- Office of Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
- 0916-6406737/0918-9120137
- Official Website: http://www.edcellagman.com.ph
- 01 April 2011
ADVERSE ECONOMIC INDICATORS
EXPOSE AQUINO’S DEFICIENCIES
Only Malacanang’s braggadocio and repeated breast-beatings have escalated, while President Aquino’s trust and approval ratings and some of the country’s economic indicators ominously plunged.
The post-election euphoria has not only begun to vanish, but the Aquino administration’s lackadaisical performance and anemic implementation of its ballyhooed socio-economic agenda have started to surface.
Following in the heels of Aquino’s five percentage point decline in performance and trust scores nationwide, are the following adverse ratings of major economic indicators:
1. The recent ASEAN business survey showed that majority of foreign investors would refuse to invest in the Philippines;
2. The Philippines’ corruption rating worsened to 8.9 from 8.25 in a scale of one to 10 in a survey covering the period from November 2010 to February 2011 which was conducted by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd. (PERC);
3. The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that the unemployment rate hit 7.4 percent in January 2011 even before thousands of displaced Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) returned as a result of the ongoing crises in the Middle East and Northern Africa, while Aquino’s disapproval rating on “creation of more jobs” went up from 11 percent to 19 percent; and
4. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that the Filipino consumer confidence index for the first quarter of 2011 went down to -23.1 percent from -8.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 as the Aquino administration fails to address the spiralling of prices of fuel and basic commodities.
The President’s disapproval rating on “controlling inflation” ballooned to 31 percent from 21 percent and on “reducing poverty” to 26 percent from 18 percent.
These poor economic indicators cannot just be swept under the braggadocio rug.