For refusing to receive millions in DAP bribe money to convict the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona, then-Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was as good as to have said: “Justice is not for sale.”

This most outstanding manifestation of human values, which he imbibed from his parents at home and in England during his early age, was expressed in five words, “Justice is not for sale.”

This statement is as iconic as the statement uttered the other day by his sister, Senator Imee Marcos: “Our Constitution is not for sale,” when she denounced the alleged sale of votes for charter change by the constituent assembly in the House of Representatives.

Like her brother, Senator Imee also learned, at an early age, from her parents at home and in Assumption of the human values involved in such an outstanding showing of rejecting outright a manifestly immoral and distorted sense of values in the exercise of the freedom of choice to the detriment of the honor and dignity of the Filipino nation.

Surely, Ferdinand Sr. must be applauding his son and daughter.

More people in government and the private sector, including the academic sector, have expressed appreciation for the almost tireless efforts of President Bongbong Marcos to improve the economic life of the Filipino people.

One of them, Mr. Generoso del Castillo Jr., said yesterday, “I am amazed by the relentless drive of President Bongbong Marcos to perform his job as president of our country to improve the life of every Filipino. Being an Ilocano, I want to help lessen his burden.”

Mr. Del Castillo is a law graduate and a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in business administration from the Ateneo. He is a former chief accountant at the General Headquarters, Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Mr. Del Castillo cited the report that only one and a half years after Bongbong assumed office as President, his administration had already completed 67,328.92 kilometers of farm-to-market roads or 51 percent of his target of 131,410.66 kilometers.

He said this was an unprecedented performance. When completed, this will improve the lives of the poor in the country’s farmlands, enhance their livelihood, and increase production and revenue. He said the government needs more revenues to complete President Marcos’ farm-to-market road program and continue his “Build, Better, More” infrastructure projects throughout the land.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the Philippines would do better in 2004 after performing well in 2003 despite all the challenges.

The International Monetary Fund sees the Philippine economy as having the most robust growth relative to the ASEAN 4 and Vietnam, supported by an acceleration in public investment and improved external demand for Philippine exports.

The World Bank agrees that the Philippine economy will accelerate in 2024, driven by private consumption, projecting to become the fastest-growing economy among Asian countries in East Asia and the Pacific in 2023 and second fastest in 2024, Diokno said.

Credit rating agencies and market analysts also expressed confidence in the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals. In particular, the S&P’s stable outlook reflects its expectations that the Philippine economy will maintain its growth rate and that fiscal performance will materially improve over the next 24 months.

Fitch Ratings, on the other hand, forecasts that the country’s growth over the medium term will be considerably stronger than the median of similarly-rated peers. At the same time, Moody’s deems the country to have “rapid economic growth relative to peers, complemented by the stabilization and eventual reversal of the deterioration in fiscal and debt metrics.”

Diokno expects the Philippine economy to remain robust, citing the country’s bright jobs market, strong manufacturing sector, sound fiscal policy, well-performing monetary policy and financial sectors, improving external sector, and continuing digitalization.         (To be continued)