IMF: A poor economic forecast for Phl

Few people know the significance of the date today, as it is the 111th anniversary of the formal end of the Filipino-American War, which the American’s dub as the “Philippine Insurrection.” It was right after the capture of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Palanan, where he was brought to Manila and presented before Military Governor-General Arthur McArthur, Jr. (the father of Gen. Douglas McArthur) at the Malacañang Palace where Gen. Aguinaldo pledged his allegiance to the United States government.

The end for Gen. Aguinaldo begun on March 6, 1901 when Gen. Frederick Funston took the US warship Vicksburg and docked in Casiguran Bay on Mar. 14. He was accompanied by Macabebe Scouts who led the Americans to Gen. Aguinaldo’s lair. The Macabebe Scouts arrived in Gen. Aguinaldo’s headquarters bringing American troops as prisoners and when Gen. Aguinaldo embraced them, the Americans declared he was under arrest.

Call it ironic that Gen. Aguinaldo became the first President of the Tagalog Republic because he betrayed Ka Andres Bonifacio, the leader of the Katipunan by sending him on a mock trial and executing him and his brother. Well, betrayal by the Macabebe Scouts ended Aguinaldo’s fruitless military campaign against our American colonizers. Today, the betrayal of the Filipino people continues, this time by mindless politicians who use the name of our poor Filipinos in vain in order to gain votes. However, when they are in power, they don’t do anything to improve our nation’s economy.

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Perhaps you’ve been asking why the Philippines has not been moving forward since the assumption to power of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III. The answer can be found in yesterday’s front page ofThe Philippine Star in two small headline reports. One report blared “Gov’t gets poor marks in 7 issues.” This report came from a staunchly pro-Aquino Pulse Asia survey for March 2012 that pointed out that the Aquino regime only obtained majority approval ratings on four out of eleven key national issues.

On the other side of that front page story from the Star was, “IMF: Phl to be ASEAN laggard.” That report pointed out, “Multilateral lender International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday said the Philippines would be the laggard in economic growth among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-5 (ASEAN-5) this year and in 2013.

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) the IMF said the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would grow 4.2 percent this year and 4.7 percent in 2013 after slackening to 3.7 percent last year from 7.6 percent in 2010 due to weak global trade and cautious spending by the Aquino government. The projected GDP growth this year for the Philippines is slower than Indonesia’s 6.1 percent, Vietnam’s 5.6 percent, Thailand’s 5.5 percent and Malaysia’s 4.4 percent.” Note that in 2010 our GDP was at 7.6 percent, which was half of then Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s term and half of the Aquino Regime.

This IMF report is our most visible proof that in the almost two-year Aquino regime, nothing much has happened simply because of PNoy and his student government. This also proves the point that we’ve been telling the Aquino regime, that they have to work hard instead of using SWS or Pulse Asia surveys to tell the Filipino people that their approval ratings showed that they were doing fine.

For much too long, the Palace Rasputin’s have been lording it over, defending PNoy from all sorts of criticism to the point that spokesperson Abigail Valte would say something even without consulting the President. So in the end, we have no idea whether we are getting the thoughts of Abigail Valte or Edwin Lacierda or the President’s.

A case in point made the headlines last Tuesday when the Star reported, “P-Noy contradicts Valte, sees no split with Binay.” Abigail Valte said during an interview with dzRB that the split between the President and Vice-President Jejomar Binay was inevitable.” But PNoy said that he sees no problem with the presidential ambitions of Vice-President Binay who was forming a new political group called UNA.

If Abigail Valte had any delicadeza left in her, she should quit her job. The officials of the Aquino regime are very good in demanding delicadeza from the previous administration, but now that they are in power, they have forgotten what delicadeza means. This is why this administration is the most hypocritical that our nation has ever gotten.

The Holy Bible has a passage for these people in Matt. 23:27-28, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

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