GMA gets perfect grade from former UP professor

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo’s former professor in economics at the University of the Philippines has given her a grade of 1.0 for her poverty-reduction programs and 1.5 for her overall performance in steering the economy.

Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said Gonzalo Jurado, the most senior professor at the UP School of Economics, related that Mrs. Arroyo was one of his students decades ago.

“I’ve known the President from the time she was a student, for the simple reason that she was a member of my class at the University of the Philippines and there I saw the quality of her mind, and for that reason alone, I thought it would be a privilege to help put together a book, putting down her achievements or the achievements of our country under her watch,” said Jurado.

Jurado is senior editor of “Beat the Odds,” a book about Mrs. Arroyo that was written by Olivar. Olivar’s book and another book about the President titled “Beating the Odds,” authored by Ricardo Saludo and Renato Velasco, will be launched today at Malacañang.

Jurado said the President has done a lot during her nine-year presidency, particularly building various infrastructure projects nationwide and her administration’s programs to eradicate poverty and improve the conditions of the poor.

Jurado said that Mrs. Arroyo deserves a grade of 1.0 or the highest that can be given in academics for what was called the “Katas ng VAT” programs, which include a wide range of activities aimed at helping the poor cope with high prices of goods, education and healthcare.

“For merely starting this Katas ng VAT program, I give our President... a grade of 1.0,” he said.

One of the main components of the Katas ng VAT is the conditional cash transfer certificate program or what the government calls its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

The program has been hailed as successful and effective even by the President’s critics and is now a model for other countries.

President-elect Benigno Aquino III, who has been very critical of Mrs. Arroyo, has stated that he would continue the program under his administration.

Jurado also lauded the President’s infrastructure projects completed over the past nine years.

“These projects, programs had a tremendous physical dimension and they can be seen all over our country,” he said.