The Rotary Balita no. 738 (January 28, 1954).

President Ramon Magsaysay's message to Congress in joint session gave heartening news to both local and foreign business interests in the Philippines. In that address to the legislature, the President laid down the government's policy to withdraw from industrial undertakings which properly belong to private business, except when it is absolutely essential for the government to carry on for the national interest. This policy is the practical application of economic democracy, for free enterprise is the essence of democracy itself and state control of industry contravenes that spirit Adequate protection for foreign investments in the country was also pledged by the President, who reiterated his invitation to foreign capital to come on the basis of mutual benefits. To business, therefore, the President's words were not merely an assertion of opportunity but they were also a challenge to business to take over from the government in the fields which properly belong to them.