Confidence - Sketches

Last week European businessmen met with Finance Secretary Jose Pardo and told him the Estrada administration is suffering from a "confidence problem."

If Pardo gave them the same pitch he gave me, he might have dispelled 50 percent of their concerns. The other 50 percent can be dispelled only by President Erap himself. But repackaging the President to inspire investor confidence could be a tough sell even for Pardo, a man who made his mark in retailing.

Confidence is lost, Pardo told me, when you feel there is no focus and direction. A leader, he said, must be able to convince his people that "I have this road map that will help bring you to the Promised Land."

President Erap does have such a road map, Pardo insisted. "We do have a strategic plan. Long term and medium term."

But what about the perception that only the relatives, non-relatives, mares and pares are entering the Promised Land? The Economic Coordinating Council is now putting in place policies "to level the playing field," Pardo replied.

Does he mean these policies will make it hard for anyone to practice cronyism, to exploit their ties to the President? That's one way of putting it, Pardo said.

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I don't know how far the ECC can go since it's chaired by the President and is composed of Cabinet members. But if Pardo is trying to institutionalize safeguards against cronyism, he will be making a lot of enemies.

After brokering that meeting last year among the President, his predecessors Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos and Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, the buzz is that Pardo has become one of President Erap's most trusted advisers. This was reinforced when Edgardo Espiritu resigned, grumbling about corruption, amid rumors that he was eased out by an emerging "We Bulong" cabal that includes Pardo.

Since replacing Espiritu as finance chief, it's been a rough ride for Pardo. Critics say he lacks expertise for his job, that his mind is still focused on trade and industry. He received flak for leading the effort to keep the stock market open, contrary to an order from Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr.

Why did Pardo interfere? "I felt there was something bigger at stake here -- national interest," Pardo said. Mainly he was worried that suspending trading would jeopardize the Philippines' bond float (it later raised $1.6 billion). Now Pardo believes the market is poised for recovery. "It's nearing invasion time," he said.

Despite his optimism, the controversies have made Pardo lose his cool in recent days. He would say only that his job "puts to test personal relationships."

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The relationship that matters, with President Erap, remains good.

"I was never close to him," Pardo recalled. They met for the first time in 1972, when they were among the awardees for The Outstanding Young Men together with Ronaldo Zamora.

When Joseph Estrada became vice president, he recruited Pardo, at the time the head of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as a commissioner of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission. Pardo set up Street Watch 117. He said Estrada must have been pleased "that I was not there to steal the thunder from him."

Now they've grown close, Pardo conceded, and "we seem to communicate."

While they're on the same wavelength, Pardo could convince the President that government should treat each citizen as a customer. "In retailing, the customer is supreme; he who has the money rules," said Pardo, who brought the 7-11 convenience stores and Wendy's fast food chain to the Philippines at the height of political instability in 1983. In attracting investments, he said, the job of government "is to make the easy easier."

Pardo said President Erap agrees with his idea that "the government that rules business least governs best."

The perception, however, is that President Erap is not governing, period. And it will take more than optimistic pronouncements from the finance secretary to dispel such perceptions.

Pardo prefers to look at the bigger picture in the confidence game. He believes the problem lies not just in one person. "We must rethink our game plan," he said. "We must get our act together."