Dumb, far-from-reassuring words

President Duterte has reportedly assured Japanese investors in an economic forum in Tokyo of a corruption-free business environment in the Philippines, and promised to “kill” any corruption problem that investors may encounter.

The quip might have been intended as a jest; unfortunately, it also came off as a reminder of his strong-arm method to solve the drug problem in the Philippines that’s being blamed for the extrajudicial killing of thousands.

“What I guarantee here must be followed,” Duterte told the Japanese investors. In that, he was not announcing any industrial policy that may guide investment decisions, but simply displaying authoritarian intemperance before an audience of foreign businessmen. It’s far from reassuring.

What rolls in as a perceived absence of checks on power spawns uncertainty. Business people can discern that, unconstrained, a strongman’s whims can easily become fiat.

Duterte may sound probusiness now, but he could also turn around without warning and be unfriendly to business, as when a new government regulation reflecting his desire may just come out of the blue sans debate, negatively impacting business and investment.

The speech may well have been all right for a Davao audience delivered at the level of a local chieftain. But, before investors in an economic forum taking place in another clime, it was just dumb.

ABE N. MARGALLO
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