A “smooth transition” and a policy continuity are expected after former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. dominated the recent presidential polls based on partial unofficial results, a research said on Wednesday.
“We expect a smooth transition to the Marcos administration from the outgoing Duterte administration, with little changes in policy direction,” Fitch Solutions Country Risk and Industry Research said.
“We had previously noted that Marcos is the continuity candidate as his economic and foreign policy stances are most similar to the outgoing Duterte administration. His election win, therefore, bodes well for policy continuity in the Philippines,” the research added.
Although President Rodrigo Duterte declined to publicly pronounce support for any presidential bet, his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is also poised to become the next vice president, is Marcos’ running mate.
With Marcos set to become the country’s 17th president based on the partial unofficial result, Fitch Solutions said it has raised the country’s “Policy Continuity” subcomponent score to 80 from 70.
“Going forward, we expect the change in administration to result in only negligible changes to both economic and foreign policy direction,” it said.
Moreover, the research said it had also raised the Philippine Short-Term Political Risk Index Score to 66.5 out of 100, from 64 “after unofficial results showed that Marcos had won the May 9 presidential election with a landslide victory.”
Marcos has so far garnered over 31 million votes while his rival, Vice President Leni Robredo, has over 14 million.