Gloria SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 06/28/2010

Gloria

SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 06/28/2010 Nine years of our lives were spent under President Arroyo’s reign. From 2001 to 2009, many of us chafed under a leadership that turned out to be big on words and small on results. The economic brains that promised to handle the problems of the Philippines better than her predecessor lost her credibility in our eyes the minute she blamed the past to justify her less than satisfactory performance early on, then reneged on her word one too many times. As President Arroyo gives way on Wednesday to President Benigno Aquino III, one can’t help but look back at the last decade, which kicked off with a roar of dissatisfaction and ended with a sigh. Numbers don’t lie. Records show that poverty has not lessened throughout the nine years Gloria spent in power, which was longer than those of former Presidents Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, while corruption has flourished. One-third of the nation’s 92 million people are still living below poverty line, while the very rich have gotten even richer. Unemployment has remained depressingly high — higher even than when she became president, according to analysts. Gloria’s term was marked by issues of corruption and human rights abuses, which reverberated louder than her administration’s constant announcements of economic growth. Why? Because while numbers would say that there was, indeed, economic development under the Arroyo leadership, a significant chunk of the population barely felt the results. Arroyo ends her term with a 7.3 percent gross domestic product (GDP), “the highest annual figure in 30 years,” says an AFP report. The President-turned-congresswoman is proud to say that under her leadership, the country posted growth “in the face of global crises like international terrorism, high global oil prices and a worldwide recession.”... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100628com7.html

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