SENATOR Juan Edgardo ‘Sonny’ Angara on Sunday said that the investments in education and health are crucial to sustain the country’s recovery from the impacts of the Covid19 pandemic.

Angara expressed confidence that the country will emerge stronger with the support of its people.

In the next six years and beyond, the senator said there is a window of potential for the country that must be tapped with urgency as the population will start to age within the next two decades.

The key to success, he added, is to build on the gains made by previous administrations and to come up with strong policies that will move the country forward in the coming years.

“The good news is that our economic policies don’t really change. In the past three administrations, difficult fiscal reforms were introduced in order to strengthen the economy and improve the lives of our people,” Angara said.

“Those fiscal reforms set the basis for the investments that the government had to make over the last two decades; investments in education, investments in health, investments in infrastructure. I have seen how things have improved,” he added.

He stressed that in the field of education, the current administration was able to pass the law guaranteeing free education to students in state universities and colleges even though this would cost a lot for the government.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, there’s a lot of gloom and doom. There are definitely clouds on the horizon, but if we have a skillful pilot who can steer us on course, we’ll be good. The Philippines is going to be okay and there’s a chance that we might even be better,” Angara said.