Noy slams GMA’s ‘faulty calculator’

VIENTIANE (via PLDT) – First it was the wheelchair. Now, it’s the calculator.

In yet another Arroyo-bashing episode, President Aquino continued his tirades against his predecessor, whose defective calculator he said seemed to be on automatic addition mode – the reason why her administration was full of anomalies.

“Ibang klaseng calculator po yata ang ginamit nila, at automatic at maya’t maya ang pindot ng addition button (It seems they used a different kind of calculator, which is automatic with the addition button frequently pressed),” Aquino told some 200 Filipinos in the  Mekong II restaurant shortly after his arrival last Sunday.

The President, who is on a two-day visit for the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting here, made the comparison between the previous nine-year administration of Arroyo and his more than two years in office, during which significant changes in government have already been made in such a short time.

He insinuated that Arroyo got her figures all wrong, and probably did not know basic arithmetic, citing the P264 million his administration had saved for the construction of the Araneta-Quezon Avenue underpass, and the bloated importation of rice.

“Based on my predecessor’s computation, the project would cost P694 million. However, Secretary Singson managed to complete the project 100 days ahead of schedule at the cost of P430 million only,” he said, referring to Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson.

Arroyo was Aquino’s professor in Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Apart from the P264-million savings, Aquino also proudly told the Filipino community that Singson of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) – an agency known for large-scale corruption – even managed to save P11.3 billion.

“This is what we call the ‘straight path’ – the benefits go directly to the people and not to the pockets of anybody,” he said, adding that these additional government funds can now be funneled to more sensible projects for the poor.