If the economy is in bad shape, it’s because President Benigno Aquino III is just applying what he learned from his former teacher, no less than Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, according to Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño.
Casiño on Saturday twitted Arroyo, the former president, for criticizing the way Mr. Aquino was handling the economy in her first-ever press conference after leaving Malacañang in June last year.
“Look who’s talking. As far as most people are concerned P-Noy (Aquino) is just applying what he learned from his former teacher in economics, Gloria herself, and the ordinary Filipinos are the ones suffering for it,” Casiño said.
“As can be seen, P-Noy just changed the names of Gloria’s programs like ‘privatization’ to ‘private-public partnerships (PPPs),’ from so-called economic relief during the last administration to conditional cash transfers (CCTs),” he said.
Casiño noted that the current administration’s Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016 has not really benefited people in terms of economic growth.
The plan says our economic woes are largely due to inadequate investments due to insufficient infrastructure and governance lapses, and inadequate human capital due to declining education, poor health services and inadequate safety nets, Casiño noted, adding that it was similar to what the previous administration had said.
According to Casiño, the plan’s economic thrust was to stick to the globalization policies implemented over the past decades, deepen and broaden privatization through PPPs, and selectively implement social protection programs, especially CCTs.
“This is a problematic development plan,” Casiño said, “because it does not offer anything new in terms of strategies for more genuinely inclusive economic growth.”
He said the plan was more concerned about a stable and profitable environment for business, especially for foreign investors, than strategic Filipino-oriented development or ensuring the well-being of the people.
“With this, along with the controversies involving his ‘kamag-anak, kaibigan and kabarilan (relatives, friends and shooting buddies),’ it is not far off that P-Noy’s approval rating will further plummet and be just like that of his mentor,” Casiño said.
“If he wants to stop this and truly be a president of Filipinos then he will have to toughen up and reverse his so-called Philippine Development Plan,” Casiño added.