There's a surplus of power on the main island of Luzon but no way of getting it to the juice-starved southern island of Mindanao. Plans to build new highways to Subic Bay and a port in southern Luzon have gone nowhere. Only a two-lane road connects Manila with the northern city of Baguio. That means trucks loaded with semiconductor chips from Texas Instruments Inc.'s big Baguio plant must jostle for space with tractors towing sugar cane. And then, of course, there is Arroyo's promise to help the poor.
Education reform is key.
Many poor Filipinos don't finish high school. The Education Department has been a political fiefdom, and Arroyo's new Education Secretary, Raul Roco, has vowed to raise teachers' salaries and stop the flow of kickbacks from publishers of substandard textbooks. To help pay for roads, ports, and education programs, the new government needs to collect more taxes. The courts have ordered individuals and companies to pay up, but Romulo says the Estrada government did nothing to enforce the orders. He vows to get tough with scofflaws.