Philippine businesses will just navigate through the ongoing political noise and are expected to remain resilient, knowing it is nothing they have not seen before.

On the sidelines of the Shareholders’ Association of the Philippines (SharePHIL) General Membership Meeting (GMM) in Makati City Wednesday, its chairperson Ma. Aurora Geotina-Garcia said the business community has faced similar challenges in the past and will continue to adapt.

“This is not the first time we're going through this exercise. So I think, historically, the business community is able to thrive and respond to this kind of challenges,” Garcia said. “So we will carry, and we can live through it.”

Garcia said investors would always look at stability and certainty in the environment, adding that these are critical to maintaining business confidence.

“The main question now is: where is this heading? How will it be resolved? For investors, stability and certainty are important,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.

“They just need to know that there will be a resolution at some point,” Garcia added.

She noted that businesses have been through the recent pandemic and were able to navigate through it.

“We can survive it. Again, it's another one of those things which typically happens, right? As Covid did and, you know, all sides of political development," Garcia said. "Whatever happens, business will continue."

So far, the current political noise has had little to no impact on some major players, like the businesses led by the Consunji family, who operates mining, energy, utilities and infrastructure companies.

“So far, we did not feel anything,” Semirara Mining and Power Corp. president Maria Cristina Gotianun told reporters on the sidelines of SharePHIL’s GMM.

Gotianun said the group expects the situation to be business as usual moving forward. 

PNA PHOTO