Kung walang alam, mas maraming mahirap
By Charlie Manalo
When Noynoy Aquino ran for president last year, his platform of governance was built on the slogan, “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” And with that slogan alone, he successfully fooled people to believing that corruption is the root cause of poverty. Eradicate corruption and you eradicate poverty.
Now, almost a year and a-half after assuming office, more people are saying they have become poorer and are growing hungrier. This, despite Noynoy’s all-out campaign against his predecessor whom he accuses of being the most corrupt administration the country has ever had, bleeding the country’s coffer dry. Being the most corrupt administration, Noynoy further blames the Arroyo government for raising the poverty incident in the country, the worst this nation had ever experienced.
But wasn’t the country’s economy in a robust state when Noynoy took over the Arroyo administration? He in fact admitted that his administration had inherited a healthy economy from his predecessor.
For nine consecutive years, despite the global financial crisis that burst in 2007, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo was able to keep the country’s economic situation afloat, sustaining an average of 8 percent annual economic growth.
In fact, in the first quarter of last year, the country posted an 8.4 percent economic growth, the highest in years. However, three quarters later, under the Aquino administration, the country’s economic growth dipped to 7.6 percent.
Funny thing is that Noynoy was still ecstatic over the 7.6 percent growth and appeared claiming the credit to be his.
Now comes the real picture. With the economic gains of the Arroyo administration totally wiped out and with Noynoy now all on his own, the country’s economic condition is now in dire straits.
With his lack of vision and execution, aggravated by his obsession to persecute the Arroyos (in his attempt to validate his slogan), Noynoy is leading the country’s economy to a crash-and-burn disaster. And this can be confirmed from the latest official economic statistics for the third quarter of 2011 released by the government’s own agency, the National Statistics Coordination Board, showing economic growth slumping to a measly 3.2 percent growth, well below the consensus forecast of over 4 percent, and weaker than the second quarter’s 3.4 percent growth.
As a result, the projected growth for the first three quarters of 2011 had been lowered to 3.6 percent, well below the original low-end target of 4.5 percent for the entire year.
A few days back, the World Bank had also downgraded its growth forecast for the country from 5 to 4.2 percent this year and from 5.4 to 4.8 percent next year.
And this is aside from the reports that the local stock market is plunging.
The result? Last month, the Social Weather Station (which survey on Noynoy’s trust rating had been the subject of questions by some sectors) reported that hunger among the Filipinos had worsened by more than 6 percent, from 15.1 percent last June to 21.5 percent in September, which effectively set a new record-high of 4.3 million hungry Filipino families.
But if surveys show that Noynoy is enjoying a high rating for his anti-corruption drive, then it would be safe to assume he is effective in his anti-corruption campaign. However, with the latest statistics showing that more Filipinos are becoming poorer, it would be in direct contradiction with Noynoy’s high trust rating regarding his anti-corruption drive which would mean he is failing miserably in that area. Would it be safe to say that there are more corrupt officials now as evidenced with the growing number of poor Filipinos?
Or, that it would only show that an anti-corruption drive, no matter how noble and successful it is, is not the heart and soul of a successful governance?
Since assuming office, this administration had developed a penchant for not spending its budget for the purposes they are intended for.
Two months back, it was reported that out of the P1.645-trillion budget earmarked for 2011, it still has to spend P1.08 trillion. Latest reports from sources say the government is expecting around P300 billion in savings this year which means it would no longer be spending that amount.
And with this government’s penchant for underspending, the economic gains left by the Arroyo administration, lost steam and headed down to earth. The Aquino administration simply failed to sustain the economic growth of its predecessor and still continues to refuse to spend to pump-prime the economy.
Instead of being alarmed by the downgrading of the World Bank of the country’s economic growth forecast and the plummeting of the local stock market, Noynoy has remained steadfast, refusing to work hard and come up with his own ideas and actions to reverse or even neutralize the situation, focusing instead his energy on persecuting the Arroyos, even disregarding the rule of law and inciting mob rule against the former First Family, hoping to distract public attention from his dismal performance.
But is Noynoy only that stubborn to refuse to pursue activities which would pump-prime the economy? Or is he really that incompetent?
This writer is inclined to go for the latter. With almost a year and a-half now in office, the people have yet to hear a single economic program laid down for implementation by this administration. His much ballyhooed public-private-partnership has yet to be implemented as no implementing rules and guidelines have been executed yet. Infrastructure projects have been put on hold pending their review.
Review? Until when? Noynoy’s inactions are already taking its toll on the people! This is becoming unacceptable. It only manifests his incompetence to govern and lead this country, resulting in wide-spread poverty which his vaunted conditional cash transfer can not even arrest.
This is the height of incompetence for a country’s leader. The more Noynoy stays in power, the deeper he will get us into the quagmire of economic damnation.
And as my favorite congressman aptly puts it, “Kung walang alam, mas maraming mahirap.” And Noynoy is the best poster boy for this.
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