MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Magandang umaga, Malacañang Press Corps, and welcome sa ating press briefing ngayong araw, November 28.

The S&P Global Ratings has raised to positive the credit rating outlook of the Philippines which indicates a possible upgrade to an “A-” rating within 24 months. The Marcos administration is determined to achieve an “A” rating, a credit ensuring that the transformation of the economy will not be affected by political and climate-related challenges.

The economic managers just had a meeting earlier with the President and underscored the need to prioritize infrastructure and food security projects in 2025. To give us update on his directives, we are joined by National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Maria Cristina Roque.

Good morning, secretaries.

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Thank you and good morning everyone.

With respect to the first item that Daphne announced regarding the upgrade of our credit rating to positive which indicates that the credit rating S&P in particular recognizes the so many achievements/accomplishments that we have made especially in the area of economic development and our efforts to stabilize the fiscal, particularly in implementing our fiscal consolidation program aimed at sustaining the improvement in our debt and deficit pictures; also in passing and implementing many reforms that are intended to improve the potentials of the economy moving forward.

So, with that positive outlook, we are looking to an “A” rating in the next 24 months and with that comes, of course, a much more positive picture for the economy particularly in relation to access to credits, to the cost of credit by both the government and the private sector because being given an “A” rating means that you are a prime borrower and so it may ends up the cost of capital in the market will be cheaper for you than otherwise will be the case.

So, with respect to the second one, the meeting this morning with the President, the economic managers and the presence also of the Speaker and the Senate President, the President stressed and we all agreed, and the leadership of Congress agreed that we need to ensure that the projects of this administration or the President in relation to the priority, high-priority projects aimed at achieving/attaining the goals and targets in the Philippine Development Plan are achieved. And that, a big part of that would be the aim to achieve or to enhance food security, to improve the economic climate by way of improving access to infrastructure and the quality of our infrastructure.

So, the overall agreement is that all these projects, particularly those that have been committed with our development partners, our ODA as our sources of… ODA, these projects to the extent that they are so critical to achieving the socio and economic transformation that we are aiming for will be funded in 2025 and the President got that assurance.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Thank you, Secretary Balisacan. Secretary Roque?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: Ah, yes. For the first question which is the credit rating, actually this is really… the country has a lot of achievements that’s why we were able to get a high credit rating. Another thing, it will be the confidence in the Philippines. This high credit rating will really encourage a lot of confidence for the international investors to come into our country and, so far, there is a lot of interest in our country. So, we are looking forward to a lot of international investment and foreign investors also to come in.

And, then regarding our meeting this morning with the economic managers as well as the Speaker and also the Senate President, we all work together to achieve what’s best for our country. So, we are all in sync and we always want to meet and work together so that we can realize the goals that we want to achieve for the betterment of the people, the Filipino people and for our country.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Thank you, secretary, and congratulations on being newly confirmed.

DTI SEC. ROQUE: Thank you.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Let’s open the floor to questions. Let’s start with Maricel Halili, TV5.

MARICEL HALILI/TV5: Magandang umaga po, secretaries. I understand, kasama ninyo po kanina sa meeting also Senate President and the House Speaker, so far napag-usapan po ba ninyo paano po makakaapekto iyong political bickering in the economy?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: No, we did not. It’s focused on the budget for 2025 and the need to prioritize the funding of the high priority projects of government, of this administration. But let me note that the… as we have indicated in our release yesterday, its business as usual for us and I don’t think that these political noises would have any impact on the economy.

What is important is that our economic policies, our economic—the policy directions are sound and sustained and, in fact, that has been the case for the Philippines since late 1990’s that the economy continued to progress despite the political noises simply because the economic policies and our directions have been broadly sustained. And, for us in this administration, we are so focused on ensuring that the goals and targets and strategies that we have outlined in the Philippine Development Plan will be achieved. And that’s what is important for the broad public, to signal that the economic momentum is sustained.

MARICEL HALILI/TV5: Sir, you mentioned about the budget. You have talked about it with the President earlier. What about the budget, sir?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Well, the… we just want to—at the meeting, we… the President wanted to get the assurance that the priority projects of this administration, projects that have been so well identified as critical to achieving that social and economic transformation that it wants to achieve in the medium term are funded in 2025 and that is sustained also in the coming years. That’s all that was—and we get that assurance that Congress and the administration are in sync with respect to, you know, to how… what we want to prioritize on.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Chona? No more?

CHONA YU/INQUIRER.NET: Doon, sir, sa mga businessmen, ano iyong sinasabi nila sa political noise na nangyayari ngayon dito sa Pilipinas? Have you talked to them? Anong pulso nila, do they still have that confidence to invest in the country?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: Actually, there are a lot of investments that are coming in and we are pursuing those investments. So, they haven’t mentioned anything yet about these things that are happening in our country.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Alexis Romero, Philippine Star.

ALEXIS ROMERO/PHILIPPINE STAR: Secretary, you mentioned Congress promising to cooperate with the administration to ensure the funding of key projects in 2025. Will that mean imposing new taxes?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: No. We have our fiscal consolidation program that tries to meet the targets, the deficits, the debt and at what levels those are in the medium term and we’re keeping track in implementing, you know, we’re on track in implementing that plan. And as has been announced in various fora, yes, we have a few of those new measures that have been identified in several fora and by Secretary Ralph Recto and the DBCC. But the key to enhancing our revenue now is the improvement in the administration of our tax laws.

ALEXIS ROMERO/PHIL. STAR: So, it’s the same legislative fiscal agenda?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: The same, yeah. We haven’t changed the priorities with respect to new measures.

ALEXIS ROMERO/PHIL. STAR: We just have lawmakers giving you the assurance that these will be passed next year?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Yeah, but it’s more about the funding the government budget for 2025 that we talked about. The legislative measures, we’ll have another session for that. I think, we’ll have that two weeks from now when the LEDAC, the Legislative and Executive Development Council, will meet and we’ll review the progress we have on the various legislative measures.

ALEXIS ROMERO/PHIL. STAR: With regard to the political issues, Secretary, do you see any downside risk in relation to these political issues? And what scenarios would lead to a significant impact on the economy in relation to these political developments?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: As I mentioned earlier, what’s so important for the business community is the sustainability of our economic agenda. And as also seen in the recent economic history is that for so long as the government stays on course, it stays within its development and economic priorities and programs, there are no deviations from these programs – the business community will continue to maintain their confidence on the economy. And so, I think, that the impact of noises such as what we have now, if there is anything to be quite minimal in the last 12 or so years, we’ll bear on that.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Eden Santos, Net 25.

EDEN SANTOS/NET 25: Good morning po and happy birthday, Miss Daphne. Doon lang po sa binabanggit po ni former President Rodrigo Duterte na may mga pondong kinuha po from PhilHealth, GSIS, SSS – well, allegedly kinuha daw po ng government. In any way nagamit po ba itong mga ito sa mga infra projects, sa mga ayudang ipinamamahagi po ng ating government sa ating mga kababayan specially po iyong mga naapektuhan ng mga nakalipas na mga kalamidad kasama na rin iyong El Niño at saka iyong mga bagyo-bagyo po?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: I don’t have the details or where those funds have actually been used but broadly, yes, because they are meant to address the need for funding those projects that have been identified and programmed for implementation within the year ‘no. So, to the extent that they are in there in our program that has been well-vetted by the economic managers, by the implementing agencies and of course by Congress and if they went to those areas, those should be okay.

EDEN SANTOS/NET 25: So, nagamit naman po pala sa mga proyekto po ng pamahalaan natin, hindi naman sa kung saan lang po?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Of course, naman. In general, those funds must be used, whatever those funds are, whether it’s from DOH or PhilHealth – they should be used in productive beneficial projects.

