No moving on

FRONTLINE

Ninez Cacho-Olivares

11/17/2007

Gloria Arroyo never tires of claiming that all the Filipinos want is a stop to destructive politics that is pulling economic progress down, and that the Filipinos want to move on.

How she and her aides arrive at this conclusion is baffling, since they always also claim that they do not buy surveys, especially so when it comes to trust and disapproval ratings in the performance aspect.

The latest Pulse Asia survey showed that Gloria has far from reached rock bottom, in performance and trust ratings, as the results show an even bigger downtrend.

That she is not trusted by the vast majority of the Filipino people is already an established fact, with her distrust rating zooming from -12 to -23. But then again, how can one who is regarded as a liar, a cheat and a thief by the general public be trusted?

As for her performance ratings, these, too, have been thumbed down by Filipinos, dipping to a -9 from a -4 last July.

Surely, these figures already tell her that the people don’t buy her, and her aides’ claim of economic achievements as well as her claims that Filipinos want a stop to what she calls destructive politics, which is generally translated by her and her Palace aides as bringing out political issues in the Senate through hearings which she always manages to stonewall.

So where does Gloria base her claim of the people rejecting politics and wanting to move on?

But perhaps when she says “people,” she means the businessmen-allies and her congressional allies, all of whom are quick to echo her false claims, even to the point of saying, after having the impeachment complaint killed by her allies, that the nation has to move on and with the congressional allies even telling the opposition to forget impeaching Gloria, and just allow her to finish her term.

This is, of course, another way of their saying that Gloria, even if guilty of culpable violations of the Constitution, should not be held accountable. But why not? They Constitution says she must be accountable to the Filipino people.

Still, if as it is being claimed by Gloria and her allies that people are sick and tired of the political noise and want nothing else but to stop all these and move on, for economic prosperity, which is merely being enjoyed by her elite friends, not by the masses, or even the middle-class, why is the public always showing interest in the many legislative probes being scheduled, as well as the interest in the impeachment process, even when the people know that the complaints will be killed by her allies, as a matter of course?

Everytime she stonewalls a probe, everytime she feigns ignorance over the many bribery and corruption cases, the people sit up and listen, getting more and more certain that she is more than guilty because she refuses to even have her aides appear before the Senate and presses on with her gag order, even when this is clearly unconstitutional. And she says the people don’t want any of this and merely wants to move on? Just who does she think she is kidding with a lot more lies?

The answer can be found in the survey results that show more and more Filipinos expressing their distrust of her and worse for her claims, a lot more Filipinos don’t buy any of her claims of achievements and economic success along with her vision of the country becoming a First World country by 2010, as their disapproval rating on her performance has again jumped up.

Even in her bailiwick — Visayas — the number of people distrusting her and disapproving her performance in office has risen.

It stands to reason that if Filipinos are with her, and believe in what she claims people really want to do away with the political issues and just move on, then her trust and disapproval ratings would certainly be very high. Why then are her ratings so very low? These negative numbers are already a clear message from the people to her that they don’t want her around and want her out of office.

Why should the Senate performance rating be on a positive note, since it is the Senate that keeps on coming up with these legislative hearings and bringing to the public the very issues that are branded by Gloria as “political noise?”

Why, among all the government agency heads, is Gloria at the bottom, ratings-wise? It can’t certainly be because people are tired of the political noise and want to move on, and that they want her to stay because they trust her and approve of her and her performance?

Get real, Gloria Arroyo. Nobody believes you and your aides whenever all of you mouth the line of time to unite and move on.

Back to top

For comments about this website:Webmaster@tribune.net.ph
The Daily Tribune © 2006