GMA to Noy: It's the economy, student!

MANILA, Philippines - Even under hospital detention, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo managed to write a lengthy critique of the performance of her former student, President Aquino, saying his seeming obsession with political vendetta and “lethargy” led to the country’s economic slowdown in just 18 months.

The nine-page paper, titled “It’s the economy, student!” was read by her former economics professor Dr. Gonzalo Jurado of the University of the

Philippines yesterday at the Manila Hotel attended by some former Cabinet officials and representatives of urban poor groups.

The title was a play on the successful campaign slogan of former US President Bill Clinton – Arroyo’s former classmate at Georgetown University – in the 1992 presidential elections. Arroyo taught economics in the Ateneo de Manila and Aquino was one of her students.

Arroyo said in the past 18 months, she has noted with “sadness the increasing vacuum of leadership, vision, energy and execution in managing our economic affairs.”

She said from a high growth of 7.9 percent when she turned over the government to Aquino in 2010, the country’s economy grew only by 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2011, well below forecasts that have already been successively downgraded.

“The gains achieved by previous administrations – mine included – are being squandered in an obsessive pursuit of political warfare meant to blacken

the past and conceal the dark corners of the present dispensation,” the former leader said.

“Rather than building on our nation’s achievements, this regime has extolled itself as the sole harbinger of all that is good. And the Filipino people are paying for this obsession – in slumping growth, under-achieving government, escalating crime and conflict, and the excesses of a presidential clique that enjoys fancy cars and gun culture,” she said.

She said she fully understands the President has to be a politician like every elected official “but what really matters is what kind of politics we espouse, not how much. The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ego above country and sensationalism above rationality; when we make everyday politics replace long-term vision in our country’s hour of need.”

She warned of the possibility of a double-dip recession in the global economy that the Philippines managed to escape the first time during her term but may not be able to avoid again.

Arroyo said no amount of black propaganda can erase the tangible results of her administration, including the changing skyline brought by private investments and roads, bridges, and ports because of government spending.

She said fighting poverty is complicated and is tied with the problem of corruption and the urgent need to advance growth.

“Unfortunately, the present administration has chosen to turn the problem upside down, anchoring their entire development strategy on one simplistic slogan: ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap’. If there is no corruption, there is no poverty – this is a proposition that also tells us that the undeniable persistence of poverty to this day therefore means the

continuation of corruption under this administration,” Arroyo said.

She cited the comment of The Economist that “…The President’s approach to fighting corruption… is to punish the sins of the past rather than try to

prevent crime in the future. Mr. Aquino has proposed few reforms to the system.”

Arroyo hit Aquino for grabbing credit and that he tried to “flatter” her by parroting her policy pronouncements on various issues but at the same time tried to “frustrate” her by distorting what she did.

“Indeed, it’s so easy to claim achievements that have already been accomplished by others, and take credit for what is there when the one who did the work has gone. Just make sure she is forgotten, or, if remembered, vilified,” Arroyo said.

She also took a swipe on the issue of the 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita, which used to be owned by Aquino’s family, but the Supreme Court ruled that

it must be turned over to the farmer-tenants.

“And of course it is the landowners who must set the example of compliance with the law in order to allow the rest of us to move forward – such as the

Arroyos in my husband’s family, who voluntarily submitted long ago to land reform even without an order from the Supreme Court to do the right thing,” she said.

Arroyo said Aquino’s “politics of division” is not only the cause of the country’s slowdown but also failure of the current administration to address or prepare for various crises. She said in running after alleged wrongdoers, the President must not neglect other pressing concerns.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to plain hard work. A president must work harder than everyone else. And no matter what he thinks he was elected

to do – even if that includes running after alleged offenders in the past – he must not neglect the bread and butter issues that preoccupy most of our

people most of the time: keeping prices down, creating more jobs, providing basic services, securing the peace, pursuing the high economic growth that

is the only way to vault our country into the ranks of developed economies,” she said.

“Unfortunately, planning and preparation seem to be absent from this administration, whether it’s for taking OFWs out of harm’s way on short notice, or evacuating flood victims – or rescuing foreign tourists held hostage by a crazed gunman. By comparison to that incident, not a single life was ever lost in all the coup attempts against me that I had to put down by force. There is no secret behind this: be it against any crisis, implemented with hands-on leadership from the very top,” she added.

The lawmaker also chided Aquino for “absenteeism” and for coming to work late and leaving early. She said nothing can be achieved if the Cabinet

meets only four times a year.

She hit her successor for exercising double standard in fighting graft and corruption as he has excused or defended his friends in government even from misdeeds committed in full view of the public.

“Neither the President nor anyone else can truly expect to govern the next five years with nothing but a sorry mix of vilification, periodically recycled promises of action followed by lethargy, backed up by few if any results, and presumptuously encouraging gossip about one’s love life in which no one can possibly be interested. Given the electoral mandate that he enjoyed in 2010 – the same size as mine in 2004, as predicted by every survey organization at that time - our people deserve more, and better, from him,” Arroyo said.