Local officials led by Binalonan, Pangasinan Mayor Ramon Guico accused the opposition of being “desperate to get back into power” by hiding behind a survey naming President Arroyo as the most corrupt leader in the country’s history.
Guico, president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), said the opposition merely wanted to discredit the administration to mislead the people.
“This is obviously politically motivated and designed to destroy the economic gains of the present government,” Guico said.
He said the survey was part of a grand design to embarrass the Arroyo administration before the people and the international community following the President’s highly successful European visit and a side trip to Kuwait that saved the life of a Filipina overseas worker who was sentenced to death for killing her employer.
Guico noted former senator Serge Osmeña, who worked as campaign manager of the opposition in the May elections, admitted commissioning the Pulse Asia survey.
The survey found 42 percent of Filipinos believed Mrs. Arroyo is the most corrupt Filipino leader of all time, even surpassing the 35 percent of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who allegedly stole billions of dollars during his 20-year rule.
Pulse Asia executive director Ana Maria Tabunda defended their findings as “fair, irrespective of who commissioned it.”