“The leader, who has used public office for private gain, will always be the most committed enemy of change.”

That was Noynoy Aquino’s statement at the Makati Business Club where he was speaking to a standing-room-only crowd. The crowd included many of the country’s captains of industry. This was where Aquino laid out a pro-business and pro-market agenda while distancing himself from often-criticized methods of the Arroyo administration.

His eight-page speech, delivered in about 18 minutes, was interrupted by applause at least seven times. At the end of his speech, MBC members—the overwhelming majority of whom have voiced their support for his candidacy—gave him a standing ovation.

EXCERPTS:

1.) “One not need be a crony to succeed in the field of business,” he said, eliciting applause from the businessmen. “More importantly, government will not compete with business. Nor will government use its regulatory powers to extort, intimidate and harass.”

He said, there is a widespread perception that “success in the business milieu can almost be directly correlated to your closeness to the powers that be.” In a situation like this, Aquino explained that businessmen are forced to focus their activities on maintaining relationships “in order to retain the favors that they receive in exchange for cultivating that relationship.” “This has fostered the wrong kind of competitiveness,” he said. “While it may work locally for now, it has not enabled these players to become competitive in the world market, where the rules of the game do not take special relationships into consideration.”

2.) Aquino also promised that his administration would encourage “free and fair competition on a level playing field.

3.) Apart from his promise of a crony-free administration, the businessmen also strongly applauded his pronouncement on tax policies that he would adopt, including cutting down on questionable tax breaks granted to certain companies. He promised to spread the tax burden more equitably in order to be able to lower the overall tax rate for all corporate and individual taxpayers.

4.) Aquino also took a veiled swipe at his rival, Senator Manuel Villar, who has been accused by critics of being involved in the C-5 “double insertion” anomaly.

“If we agree that change is necessary, how can a presidential aspirant, whose own financial and political ethics are questionable, be effective in leading transformation as the head of the bureaucracy?,” he said. “How can a leader, who is benefitting from the status quo, be able to restore a civic sense of pride in our citizenry? The leader, who has used public office for private gain, will always be the most committed enemy of change.”

You can read the transcript of the speech here: A Philippines That Works: Economic Vision and Platform

Read the rest of the story here: Aquino lays out pro-business agenda

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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.