Duterte pitches rebound proposal for Philippines

Bloomberg

President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for corporate tax cuts and targeted support for pandemic-hit industries as part of a recovery plan, and told lawmakers on Monday he’d asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help the Philippines get
priority access to a Covid-19 vaccine.
In his annual congressional address, Duterte also attacked the elite, while asking banks and property companies to help small businesses reeling from the pandemic. He sought to revitalise his $162.44 billion infrastructure program to lift the economy that’s facing its deepest contraction in three decades.
“A dream of prosperity for our country was snapped by a pandemic,” Duterte said in his speech, delivered before a sparse audience of lawmakers amid the virus outbreak that has infected over 80,000 in the Southeast Asian nation.
Although Duterte spoke for more than 90 minutes, the recovery measures he presented “are still unclear,” said AB Capital Securities Inc deputy head of research Lexter Azurin.
“The market’s hoping for an assurance from the government that it is on top of all the problems now,” Azurin said “This should further dampen sentiment in our already beaten up local market.”