President Arroyo in Cebu

Blurb: 'The Cebuanos were almost of one mind in their support of GMA's candidacy.'

It was a good thing for President Arroyo to visit Cebu despite the swirling controversy in the capital city. Although she appeared calm and in control, she must have been feeling the pressure of it all. That was the reason perhaps why they sneaked a visit to this province, knowing for sure that the Cebuanos have a soft spot in their hearts for her.

This is something phenomenal because by tradition Cebu is an opposition country. In previous elections, administration candidates always got a beating here. In fact, even during Martial Law, when to be anti-administration was an unhealthy option, Cebu stubbornly refused to get cozy with Malacañang. Remember the Pusyon Bisaya? Even the dictator President was forced to concede defeat for his candidates - so overwhelming was the popular rejection of his regime.

With the 2004 elections, however, the Cebuanos were almost united in siding with GMA, the administration candidate. Why the break from tradition? The reason was that reason prevailed against tradition. Among the four presidential candidates, GMA was perceived as the least politics-driven and the most intellectually competent. Moreover, she stood on a higher moral ground than any of them and her track record was appreciable. These factors considered, the Cebuanos were almost of one mind in their support of GMA's candidacy.

That's why it was a great insult to us Cebuanos when a local congresswoman recently claimed GMA cheated in Cebu. Cebuanos are intelligent voters. They don't go for candidates with a "kill" mentality, nor for those whose kind of public service was tainted with political maneuvers and managerial grandstanding. As for movie idols turn politicians, they simply couldn't stomach the idea. Besides, why should a popularly accepted candidate try to cheat in a province where her banner was flying high? To many Cebuanos the congresswoman's allegation appeared like a sob story of a poor loser.

To go back to GMA's Cebu visit, the whole affair speaks well of a leader who is trying hard to push up front her development agenda despite attempts to pull the rug from under her feet. In the backwoods of a southern town, she switched on an electrification project which energized more than a thousand barangays, an initiative which to date has benefited 93 percent of the 45, 000 barangays in the country. Later in the day she spoke to an international gathering of businessmen and electronics specialists during the opening ceremony of the First International Conference and Exhibition on Business and Information Technology. There she reiterated her commitment "to push for more for the country by expanding more opportunities to bring prosperity and dignity to our people…" This forum was a major step towards making Cebu an ICT hub in this part of the country, a project which dovetails with the government's socio-economic thrusts.

Indeed, in the last four years there have been some positive developments on the economy. Year-on-year inflation, a perennial problem, was pegged at 3.1% in 2002 and 2003 although in 2004 this rose to between 4% to 5% and increased to 5.5% in 2005. As a result, domestic interest rates have tapered significantly aided by a stable monetary policy. Moreover, spending restraint enabled the government to control the 2003 budget deficit to 4.6% of GDP, a development which was favorable to the budget balancing objective targeted for 2009.

GMA's administration has also spearheaded a number of legislative enactments favorable to economic growth. One of these was the anti-money laundering law which saved the country from being subjected to a counter-measure by the OECD financial action Task Force (FATF). Another was the law privatizing the energy sector, and still another was the one on reforming the procurement system. The Securitization Act established the necessary infrastructure and market environment for a wide range of asset backed securities. There were other moves, which despite pressures on mounting external debt, worrisome law and order and insufficient infrastructure, could have brought back our economic to its feet.

But with the current attempt to destabilize the administration, we are getting back to square one. Unless we put our acts together and join hands to work for our country's progress, we will remain a begging-bowl country in Asia.