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As President, I will devote my whole six-year term to transform Philippine governance and Philippine society into an inclusive, fair and shared economy.

Investments, and in the case of the Philippines, foreign investments, is a big factor in driving economic growth. Unfortunately, for the past many years, the country has been behind most of our neighboring countries in attracting foreign investments. This low performance is a major reason why the Philippines has lagged behind most of the ASEAN countries in historical economic growth. We simply have not been competitive.

IMPROVING Philippine agriculture, which includes fishery and forestry products, has been a persistent major issue since much of the 20th century. Unfortunately, we still continue to struggle to come to grips with it.

AT present, the local government units (LGUs), with their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA), are hardly mobilized to get directly involved in economic development.

IMPROVING Philippine agriculture, which includes fishery and forestry products, has been a persistent major issue since much of the 20th century. Unfortunately, we continue to struggle to come to grips with it.

A HEART breaking face of poverty is the present day preponderance of undernutrition of Filipino young children.

THE present widespread presence of homeless and informal settlers in our society is another tormenting face of dehumanizing poverty in our country. Improving their current condition clearly needs direct government intervention. Otherwise, this problem will persist for a long time. The normal course of events cannot make it disappear or even mitigate it to any reasonable extent.

IF I were the country's next president, my overarching program would be to substantially reduce poverty. There are several aspects to this great undertaking. I will deal first with what I call providing "Siguradong Sahod" to a targeted group - those families within the poverty threshold, as currently defined.