By Shielo Mendoza
Detained ex-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lashed back at her former student, now President Benigno Aquino III at a subject she believes she knows best: economics.
In her written article “It’s the economy, student,” published in full by Rappler.com, Arroyo emphasized Aquino's supposed inability to improve PH's economy.
Arroyo, who holds a doctorate degree in economy from the UP School of Economics, was Aquino’s former economics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University.
“In the last year and a half, I have noted with sadness the increasing vacuum of leadership, vision, energy and execution in managing our economic affairs,” she said.
The now Pampanga representative claimed that when she stepped down from the presidency in 2010, PH had good numbers, with a 7.9% growth rate.
“By the time I left the Presidency, nearly 9 out of 10 Filipinos had access to health insurance, more than 100,000 new classrooms had been built, 9 million jobs had been created.
“I am confident that I left this nation much stronger than when I came into office. When I stepped down, I called on everyone to unite behind our new leaders. I was optimistic and I was hopeful about our future,” Arroyo added.
However, she said her optimism was “misplaced” as evidence showed that the country’s growth in the third quarter of 2011 was only 3.2 percent.
“The momentum inherited by President Aquino from my administration is slowing down, and despite his initial brief honeymoon period, he has simply not replaced my legacy with new ideas and actions of his own,” the arrested ex-president said.
Arroyo said she wrote the article on and off while recuperating from pinched nerve, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December in 2011.
‘Too much politics’
Arroyo also hit Aquino's supposed obsession against corruption in expense of the country’s growth.
Arroyo, who has been the subject of Aquino's main goal to curb corruption, was arrested for poll fraud charges and is now detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
“Rather than building on our nation’s achievements, this regime has extolled itself as the sole harbinger of all that is good. And the Filipino people are paying for this obsession--in slumping growth, under-achieving government, escalating crime and conflict, and the excesses of a presidential clique that enjoys fancy cars and gun culture,” she said.
“The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ego above country and sensationalism above rationality; when we make everyday politics replace long-term vision in our country’s hour of need,” added Arroyo.
The former president further criticized Aquino’s development strategy based on the slogan: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
She noted the "undeniable persistence of poverty to this day therefore means the continuation of corruption” under Aquino’s administration.
Advice for Aquino
After all the critiques, Arroyo lectured Aquino how to become a better president.
“A president must work harder than everyone else. And no matter what he thinks he was elected to do — even if that includes running after alleged offenders in the past — he must not neglect the bread and butter issues that preoccupy most of our people most of the time: keeping prices down, creating more jobs, providing basic services, securing the peace, pursuing the high economic growth that is the only way to vault our country into the ranks of developed economies,” she said.
The former president added that good management begins with planning ahead, which she said this administration lacks.
Good leadership also means not pointing fingers and blaming others, after the fact--whether it’s for taking OFWs out of harm’s way on short notice, evacuating flood victims or rescuing foreign tourists held hostage by a crazed gunman, said Arroyo.
“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.
“Given the electoral mandate that he enjoyed in 2010—the same size as mine in 2004, as predicted by every survey organization at that time—our people deserve more, and better, from him,” Arroyo concluded.
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Detained ex-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lashed back at her former student, now President Benigno Aquino III at a subject she believes she knows best: economics.
In her written article “It’s the economy, student,” published in full by Rappler.com, Arroyo emphasized Aquino's supposed inability to improve PH's economy.
Arroyo, who holds a doctorate degree in economy from the UP School of Economics, was Aquino’s former economics professor at the Ateneo de Manila University.
“In the last year and a half, I have noted with sadness the increasing vacuum of leadership, vision, energy and execution in managing our economic affairs,” she said.
The now Pampanga representative claimed that when she stepped down from the presidency in 2010, PH had good numbers, with a 7.9% growth rate.
“By the time I left the Presidency, nearly 9 out of 10 Filipinos had access to health insurance, more than 100,000 new classrooms had been built, 9 million jobs had been created.
“I am confident that I left this nation much stronger than when I came into office. When I stepped down, I called on everyone to unite behind our new leaders. I was optimistic and I was hopeful about our future,” Arroyo added.
However, she said her optimism was “misplaced” as evidence showed that the country’s growth in the third quarter of 2011 was only 3.2 percent.
“The momentum inherited by President Aquino from my administration is slowing down, and despite his initial brief honeymoon period, he has simply not replaced my legacy with new ideas and actions of his own,” the arrested ex-president said.
Arroyo said she wrote the article on and off while recuperating from pinched nerve, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December in 2011.
‘Too much politics’
Arroyo also hit Aquino's supposed obsession against corruption in expense of the country’s growth.
Arroyo, who has been the subject of Aquino's main goal to curb corruption, was arrested for poll fraud charges and is now detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center.
“Rather than building on our nation’s achievements, this regime has extolled itself as the sole harbinger of all that is good. And the Filipino people are paying for this obsession--in slumping growth, under-achieving government, escalating crime and conflict, and the excesses of a presidential clique that enjoys fancy cars and gun culture,” she said.
“The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ego above country and sensationalism above rationality; when we make everyday politics replace long-term vision in our country’s hour of need,” added Arroyo.
The former president further criticized Aquino’s development strategy based on the slogan: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
She noted the "undeniable persistence of poverty to this day therefore means the continuation of corruption” under Aquino’s administration.
Advice for Aquino
After all the critiques, Arroyo lectured Aquino how to become a better president.
“A president must work harder than everyone else. And no matter what he thinks he was elected to do — even if that includes running after alleged offenders in the past — he must not neglect the bread and butter issues that preoccupy most of our people most of the time: keeping prices down, creating more jobs, providing basic services, securing the peace, pursuing the high economic growth that is the only way to vault our country into the ranks of developed economies,” she said.
The former president added that good management begins with planning ahead, which she said this administration lacks.
Good leadership also means not pointing fingers and blaming others, after the fact--whether it’s for taking OFWs out of harm’s way on short notice, evacuating flood victims or rescuing foreign tourists held hostage by a crazed gunman, said Arroyo.
“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.
“Given the electoral mandate that he enjoyed in 2010—the same size as mine in 2004, as predicted by every survey organization at that time—our people deserve more, and better, from him,” Arroyo concluded.
