really attend because it is the relationship essentially between ASEAN Philippines and the rest of the world and that's very, those are very, very important relationships in November in San Francisco, for my second question about Mansa maharlika's OLED investment fund. um foreigner and that's the process, but in terms of when the release statement will be scheduled, she, uh, Senate President, that would be good, but again, the most important thing is we have to get it right, we can't, we can't to do it wrong would be a very poor It would be a very serious mistake, okay, thank you very much Mela and we have Rico Hechon from CNN Philippines, hello, Mr.

President, hello, Rico, Rico, you are on CNN Philippines, Mr. President, you, for 25 years, Hong Kong, London and Singapore, and has worked with two global news organizations. I have been exposed to the best practices of various governments in the region and around the world, good governance, transparency and accountability. The Filipino people really want to know from your eight trips abroad in the last seven months, how much you have spent per trip to Indonesia. Singapore, when he went to Europe, to China and here in Davos and the number of people on his official and unofficial Entourage roster, well, I don't have the numbers.

I'm sure your figures are out there somewhere, but it will eventually be revealed, Mr. President, for the Filipinos once we calculated everything because this last trip, of course, was we just finished the uh earlier over the weekend and we came back on Saturday, so in terms of the cost, you know, the way I see it, you have to Look at it like Roi, do we bring something back or not? If you say, I don't know, like I said, I don't know the exact cost figures and everything, but, for example, we came back from China with promises of 22 billion, let's say we get out of that billion, eight trips completed, that's the idea and we not only went to China, we went to Davos, we went to the EU, we went to ASEAN.

We went to Apec, so in each of those a lot of commitments were signed and, like I said, now it's up to us to measure the success, you know, because the benefit is very simple, how much effort did you put into it? It's not just the money, it's the The time you put into it is the time and the effort that goes into it is really that's what I was trying to explain before, the reason why we have everyone in the delegation, actually , the delegated official. The delegation is just me and the cabinet ministers. Then they have staff, so the rest are security and the others who have been accompanying me are actually from the private sector.

They don't actually fly with me, they go there alone, although they are because. they're included in our meetings and they have their own meetings, um on the side as well, so again, the way I approach it is Roi, how much do you spend, how much did you get and again, like I say, if we get just? one of the mousse um that no matter how the government tries to invite investors to the country, but if there is a lack of transparency, the country does not really invite trust. I totally agree, Mr. President, that there be responsibility and transparency in everything we do.

That's the axiomatic, who's going to argue with that? But it has not been a problem that private companies mention, mention the ease of doing business, mention the cost of energy, mention the problems of Legislative Guarantees so that the critics have their opinion, but those who are actually contemplating putting in some good money In the Philippines they have other problems other than accountability and transparency is not a problem. Mr. President, you talk about the ease of doing it. In business, you talk about energy tariffs, which are one of the highest in Asia, no more, no more, Europe is the same as us, but what are your plans during your administration to reduce this together with the private sector because Is that one of the problems? that is being raised by many investors around the world not before the big numbers have always been promising let's improve the ease of doing this so that the bureaucracy has to be simplified uh the ease of doing business is because we are talking about trade, for What digitization is going to be a very important part of that, we have to digitize Customs, we have to digitize all these collection agencies so that, including the Central Bank, payments can be made through the Internet, all those things that no Now we have to remove any discretion whatever to get your documents, whatever it is, so we came across a very disturbing finding here in the Philippines, ordinary Filipinos who have connectivity talk to all aspects of their lives through from the Internet, through the children's school, to their businesses, to their friends and the only entity they don't talk to over the Internet is the government because the government is not digitized, so let's digitize the government and we will.

It will go a long way to helping us do business more easily. Now the problem of energy is very important because basically the supply of energy, that is, the demand for energy, is simple. It far exceeds the supply we are producing and there is also a problem in distribution, that is why the prices are so high, that also has to be fixed, but in the long term, as we fix what we can at home in the long term. and that is one of the things we will talk a lot about on these trips is bringing new power plants to the Philippines and of course we are emphasizing renewable energy because we are trying to improve the energy mix of power generation between the traditional and renewable energy, so that's it, but that's a long term, whatever starts, whatever this government starts, we won't see the end, a nuclear power plant, six years, seven years, I'm floating, I'm floating, wind turbine six. years, seven years for London, anything is six years, seven years, but we have to start, so that's what we're planning to do.

