Rhetoric vs reality She Says Dinah Ventura 06/22/2009

Rhetoric vs reality SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 06/22/2009 This year’s upcoming State of the Nation Address (Sona) will be President Gloria Arroyo’s last, before she steps down in 2010. The yearly Sona, since Arroyo assumed the presidency, has been called many things — “political theater,” “a farce,” “narrow,” “insubstantial,” among others — none, it seems, ever flattering. Administration allies often dismiss these criticisms as either sour-graping or attempting to discredit the leadership. Even Arroyo’s ’08 speech, which on closer analysis was found to contain a profusion of discrepancies (fact vs figure = go figure!), led people to believe that her government has accomplished so much more than it actually has. Faced with enough criticism to crumble a weaker man (or woman), one might conclude that it is her callousness that has made Arroyo survive all these years. During her term critics have been harassed and reduced, and human rights violations have garnered the attention of international bodies. This government does not take critics as lightly as Malacañang spokesmen would like the public to believe. Behind the scenes, deaths and threats of deaths have been recorded, and if not, your space and livelihood are invaded by the arms of the law. Time and again, Arroyo has said she is more of a good manager than an inspiring leader. Her minions praise the way she buckles down to work regardless of the endless barrage of criticism directed her way. Anyone else would have crumbled at the pressure, but not she, the determined workhorse. Through the last nine years, Arroyo has suffered from a consistent negative image as revealed in surveys conducted by different agencies. The Pulse Asia October 2007 survey said 42 percent of Filipinos thought the President was the “most corrupt” President in the history of the Philippines since the Marcos administration. The SWS July 2008 survey showed that Arroyo got a -38 net satisfaction rating on her performance, which was said to be “a new record low for Presidents since 1986.” The Pulse Asia survey of July 2008 said that 40 percent of respondents thought Arroyo’s 2008 Sona would be “untruthful” while 46 percent believed past Sonas were untruthful. Furthermore, the Pulse Asia survey May 2009 survey revealed that Arroyo is the most publicly distrusted official in the Philippines, with 46 percent of Filipinos critical of her performance. President Arroyo posted the highest disapproval ratings (43 to 60 percent) in all geographic areas and socio-economic classes, according to Pulse Asia. Even Speaker Prospero Nograles got very low approval ratings, and it is publicly acknowledged that he is a loyal ally of the President. Through the last nine years, Arroyo has been besieged with challenges, from a fluctuating economy to violence in Mindanao to an attempted overthrow to election fraud allegations to numerous corruption controversies. Since she stepped into power, the country has continued to suffer from rising unemployment, rising prices, hunger, poverty, injustice and poor quality of education. When she gives her Sona this year, the country also faces problems with the uncontrolled spread of the swine flu, as well as fears of a forced constituent assembly (con-ass) on the day itself. No other president has suffered such unpopularity as Gloria Arroyo. Records show she is “the only President since 1986 when the SWS surveys on Philippine Presidents began, to ever receive negative net performance ratings, and for persisting periods, at that. Even the predecessor she helped depose, President Joseph Estrada, never crossed the neutral or zero level satisfaction rating. Well into the height of the “Erap Resign” demonstrations led by two former Presidents and herself, the business elite and the Roman Catholic Church, Estrada held on to a +9 net public satisfaction rating in the Dec. 8 to17 last quarter survey of 2000,” says political observer Jesusa Bernardo on newsvine.com, who further concludes: “Arroyo’s continued unsatisfactory performance betrays her callous regard of what the Filipinos think.” Is it any wonder her Sonas are also regarded with such contempt? Source:  The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20090622com7.html

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