Palace to Roco: Stop fooling the people

Palace aides slammed yesterday presidential aspirant Raul Roco and other candidates for "fooling the people with vague promises and quick-fix solutions" to the country’s festering problems.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye and campaign spokesman Michael Defensor separately tried to parry the tirade Roco unleashed after he was proclaimed presidential candidate of the Alyansa ng Pag-Asa on Sunday.

"It’s very easy for people to criticize government and come up with vague promises and quick-fix solutions but these problems will not have any fast solutions definitely," Bunye said during his daily media briefing at Malacañang yesterday.

"So we urge the other presidentiables not to fool the people with overnight solutions to festering problems," he said.

Bunye deplored the claim that the Arroyo administration has failed to address the basic problems of poverty and criminality.

"There are no quick and fast solutions to the fundamental problems of our nation and other contenders to the presidency should not fool the people by promising an instant whitewash of poverty or of lawlessness," Bunye said.

"We urge other presidentiables to focus on informing the electorate of the specific implementation of their platforms instead of engaging in nebulous attacks or vague promises of instant redemption," he added.

Bunye said poverty and criminality arose from festering inequities and dysfunctions in social reform, economic distribution and the criminal justice system.

"Solutions will not come overnight," he said, stressing, however, that Mrs. Arroyo has the will, vision and capacity to apply realistic and effective solutions to national problems.

‘Not a perfect government’

Defensor, for his part, admitted that the government was not perfect but he expressed confidence that Mrs. Arroyo will continue to work hard at implementing reforms in government.

"Of course we do not have a perfect government. We don’t have a perfect president but we’re trying hard and working hard to respond to the concerns of our people and to bring to them the services that we can," said Defensor, chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

"Secretary Roco worked as education secretary... and he cannot refute the fact that this President worked so hard and tried so hard to bring the reforms and the services to our people," he added.

Defensor said it is not surprising that Mrs. Arroyo’s political foes will charge that her administration has failed to solve problems.

"All the candidates will be saying that we have failed or we have not been able to pass the standards of excellence," he said, stressing that the Arroyo administration stands by its track record.

"I’m very confident on our track record, on the individual performance of the President and the overall performance of this government," he said.

Defensor, who was only recently named presidential campaign spokesman, said he will not resort to name-calling or mudslinging against Mrs. Arroyo’s opponents in next year’s elections.

"We will not be undertaking such efforts as mudslinging or name-calling as the other camps do. We’re confident of our track record and I think this will bring us the victory in the coming elections," Defensor said.

"We will stand on our platform of track record of the President’s accomplishments and of the President’s continuing effort to bring about services to our people and the policies that brought about change and development to our country," he added.