We will start, Mr. President, 13.6 trillion pesos and our debt-service ratio is more than 60 percent, the guiding principle of the economy. uh to the economic plan and through investments and the promises that will be focused on, well yeah, make them a reality so that growth continues to take us out and then provide new jobs, now we have to do it, we are very proud of We are at a rate of 4.2 percent unemployment, which is like you know you can't have a recession if your job got to that low level, but despite that, we still have to make jobs better quality, we have to improve them , so these. green jobs that we're talking about and even the new technologies that are going to be used for us all these things upskilling retraining that's all we talk about that's all because that's that the things that we have to do no It is a simple thing, there is no silver bullet, we have to do many things to correct it because what we are really doing is restructuring the entire Philippine economy to adapt it to the new world, global economy, thank you, Mr.

President, thank you, thank you, Rico, for so many questions. Well, let's get down to business. smni sassad good afternoon Mr. President News Channel my first question is related to privatization earlier this month the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Jaime Bautista, revealed that he has plans to privatize the operations of NAIA and, as we all know, the Privatization of government assets has been a very controversial issue in our country, for example, your father's predecessor, former President Corazon Aquino, you know, has been criticized for privatizing many government assets. I have no plans to privatize it, okay, there is no plan to privatize anything.

We prefer to do the opposite. No, when Secretary Jimmy Bautista was talking about it. I think maybe he made a mistake or was misinterpreted, but you can't. to begin with, privatize an airport, they cannot own the airport, no, a private company, in the best of cases, cannot own the airport, because the airport again in New York, the group, the transcatholic airport, they They run London Airport, they run several large airports that we're talking about. asking them what they can do, can they come and help us so that we can increase the traffic through Manila airport and they said they can and that's why they will come.

They were here last week to see airport operations. and especially since we had that problem on New Year's Day and this recent outage with the UPS, so at most we will have a management contract, come in and we will manage, we will come in and manage the airport, and they say without changing anything. without changing uh without new equipment without building a new track, they can increase the traffic from what they are present at what they refer to as 35 moves per hour up to 45 moves per hour without changing anything so we want that and those skills can only be you can get from this group and well, no, there are several groups, but you can add from the private sector group that has great experience in managing ports and airports.

Mr. President, my second question is about foreign policy. You have been very clear and empathetic. since the beginning of his administration that is going to continue with the foreign policy doctrine of his predecessor, the doctrine of the friend of all, the enemy of non-foreign policy, of the non-aligned nine, my question is related to to what extent is to refine or operationalize this Doctrine, does your Administration see any opportunity, for example, to deepen commitment to the non-aligned movement, especially now that superpower rivalry, especially in our area, could be intensifying at some point in time? the future, which was largely in response to the Cold War? and the slow, slow dismantling of the Cold War organs, if that's what you want, that's how you want to say it, and that's why that non-aligned treaty was created between several nations that said no, we no longer subscribe to it. the notion that we as a country must choose a side with one superpower or another and that is precisely what we have undertaken and that is exactly the position that I have taken in terms of foreign policy uh, although you know it came up, this came back to come up in our discussions at the conference, uh, the question that was asked was very, very thought-provoking.

I'm going to let geopolitics finally end globalization because geopolitics is separating people and all these Agri patients. are separating and the general conclusion is that people countries realize that alliances are important or in fact they are more than important they are necessary however these are these alliances do not mean that we are you know it again and within the sphere of influence of any great power, in fact, in ASEAN we all come to an agreement that at least in ASEAN, in the Asia Pacific region, the future of the region should be decided by those in the region, not by someone from outside power and that's why I think the idea I didn't know about the formal meetings or conferences of the non-aligned nations that they used to have they don't have them much anymore I don't know about that, but we are very much in the spirit of that treaty, we are part of it in the sense that we continue to walk that very thin line between two great superpowers that surround us both physically and geopolitically, that's fine, thank you very much. a lot of sass from SAS Regan the sunset from smni and last but not least we have Ivan Marina from gma7 Mr.

