Corruption risks economic, credit rating fallout – MVP

MANILA, Philippines — Business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan has raised concerns over widespread corruption in the Philippines, warning that it could seriously impact the country’s economic growth and jeopardize its credit ratings.

“Investor confidence could get affected. I think they’re slowly getting affected by this particular event. Perhaps even credit ratings, too, could be at risk if the institution’s responses are seen to be inadequate,” Pangilinan said during the 2025 FINEX conference yesterday.

Pangilinan said the country’s credit ratings may be affected, “depending on the reforms and the results of the investigations.”

“The people themselves are on a wait-and-see attitude. All I’m saying is that we have to be careful,” he said.

Pangilinan said that government spending could also be reduced, which could slow the growth of the economy.

“It could (slow down growth) because the stock market is down. How can you raise money?” he said.

“When cash of the magnitude of budget insertions – they say as much as P1 trillion – are taken out of the pockets of the many who are poor and diverted to the wallets of the few, the economy will indeed suffer, as the stock exchange has indeed suffered these past three weeks. The market may have declined anywhere between 1.5 and 1.8 percent in the overall value of the stock exchange,” he said.

For better governance in the country, Pangilinan said that there should be competent financial executives all around.

“It isn’t just about catching crooks, it’s filling the gaps with financial experts with the competence and integrity. Corruption survives not because bad people are smart, but because good people are absent,” Pangilinan said.

“We should be engaged even as citizens, or even as private citizens, in the first instance, as business persons managing our affairs well and doing things right,” he said.

Further, Pangilinan said that businesses must support making critical institutions stronger, such as media, the academe, the courts and the church in these times in order to
push back the pressures of coercion and corruption and thereby lessen the cost of doing business as well as the adverse effects on economic growth.

“So let me place the ethics of this flood control issue within the broader national context. The public is now increasingly aware to the fact that the presence of ethical attributes – or their absence – impacts businesses and the economy seriously,” he said.