Noy slams GMA anew, hits China

DIPOLOG CITY, Philippines – A week before the campaign period heats up, President Aquino fired another salvo at his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, saying she had mismanaged the country, and blamed China for the shortfall in tourist arrivals in 2012.

Before a crowd of about 4,000 at the Amando Amatong Civic Center here yesterday, the Liberal Party chairman trumpeted the achievements of his nearly three-year-old administration, whose cornerstones are transparency and good governance in public office.

The President endorsed the 12 senatorial candidates he personally chose to continue the reforms he initiated.

Aquino also took a swipe at re-electionist Pampanga Rep. Arroyo, citing the P2.4-billion debt former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief (now Iloilo congressman) Augusto Syjuco left to his successor Joel Villanueva in unpaid “scholarship vouchers” or grants to students.

He also hit the pre-fabricated P11-billion bridges program that Arroyo signed on June 28, 2010, or just two days before he took over the presidency, which he branded as the mother of all scams.

Aquino said that he still experiences goose bumps every time he recalls the gravity and magnitude by which the previous administration had mismanaged Filipinos’ taxpayers’ money.

He also mentioned the purported 99.8 percent national electrification achieved by the past administration, where one single bulb in a barangay hall was already deemed an electrification of the whole village.

The cost of providing power to a village under the previous government was pegged at P1 million per barangay, where a total of 36,000 barangays had to be given electricity, but this was reduced by the incumbent government to a mere P870,000 each.

Aquino at the same time lauded the increase in this city’s tourist arrivals from 64,780 in 2010 to 129,700 the following year, and then made a comparison with the significant increase in the Department of Tourism’s program since he assumed office in mid-2010.

China blamed for Phl tourism shortfall

He also implied that China was to blame for the 300,000 shortfall in the projected 4.6-million tourist arrivals in December 2012, and compared the 1.9-million tourist arrivals Arroyo reached in her nine-year presidency, as against the figure that doubled during his time. 

Beijing and Hong Kong issued an advisory in May 2012 to its citizens against traveling to Manila. 

Hong Kong issued the same travel warning in the aftermath of the August 2010 Luneta hostage crisis that left eight of its nationals dead after a botched rescue attempt by law enforcers.

Philippines is locked in a territorial dispute with China over the oil-rich Spratly islands, and has haled Beijing to an international tribunal to settle the row, especially since the area is within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone.