Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
THE government of President Duterte marched to the drumbeat of investment generation through the close to six years it has been in power, the one true policy constant of his administration. The war on drugs may have gotten the most media and international attention, but it was the low-key and seemingly routine business of selling the Philippines as an ideal investment destination that really consumed the executive and the legislature.
The political plank upon which he built his presidential run in 2016, the shift to a federal form of government, crashed and burned early on, prey to the monetary and fiscal costs that the shift would require. The shift, according to initial cost estimates, would bankrupt the government, and that estimate came from Mr. Duterte's own fiscal and economic managers. The national sentiment, even in a context where presidential approval was at an all-time high, was against the shift to federalism. Even with Mr. Duterte's excellent approval, trust and appreciation ratings, the ordure associated with shifting the form of government would not go away.
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