Press Release
April 24, 2007

PIMENTEL DEPLORES LACK OF SOLID PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today decried the lack of solid plans for the development of the nation under the leadership of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because of her administrations tendency to disregard or sacrifice plans, no matter how beneficial they are to majority of Filipinos, when they conflict with the interest of a favored few or the Presidents political interest.

He blamed the inconsistencies of policies for the retrogression of the economic condition of the Filipinos, as vividly illustrated by the disturbing unemployment figures and the worsening hunger problem among the poor.

Pimentel said the Arroyo administration lacks solid plans for development because governance today is overburdened by three Cs confusion, corruption and constitutional contortions.

Describing the state of governance today as sad, he said what the administration has are rhetorical plans or just game plans.

These are plans that are publicly enunciated but when they clash with the self-interest of a favored few, or are opposed by vested interests, they are scuttled without as much as by you leave, the opposition leader said.

Citing the policy on power rates as an example, Pimentel said that before the 2004 elections, President Arroyo lowered the power rates of the state-owned National Power Corporation obviously to curry favor with the electorate.

As a result, he said Napocors financial position deteriorated and caused an increase in the public sector deficit.

It was bad policy, it was pure political gimmickry. After the elections, she has to cause Napocors power rates to rise to higher levels, Pimentel said.

In the agriculture sector, Pimentel said the government policy is supposedly not to import rice except to stabilize prices or forestall famine. And yet he said the government imports rice every so often over the objection of farmers, specially when the palay harvest is good.

He said he could not understand this policy because the country has advanced technology to produce rice double, treble or quadruple that of the traditional way. He said the country has sufficient land to raise rice production but sadly the exception (rice importation) has now become the rule.

I am afraid that some highly placed people believe that it is much easier to directly import rice, sell it and make money for themselves than to help rice farmers to plan, sell and make money on locally-produced rice, Pimentel said.

The minority leader said what has happened to the governments policy on rice is happening today to the government policy on agriculture modernization. He said the Presidents pronouncements that it is a centerpiece of her administration are not matched by the funding support that it gets.

In the transportation sector, Pimentel said the Arroyo administration has time and again announced that it would support the growth of budget airlines in the country in line with global trends.

But after the sanguine presidential announcements of support, he said what happened was that Mrs. Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 500-A on Jan. 27, 2006 restricting the operations of budget airlines from much of the travel destinations in Asia.

Pimentel said EO 500-A constrains the growth of the countrys international airports and dampens the entrepreneurial spirit of local business willing to invest in budget airline operations.

It also projects a negative image of the country as one where national economic policies can be twisted to favor certain vested interests, he said.

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