BBM’s dream world

Emperors and presidents fall for it. Hans Christian Andersen wrote a children’s tale about it, The Emperor’s New Clothes. We all know how that ends.

BBM or Trump live in their own dream world detached from the realities of life that the people they lead live. Their detachment is aggravated by a cordon sanitaire of aides who isolate them from bad news.

It should be impossible to be so cocooned from reality in today’s social media age. Trump even has his own social media company that allows him to go straight to the people, bypassing the gatekeeping mass media. But he only chooses to believe what he wants to believe.

With BBM, he might have acquired this detachment from reality from his “rich kid” upbringing. He is also getting bad advice from butt-sucking advisers on what to publicly believe. If this goes on, it will be his end sooner than it should be.

How can BBM say with a straight face that business or investor confidence in the Philippine economy has been “restored?” In his dreams, right? But that’s what he said in a press conference in South Korea. That reduces whatever credibility he has left.

“If we had not exposed it, then they would be saying that there’s a problem. Now that we have exposed it, their confidence is stronger in the Philippines. The level of confidence in the Philippine economy … is restored,” BBM claimed in a press conference in Gyeongju, South Korea.

But publicly claiming exposing corruption and doing some concrete actions to make the corrupt accountable are two different things.

It is delusional for BBM to believe he has done his job by “exposing” the DPWH ghost projects. Hay naku! BBM should realize his work has just started.

All BBM has done so far is change the DPWH Secretary and appoint an investigative commission. That’s hardly enough for investors to think that the government is serious about reform.

After almost half a year since the scandal erupted, no one is yet on trial for the trillion pesos worth of ghost and substandard projects. One former congressman has escaped to Europe and his private planes and helicopters flown to neighboring countries.

No wonder some business groups disputed the claim that confidence is fully restored, saying that full confidence has not yet returned and that the country remains “in the process” of rebuilding trust.

The Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP) President said it is “not quite accurate” to say confidence is restored, but acknowledged perceivable efforts by the government.

A recent Pulse Asia survey (Sept. 27–30 2025) found that 97 percent of Filipino adults believe corruption in government is widespread. Fewer than a third of respondents consider BBM trustworthy to address the issue. That’s a reality BBM must address.

It is also more likely that investors, local and foreign, are reassessing the risks posed by ongoing corruption scandals. The Philippine Stock Exchange is now the worst performing in the region as investors flee. And the peso is in a free fall even as some ASEAN currencies are appreciating.

Indeed, the general feeling is that the Marcos administration may be underestimating public outrage and its potential political consequences. If so, it is wrong for BBM to think he can manage the upsurge of outrage against corruption and isolate the presidency itself from the mess. After all, BBM signed the 2025 budget that made the raid on the Treasury possible.

The business community earlier released an open letter condemning the large-scale corruption in the country and demanding accountability. They don’t think BBM has done enough. They urged him to take “bold and concrete actions” to counter rampant corruption and rebuild public trust. They lamented the lack of effective follow-through despite investigations.

Business confidence, contrary to what BBM believes, is low. According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Business Expectations Survey – Q3 2025, the overall business confidence index dropped to 23.2?percent in Q3 from 28.8?percent in Q2.

In short, while BBM pointed to “restored” confidence, the data show moderating or even declining business sentiment in recent quarters.

Last Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that our GDP for Q3 of 2025 was just four percent, a sharp decline from the 5.5 percent in the second quarter. This will likely make the administration’s full year target of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent almost impossible to attain.

Curiously, all 18 economists/analysts polled by BusinessWorld on their projected 3Q GDP were way off the mark. They were all confident with estimates ranging from 5.9 percent to 4.7 percent.

It made me wonder what all of them were smoking or drinking. One of them, Jonathan Ravelas, told me he was counting on tailwinds from the midterm election spending and recovery of consumption as inflation slows down.

Ravelas said he was expecting a knock-off effect as consumer spending is 70 percent of our economy. As it turned out, household consumption was also slower, growing by only 4.1 percent.

The details are revealing. Services expanded by 5.5 percent, agriculture by 2.8 percent, industry only by 0.7 percent. Within construction’s 0.5-percent decline, government construction plummeted by 26.2 percent while private construction surged by 14.4 percent. Gross capital formation fell by 2.8 percent after growing by 12.8 percent a year earlier.

During Q3 2024, there was 12.8 percent investment growth. Compare that to Q3 2025’s negative 2.8 percent.

Now in panic over unsightly macroeconomic data, BBM has ordered the release of P1.307 trillion for fourth quarter spending including help for typhoon victims. But they intend to spend that trillion pesos in ayuda-like disbursement to boost consumer spending and save face with a more decent full year GDP number.

But as Joey Salceda puts it: “Aid is temporary; infrastructure is permanent. Aid treats symptoms; infrastructure prevents them…”

Hay naku pa rin! That desperate spending strategy will not make our economy robust. BBM would be fooling himself like Hans Christian Andersen’s Emperor.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco