‘Fitch out of touch with reality’

Get real.

Opposition lawmakers belittled yesterday an apparent international endorsement of the Arroyo administration, saying the London-based credit rating agency Fitch Ratings is "out of touch with reality."

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said Fitch apparently does not know what is happening in the country. The senator said it is not President Arroyo’s decision to withdraw from the 2004 race that is hampering the nation’s economic development and sending jitters to investors.

"It is bad law and order, widespread and unchecked corruption in the bureaucracy, Muslim secession, the huge budget deficit, and similar problems that make up an albatross around the country’s neck," he said.

Pimentel pointed out that if the Arroyo administration could solve these problems, the economy would take off, whether or not the President is running in next year’s elections or not.

"President Gloria Arroyo’s decision not to stand for a second term potentially robs the Philippines of a unique opportunity for policy continuity and leaves wide open a field of barely differentiated presidential hopefuls," Fitch said in a statement the other day.

Pimentel said no rating agency, doomsayer, person or group can predict what direction the country may take after next year’s elections simply because no one can say for sure who will win.

He refused to speculate if there were external factors that could have prompted Fitch’s prediction.

He said if Mrs. Arroyo eventually decides to break her Dec. 30, 2002 public commitment not to run, she would face "a big moral dilemma because that would erode her credibility and the trust of the public in her."

"It would also cast doubt on her promise to see to it that the 2004 national elections would be clean, orderly and credible. It would be illusory to see the President leaving that legacy unless she totally shuns partisan politics," he said.

But if the President decides to run, she would be a formidable opponent since "she is in power and in control of the government machinery… (and) enjoys many advantages that cannot be matched by her opponents," he added.

House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, for his part, disputed Fitch’s finding and said its assessment could have been the handiwork of some people around Mrs. Arroyo who want her to run next year.

"It’s not the decision of GMA (but) the budget deficit and other political and economic factors that would determine the country’s international ratings," Padilla said.

House Assistant Minority Leader Gilbert Remulla also downplayed Fitch’s claim and said the assessment "contradicts itself."

Remulla said Fitch seems to be oblivious to the present economic and political situation in the country that it could commit a grave mistake of attributing the country’s plunging credit rating to Mrs. Arroyo’s withdrawal from the presidential race.

He said that Mrs. Arroyo’s decision not to run has nothing to do with this dip in credit ratings as he pointed out that the main culprit was the President’s mismanagement of the government, particularly the economy, and the culture of corruption that is prevailing in her administration.

"The assessment of Fitch Ratings simply contradicts itself. I think this organization has no idea what is really happening here in the Philippines. The country’s creditworthiness is on a steady dive because we have an acutely mismanaged government and not because we have a President who has decided not to seek another term," Remulla pointed out.

He said that contrary to the observation of Fitch that there is a need for policy continuity in order to upgrade the country’s credit rating, "what is actually needed are policy reforms and a new president."

Fitch has downgraded the country’s long-term foreign currency rating from "BB plus" to "BB" and its rating on the peso from "BBB" to "BB plus."

Remulla, however, suspects that this move by Fitch was artificial" as he claimed that this could be part of a "mind-conditioning ploy of Malacañang’s spin doctors in order to justify Mrs. Arroyo’s turnaround in her earlier declaration that she is not seeking another term."

"This is a subtle form of blackmail. The way, I see it, the Fitch downgrade is part of a ploy to justify the re-entry of Mrs. Arroyo in the presidential race. I don’t know who is behind this but certainly, Fitch is getting their information from the wrong people, most likely from Mrs. Arroyo’s own spin doctors," Remulla claimed. — With Perseus Echeminada