President, good afternoon, I am Ivan Marina, I represent GMA Integrated News before I continue with my two questions, I I would like to ask the following: Question stemming from Cheryl's previous question about the latest incident at a yogi show. Mr. President, how do you intend to resolve the apparent disconnect between what is agreed at your highest level and what is implemented at sea? I know what she said there There is no commitment yet, but in the meantime our fishermen are prevented from dedicating themselves well to their livelihood. I think the auctions that are needed are actually on the Chinese side and that's because we don't send Coast Guard ships. in what we consider your waters or international waters, they remain within the waters of the Philippines and hopefully, as I said, the reason why it was important to me, let me clarify what we talked about with President XI and it was very simple, I said We have to raise the level of discourse between the Philippines and China now that we already have a bilateral group that is working on issues regarding the South China Sea.

Now my proposal isThat we take this bilateral group to a higher level, it is a sub-ministerial level. neon, so I will take it to ministerial level and ask my Foreign Secretary to be part of it. I will ask my ambassador in China to be a part of this and I guarantee that if any decision needs to be made, any of those gentlemen can pick up the phone and talk to me and within five minutes we will make a decision. I hope China can do the same and that's what the president agreed to and he said why not, so she assigned her Foreign Minister to take care of the details.

We are working on that now with the power structure in the People's Republic. uh I think if President President have the we will be able to report any violation of any agreement we reach uh videos your first lady Lisa warns apparently it had something to do with the appointments in the AFP inia is my question, Mr. President, how involved is the first lady in your decisions? regarding appointments and in her government in general zero, she really has no involvement in that, yes, the first lady helps me in real terms of the organization because she is actually very, very good at organizing what office how the office how the workflow goes where the documents go she's fine, she's a well-trained lawyer, so she's very good at that and uh, but up to that point we don't talk, uh, we don't talk about policies together, I mean, she she'll come just in general she says you know it looks good it doesn't look good I don't know why you're doing that on the other side I said great idea but that's it uh do you consult her on difficult decisions?

It's not political, it's not a political decision, it's legal, oh yes, they are legal. I'll ask him. I'll ask him. I will ask whenever there is a legal question. I'm not a lawyer, so I need an expert opinion. She is by my side most of the time. I could turn to her. I can appeal. I'm very lucky. In fact, I believe I have the best legal representation of any president. I have a former Chief Justice as my executive secretary. I have Jpe who works as legal counsel to the president and between all these experts and the legal luminaries at lumina, that's when it's the only time the discussion can include Lisa, but she doesn't come to the office or sit with us if I have something to ask. usually they are definitions Define for me what is legal what is the legal definition of this what is the legal definition of that when they talk about this what do they mean what is the legal concept behind it usually that is the type of question because she is a teacher, so that is the type of question that I ask to your last question, sir, okay, commitments, the question is whether the congressman is being prepared as the next president of Marcus Sandro, no, it is not him, we are not preparing him not at all, he is preparing himself, he is a he. he is he has decided this uh about this career in politics and I will handle it the way he does there is no there is no long term plan that one day Sandra will be president he will laugh, he will really laugh in your face if you tell him that, but no, no, no, no, no, we do not believe that in those days he worked and worked in Ilocos Norte, uh, even the conversations about the presidency would be regular. premature and it's not something we plan on, I mean we'll see, I think he has the same attitude as me, I'll take this as far, I'll do it as good as I can, I'll work as hard as I can and I'll take this as far as I can. , What exactly?

Do you know it as well as they do? When people talk about it, did you plan for this being to be president? I said, well, you know I was a congressman. Governor, all these problems, but everyone dreams of being one. position number one that doesn't mean we're colluding we have this long term plan for nothing at all he has he's too busy anyway he's too busy anyway the reason he's with us is because he's an author of the bill maharlika, the Malika fund bill and sometimes he has like I had an interview with the Financial Times uh, he took over when it came to the maharlika bill because I had somewhere else to go, so he changed, so that's one that these recent trips uh, that's been that's the reason you've been with us thank you, Mr.

President, thank you, well, thank you very much, Mr. President, thank you very much in the second round, but let's finish, yes, many thanks to our friends. and to the media, to our presenters and media for being here at our meeting with Mr. President and, yes, I hope you liked it.