By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
The Philippines would become a better country under a president with political will and discipline, Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) told The Manila Times in a roundtable.
Fernando had long declared that he would run for president in the 2010 elections and that he would not settle for anything less than to be chosen as the standard-bearer of the administration party Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD).
“Discipline and political will are very essential if we want our country to progress,” Fernando said during the roundtable held Monday.
“The solution to poverty is productivity,” he added. “Many Filipinos right now are unproductive. That’s where discipline and political will come in.”
Fernando noted that one multinational company that has one million employees worldwide even surpassed the total production of the Philippines, which has a total manpower of at least 30 million.
“Society has to put premium on people and push them to do their jobs. But under our political system, any leader who would try to do that will be branded as anti-poor and anti-labor, which is unfortunate,” he said.
Fernando, who hopes to be named by the Lakas-Kampi CMD Party as its presidential candidate in next year’s polls, said that if he was elected, the first line of his inaugural address would be, “Work well or you’re fired.”
Political will plus technology
He, however, clarified that by “political will,” he did not mean that he would use an iron hand. Rather, he would make
Filipinos understand their role and encourage them to play it the best way they can.
When further asked what more he would do if he became president, Fernando said that he would bring in technology to provide services to remote areas, especially in conflict-torn places in southern Mindanao.
Fernando said that with still several months more for him to serve as MMDA chairman, his focus is to finish all the projects he has started with the agency.
“We still have a lot of projects, some of them have already started and some are under tests. We aim to further ease traffic in major thoroughfares in Metro Manila and control the flooding in the metropolis,” he added.
The Manila Times
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