Gloria infrastructure record claim flawed, says Diokno

The Arroyo administration’s claim that it has the best record in setting up infrastructure since the ouster of former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 is flawed and insistence on it “is being intellectually dishonest,” former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said.

Arroyo’s spokesmen, Cerge Remonde and Gary Olivar, have been harping on the claim that President Arroyo built the most number of roads and bridges in her entire nine-year term compared to her three predecessors, former Presidents Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, combined.

“This is not bragging because it is true,” Remonde said.

“The comparison is flawed. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. The correct comparison is number of cemented roads on an annualized basis,” Diokno, currently a professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, said.

Diokno provided The Tribune figures culled from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showing that under Arroyo, the construction of permanent national roads did grow by 19.9 percent and the number of bridges increased by 15.8 percent.

Averaged for the eight years from 2001 to 2008, however, the infrastructure buildup was a mere 2.6 percent a year for national roads permanent and 2.1 percent for national bridges of all types.

It even posted a 0.1 contraction in the yearly average for national roads of all types.

Comparably, the record for national roads was the best during the short two and a half years of the Estrada administration with a 6.8 percent yearly growth from 1998 to 2001, followed by the Ramos administration with a 4.2 percent annual growth from 1992 to 1998, and the Aquino administration with an average growth of 2.7 percent a year between 1986 and 1992. The annualized increase in national roads permanent had the Arroyo administration dead last at an average of 2.6 percent growth between 2001 and 2008.

On the setting up of national bridges, Estrada and Arroyo were almost tied at having the best record with Estrada posting a two percent annualized growth against Arroyo’s 2.1 percent growth.

The annual growth rate for the Aquino administration was 1.4 percent and Ramos, 1.1 percent.

On the setting up of all types of national roads, Arroyo again submitted the worst record of a 0.1 contraction annually, compared to a 2.3 percent average yearly growth for Estrada, 0.8 percent growth for Ramos and 0.2 percent for Aquino.

Remonde, however, had said Diokno’s claim that the performance record of the administration was inaccurate since it is based on a nine-year accumulated figure instead of an annual computation, was merely an effort to justify the shortcomings of the Estrada administration.

“It is not our fault that his administration was short-lived,” Remonde said.

“We stand by our record of having the best performance in terms of infrastructure,” Remonde said citing this as President Arroyo’s greatest legacy to the Filipino people.

Diokno said further Remonde’s claim that most of the debts under Gloria were inherited and she holds the lowest debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio under any recent administrations did not mean that the debt situation was better today.

“The point is that national government debt increased from P2.2 trillion in December 2000 to P4.3 trillion in December 2009. By the end of her term, with ballooning deficits in 2009 and 2010, national public debt is projected to soar to P4.7 trillion. That’s double your debt in 10 years,” Diokno said. What is more relevant is the debt-to-recurring taxes, as a measure of ability to service the debt. That has deteriorated in recent years, he added. –Daily Tribune