Filipinos made a grave mistake in electing President Aquino and must brace for the worst in the next five years because of his continuing “ineptitude” in running the government, opposition lawmakers said yesterday.
Speaking to re-porters,House of Representatives Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said shibboleths and promises during the presidential campaign concealed and overshadowed Aquino’s inadequacies.
“These were the same inadequacies he brought to Malacañang and as the truism goes, one cannot squeeze blood from rock.”
Lagman said only talent, experience, competence and dedication can make a good president.
“These solid attributes are not legal qualifications for the presidency,” he said.
“But they are invaluable standards, which the voters must consider and assess in choosing their President.”
Lagman said since Aquino apparently has “less in capabilities,” he “must have more in good counsel and worthy subalterns.”
“But is the President appointing the right people?” he asked.
“This dilemma will bedevil the President and this country for the next five years. The people should be prepared to expect the worst because their mistaken choice is the big problem. Blunder begets disaster.”
Lagman said it was not advisable to grade Aquino on a scale of one to 10 as “periodic report card with graded achievements and failures is for school kids and students, not for the nation’s Chief Executive.”
Lagman said it would be better to send regular wake-up calls to the President on his performance versus his campaign promises and on the state of the economy and governance versus the current data on prime economic and social indicators.
“This way the President could grade himself if he has sufficient discernment of crucial data and a serious commitment to his exalted position,” he said.
“Otherwise, no amount of faltering grades will jolt him to reality and action, and no diminishing marks from critics will convince him to abandon an offensive agenda of vindictiveness and a defensive aura of braggadocio.”
At Malacañang,presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Lagman was once more playing fast and free with the facts, making assertions that are obsolete, misleading, or patently false.
“Here he goes again, because this is not the first time in what is turning out to be a litany of misrepresentations by him,” he said.
Lacierda said on May 5 Lagman shot himself in the foot by not checking the facts in looking at the most recent Global Integrity Report.
“In his most recent squid tactic against the administration, Lagman either overlooked or chose to overlook the second quarter unemployment figures,” he said.
Contrary to Lagman’s parroting the equally unsubstantiated claims of (former President and Pampanga) Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, unemployment actually went down from 7.4 percent in the first quarter to 7.2 percent in the second quarter.”
Lacierda said these figures were achieved despite the surge of overseas Filipino workers returning to the country due to the various conflicts in the Middle East.
“Truth is, the previous administration was never able to achieve the supposedly ‘low’ unemployment figure of 7.2 percent (11.3 percent in 2001, 10.3 percent in 2002, 10.6 percent in 2003, 11 percent in 2004, 11.3 percent in 2005, 8.1 percent in 2006, 7.8 percent in 2007, 7.4 percent in 2008, 7.5 percent in 2009, and 7.3 percent in 2010),” he said.
Lacierda saidLagman’s fishing expedition raked up old numbers that have already been overtaken by more current data.
“These figures are comparatively far better than those of 2009 (first quarter- one percent; second quarter - 1.6 percent; third quarter - 0.5 percent; and fourth quarter - 1.4 percent),” he said. – With Ding Cervantes, Rhodina Villanueva, Evelyn Macairan, Auea Calica, AP