EDEN SANTOS/NET 25: Pero po iyong pagdating sa health po mukhang iyon po iyong sinasabi nila na hindi tuloy mabigyan pagdating sa pangkalusugan po ng mga mahihirap. Sana iyon daw iyong mga ginagamit pero mukhang nagamit po sa ibang mga proyekto?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: We look at spending, public spending in broader context ‘no – we look at the medium term, we look at the short term because you can’t have for example, focus or put all our baskets in the near term because we also need it to grow so that we can sustain the progress that we have made in the near term – so, that’s the balancing that we have to do. And infrastructure development for example is a key to that and so is human capital developments like health and education – these are long-term investments ‘no.

Ayudas are typically short term – they are meant to address the emergencies and a safety net for those who suffer or face shocks like those coming from calamities or unfortunate incidents in families.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay. Let’s go to Harley Valbuena, DZME.

HARLEY VALBUENA/DZME: Hi. Good afternoon na po. Sir, I believe you also discussed earlier about the food security, so I’ll just get back on PBBM’s campaign promise of lowering the prices of rice to 20 pesos per kilo. So, do you believe, sir, that this is still achievable in the near future?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Our thrust is to continue improving food security and iyon tatlong dimension iyon: the access – access to food, and the affordability of food, and the availability of food in broad term. So, hindi lang iyong price ‘no because the price at 28 or 30 or 40 may be there but it’s not available everywhere in the country – so, that’s not how we proceed. So, I would rather focus on that objective rather than just focusing on the price.

HARLEY VALBUENA/DZME: But, sir, are you confident that we can still achieve the 20 pesos per kilo of rice within this admin?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: The retail price is hovering around 50 now, right? And the goal is to reduce that further, and hence, we are continually monitoring the development in the markets. By the way prices are not completely in our control ‘no because these are influenced by factors like world prices, these are influenced by calamities. We can only intervene in the short term but over the long haul it is best for the country to follow the trends in the market ‘no, of course, assuring that those who have less in life are given assistance to be able to cope with, say rising prices.

HARLEY VALBUENA/DZME: So, sir, sorry. We can say that we are still focused on the objective and we are still not giving up?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: We are focused in reducing prices as to where, how far that we’ll go. From my view, it’s something that we have to be a little bit more careful because I said now, the exchange rate is our peso is depreciating a bit because of the strong dollar, right? And that will impact the prices of rice too, as well as other goods. So, those are the kind of balancing. How are we—you know, if all other things, all those other things are not moving at the same time. Maybe, you know, I can assure you, I can tell you, yes, that’s achievable but many things are moving and we don’t have controls of those many other things.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay, Pia Gutierrez, ABS-CBN.

PIA GUTIERREZ/ ABS-CBN: Hi, sir. Hi, ma’am. How confident are we that we will be able to achieve an ‘A’ rating in the next two years and ano po iyong mga challenges na nakikita po natin dito? You also mentioned that you do not expect iyong political noise to affect iyong positive outlook in the Philippine economy, but what about other issues such as the weak peso and the effect of recent typhoons po?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: Of course, the last one is something that is so close to us ‘no, because in the last couple of weeks we’ve had these series of typhoon and so the instruction of our President is to tighten our practices, especially in the rules and guidelines that we have on projects to ensure that our infrastructure for example have the standards that can withstand the floods and typhoons.

With [unclear] coming in and we have all these threats about high tariffs and the possible responses of other countries to such tariffs, if they materialize then of course those pose kind of uncertainly for us ‘no. But what we are trying to do in our economic program as spelled out in our Philippine development plan is to diversify the economy and to strengthen its fundamentals so that we can be more resilient with respect to the shocks.

