GMA to Noynoy: ‘It’s the economy, student!’

GLORIA CALLS NOY ‘LAZY, VISIONLESS, OBSESSED WITH POLITICAL WARFARE’

Former President Gloria Arroyo didn’t say “It’s the economy, Stupid in her article read by a US-trained economist, but it had the same ring as the slogan used by then US presidential candidate, Bill Clinton, who ended up winning the presidency twice.

The country has a “lazy” president who has no “plans and visions” which were the reason for the local economy to slow down late last year and that may continue to weaken this year, a US-trained Filipino economist said yesterday.

Unless President Aquino puts an end to “politicking” and starts doing some serious work on the economy, Dr. Gonzalo Jurado said the country would be heading nowhere and millions of Filipinos would remain in utter poverty.

Jurado, who earned his masteral degree in economics from the University of the Philippines and the University of Wisconsin, made the strong pronouncements at the Manila Hotel where he was tasked to read an article written by the former president, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, while being detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Entitled “It’s the Economy, Student!” the article expresses Arroyo’s take on the present economy and how Aquino, who was her student in an economics class in Ateneo before, is losing the gains reaped by the previous government.

In her piece, Arroyo said she was able to turn over to Aquino in 2010 “a new Philippines with a 7.9 percent growth rate which capped 38 quarters of uninterrupted economic growth despite escalating global oil and food prices, two world recessions, Central and West Asian wars, mega-storms and virulent global epidemics.

Arroyo lamented that the country’s growth in the third quarter of 2011 was ony 3.2 percent which is well below all the forecasts that had already been successively downgraded.

The former president noted the increasing vacuum of leadership, vision, energy and execution in managing the country’s economic affairs.

“The gains achieved by previous administration—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 administration,” Arroyo said.

Nevertheless, she said no amount of black propaganda can erase the tangible improvements enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of families liberated from want during her decade at the helm of the nation.

As if still teaching Aquino, Arroyo said the government must pursue the economic growth of the country as the permanent solution to the age-old problems of poverty and even corruption.

“Only by enlarging the economic pie can the be more bigger slices for everyone to enjoy,” she said.

She also assailed Aquino for “stealing other’s achievements and taking credit for something that was already in place when he assumed office. “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,” said Arroyo.

The “economic paper” read by University of the Philippines economics professor Gonzalo Jurado, accused the Aquino administration of trying to erase her legacy by character assassination.

“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,” said Arroyo.

The detained Arroyo added that her former student doesn’t have the “will and the skill to properly navigate such uncertain waters,” apparently referring to the problems that hounded the country since she stepped down.” Specifically, Arroyo cited the bungled Luneta hostage situation in 2010, failure to rescue Filipinos from death row in China, failure to promptly evacuate Filipinos during the Japan earthquake, and inability to secure the safety of overseas workers from the political unrest in Libya .

Moreover, Aquino gets all the blame for what she said is the continued high poverty incidence in the country, and inability to shield the country from the global economic crisis by uncertain economic policies.

But Jurado is no mood to teach Aquino. “I am not about to educate the president. Let him do his job,” Jurado said.

After reading Arroyo’s paper before mediamen, former government officials and representatives from urban poor organizations, Jurado criticized Aquino whom he blamed for the continued deterioration of the peoples’ economic plight.

“Except for vilifying people, he (Aquino) clearly has no vision and execution as to where the country should go. What kind of a government do we have now,” Jurado said during the question and answer portion of the colloquium.

“He should contribute enlightenment to the issues like those concerning the economy but he’s all child’s play. He can’t level with serious minded people,” the economist said.

A former professor of Arroyo in UP, Jurado challenged Aquino to act like a president because the latter owes it to the people. “Be a president! Rally us in moving the country forward!,” he called on Aquino.

Jurado could not hide his utter dismay over Aquino’s failure to properly handle the country’s economic affairs and said he would not even give the president a passing grade if the latter’s performance is to be rated in his class.

“He would not even get a mark of 5. Not even 10 if there is such,” Jurado remarked.

Questions were raised as to how Arroyo graded Aquino in her economic class but Jurado and other personalities running the event including former palace official Gary Olivar refused to answer the querie saying such is a personal matter.

Nevertheless, Elena Bautista Horn, Arroyo’s spokesperson, revealed that Aquino got a “passing grade” from his former teacher. “This is precisely why she is very much disappointed with President Aquino’s showing,” Horn said.

According to Horn, Arroyo started writing her piece in October 2011 and finished it on December on the same year. She said the former president made the article despite her medical condition to show the public how active her mind is and how close economics is to the former president.

But Jurado believes that Arroyo’s article is aimed to remind Aquino that there are other important matters the president has to attend to aside from going after former government officials suspected of commiting graft and corruption.

“I do believe that what she’s saying is that the president can go ahead vilifying people but he should not forget the other needs of the people,” he said.

For his part, Olivar said the present administration is neglecting relevant functions of the government such as generating jobs, price control and providing the people the basic services in health, education, and food.

“The President should also give attention to the basic needs of the people. That’s his job. But he is not doing his job,” Olivar said.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda however called the “economic study” of Arroyo a political manifesto designed to paint a grim picture of the Philippine economy under the Aquino administration.

Lacierda said that the Arroyo’s claim is apparently designed to cover up the blunders under her administration. He added that the former president must have forgotten to consider the global economic factors that adversely affected most countries in the world. “Let’s not try to isolate factors here. Overall the global economy went down”.

Lacierda added that Arroyo is not in a position to talk of economic growth even if she’s an economics professor — “What’s the point? Do you want someone who was an economics professor who ran this country, who damaged the institutions? Do you prefer an economics professor who instead of strengthening the institutions has caused severe damages to the institution and whose credibility has sunk lower than President Marcos?”

He went on to say that it was under the Aquino administration that the country posted inclusive growth, give justice where it is due, transparency and accountability among many other things.

“We have hastened the pace of justice, we have not come up with new ways of corruption that is why we are driving away, we are curbing corruption, we are finding ways improving the justice system here in the country”.

Lacierda also urged the former President to drop the idea of trying to escape — “We would like to request the former president no longer to run away from the country, face the justice system here in this country”.

Arroyo’s spokesman Horn sent a text message to this reporter which reads: “Lacierda is a lawyer-mouthpiece, not an economist. Even his legal views are now in question among his peers and other constitutionalists. His politically pre-occupied mind deserves no reaction. He should review all the anemic data available coming from the IMF, the World Bank, ADB, NSO, BSP, NSCB and the recent Pulse Asia survey. Until then, he won’t get a response from us. IT’S THE ECONOMY, LACIERDA.” –Mario F. Fetalino Jr. and Fernan Angeles, Daily Tribune