Palace: Growth Arroyo left behind ‘noninclusive’

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Palace officials on Wednesday scoffed at the tirade of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo against President Aquino, dismissing as nothing but a “political manifesto” and a “press release masquerading as an economic thesis” the paper she released on the state of the economy under her successor’s watch.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda and Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said that Arroyo’s paper had no value for the Aquino administration and that she was just “sour graping.”

He twitted Arroyo’s boast that she left a very strong economy when she stepped down in 2010, saying that the growth she left behind was “noninclusive.”

Carandang said the Palace was not contesting that there was growth in the last decade but the high growth was “benefiting the top 1 percent of the economy which really was not fair.”

“If you look at recent history, its noninclusive growth which has become a recipe for social unrest,” Carandang told reporters.

He cited the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa as well as the Occupy Wall Street protests that started in America which, he said, were “reactions to long periods of uninterrupted growth that benefited not the general population but the rich.”

“She’s trying to paint a picture of gloom and doom for this country and it’s totally opposite of what business analysts have been saying,” Lacierda said at a press briefing.

Fueled by debt

Carandang said the last few years under Arroyo’s watch were marked with global growth “fueled by debt” but this debt was maturing.

He added that consumers in Western countries were cutting back on expenditures in trying to reduce their debt while governments were engaging in “aggressive deficit-cutting.”

Carandang noted that these factors were not present in 2008 and 2009 when the global economy was slowing down.

“So it’s not unique to the Philippines and it’s not unique to her policies at all,” he said.

But Carandang said the Aquino administration was trying to arrest the problem by making sure that any growth would be broad-based.

“The truth is we would love to see a 7- to 8-percent growth again and I think once the global economy improves we will see that. But given a choice between an 8-percent growth that benefits 1 percent of the population and the 5-percent growth that benefits the larger majority of the population, we will take the lower growth and more equitable growth anytime and that’s exactly the kind of growth policy the Aquino administration is putting forth,” he said.

Optimistic investors

Lacierda said that Arroyo’s “political analysis” was “not in consonance” with the optimistic forecast of investors and analysts.

“Isn’t it obvious that they want to paint us in a negative light contrary to what the business front has been saying … that business prospects are going to be good,” said the presidential spokesperson.

He cited First Metro Investment Group’s projection of a 5-to 6-percent growth this year.

Arroyo was painting the opposite picture because she knew that the economy would improve, Lacierda said.

“We don’t need her help. Thank you very much. We can do it perfectly on our own,” he said.

Asked to comment on the paper, Carandang said: “Well, if you don’t have much to defend then go and attack the other guy.”

He said Arroyo wrote the paper because she “has a lot of time in her hands.”

“She’s sitting in jail, pondering her future. And that gives you a lot of time to think about things, and to write papers and defend her legacy,” Carandang said.