And I think that over the years, and I’m quite confident, that our economy now is more stable than any other time in the past, that it’s more diversified than actually in the past but we need to continue and improving working and developing other pillars of growth, for example, I keep on saying that services sector is a big part of the economy, but we should strengthen our agriculture further, we should strengthen our manufacturing so that we have all these pillars of growth providing that sustainability and resiliency that we want to achieve.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Tuesday Niu, DZBB.

TUESDAY NIU/ DZBB: Hi po sa inyo. Secretary Cristina Roque, ma’am, kumusta naman po ang monitoring po ng DTI sa prices of commodities natin ngayong papalapit ang Pasko? May mga changes po ba, bumaba o tumaas on certain products, like noche buena products?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: First and foremost, for the prices for basic necessities – no price increase until the end of the year. And then for the noche buena, more than 50% the price will remain the same as last year and iyong mga iba, they just increased, but less than 5%. So, that will be steady until the end of the year para aabot siya hanggang New Year.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Alvin Baltazar, Radyo Pilipinas.

ALVIN BALTAZAR, RADYO PILIPINAS: Sa mga konektado rin doon sa ano, Secretary Roque, doon sa tanong ni Tuesday. Secretary, kumusta iyong purchase demand ngayong holiday season na tayo?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: The purchase demand still there, especially kapag Pasko, ‘di ba our mga kababayans are very—very important sa atin ang Christmas, so in terms of purchase demand it’s still there, it’s good actually.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Clay Padilla, PTV 4.

CLAY PADILLA, PTV 4: Good afternoon po, Secretary Balisacan, sundan ko lang po iyong Harley, iyong lower tariff for rice po is subject to review every four months, ano po iyong recommendation natin for the December?

NEDA SEC. BALISACAN: We’re now finalizing the report. We’ll submit that report to the President, hopefully tomorrow. So, I can’t disclose what is in that report yet because I want to give the President the first opportunity to read what that is. But it’s there. Essentially, we’re not—it basically presents the picture of the rice market at this time, providing an analysis of where we are, particularly with respect to production, to supply, to demand, to prices and what to expect in the coming four months and beyond. Iyon lang iyong laman pala ng ano.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Maricel Halili, TV5.

MARICEL HALILI/ TV5: Secretary Roque, follow up lang po doon sa question ni Tuesday. You mentioned earlier, iyong ibang mga noche buena products will increase by less than five percent, may we know the reason for the increase of their prices and how soon do we expect this increase in prices to be implemented?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: Actually, the increase in price has been implemented already. We came out already wit the list of the noche buena package prices. So, it’s in the DTI social media site and also in the website and we’ve really released it also in the different media and also in the newspapers.

And what was your first question again?

MARICEL HALILI/ TV5: Ano po iyong reason for the increase?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: The reason. Actually, there was no price increase since last year. So, of course, prices, some are imported products have already increase, so they decided to request if they could increase, so we agreed on a less than five percent increase so that at lease kahit papaano, the consumers will have, of course a very merry Christmas and the happy New Year and not too much of increase also.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Anymore questions? We’re good? Okay, back to Tuesday.

TUESDAY NIU/ DZBB: Ma’am, hingi lang kami ng kahit ilang samples noong products na nag-increase ng less than five percent?

DTI SEC. ROQUE: Actually, ang mayroon ako, iyong mga hindi nag-increase ‘no, which is the mayonnaise, most of the ham, pasta noodles, the cheese and the all-purpose cream and many others. Kasi actually, there’s 200 products eh for the noche buena package, so it’s better that you know will—they can just check the social media site of the Department of Trade and Industry and also the—we’ve been posting it also in the newspapers, the noche buena prices.

MS. OSEÑA-PAEZ: Okay, we’re good? Okay, so thank you so much Secretary Balisacan and Secretary Roque, thank you also for explaining that the Philippine economy has proven its resilience against domestic and external challenges and these includes climate related disasters, geopolitical risk, election tensions, financial crisis, and as far as the government is concerned, all branches of government, is business as usual.

Thank you very much, Malacañang Press Corp. Have a good afternoon.

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