April 22nd, 2021
I support President Duterte’s formal appointment of currently Acting NEDA Director-General Karl Kendrick Chua as full-fledged Socioeconomic Planning Secretary. Secretary Chua deserves the appointment and I predict an easy confirmation process.
I first worked with Secretary Chua during in 2003-2004, when he was a research assistant to the influential UP School of Economics paper on the looming fiscal crisis. I led the legislative push to pass the measures recommended by that paper. Prior to COVID-19, those reforms led the country to nearly two decades of uninterrupted GDP growth. This is why I am confident that he can help steer the country’s direction towards a fast and sustainable economic recovery. We’ve done it before.
I worked with him again, more closely, as legislative champion of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN Law and, later on, as Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, during his tenure as DOF undersecretary for tax reforms.
I recommend to my colleagues on the House contingent that they approve his appointment without delay. Not only does Secretary Chua deserve the position; we also need the stability of economic policy that his confirmation will bring.
I expect to continue working more closely with him on a number of issues, including a reform of our public and private partnership framework, finding funding sources for more aggressive relief programs for households, strengthening our social protection programs through the National ID system, and delivering urgent reforms in opening the country to more investments.
The list of reforms we will work together on is long. I expect his appointment to make it more likely that we will have them passed given the tightening legislative calendar. He can expect my full support where we agree, and my honest advice when we disagree.