LOW POPULARITY RATING OF GMA CASTS
DOUBT ON HER CLAIM OF GROWING ECONOMY

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the continuing low approval and trust rating of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in public opinion surveys tends to belie or negate her administration's claim that the economy is on the upswing.

Pimentel said the 7.3 percent growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the first semester of 2007 that the administration is boasting suffers from a credibility problem given the dismal 18 percent trust rating received by the President in the July survey of the Social Weather Stations. The survey also revealed that 62 percent of respondents have "little trust" in the President.

"If the economy is doing well, then that means that our national officials are performing well. But why is it that Mrs. Arroyo has a poor trust rating? That simply indicates that the people do not feel that their economic condition is getting better," he said.

The opposition stalwart said what makes the President's standing even worse is that her immediate processor, former President Joseph Estrada obtained a much higher trust rating of 64 percent in the latest SWS poll.

Pimentel said the 7.3 percent expansion of the GDP in the first six months of 2007, as reported by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), if true, should have enhanced President Arroyo's political stature before the eyes of the Filipino nation and the international community.

But according to the assessment of the United States-based Forbes Magazine in its latest issue, Mrs. Arroyo's ranking among the world's most powerful women-leaders sank from 4th last year to 41st this year.

"It seems that she is now perceived abroad as a lameduck," Pimentel said.

Pimentel also noted the admission of NEDA officials that the heavy foreign exchange remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) was major factor for the GDP growth.

Citing government projections that the OFWs are expected to remit about $14 billion of their earnings to their families back home this year alone, Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo is deceiving the nation by claiming credit for the so-called surge in economic performance that is largely fueled by the dollar remittances of OFWs.

He pointed out that almost a million Filipino workers are compelled to migrate abroad annually due to lack of job opportunities in the country, which is caused in turn by the sluggish economic growth.

Pimentel asked that if the economic upturn, being flaunted by Malacañang is true, why is it that the government's revenue collection in the first semester of 2007 has suffered a huge shortfall?

"Why is it that our finance and revenue officials keep on introducing new taxes or raising tax rates for goods and services, from tollway fees to tax for public utility vehicles?" he said.

He also asked why the hunger and poverty incidence remains alarming.

Pimentel said even leaders of the business community have expressed skepticism over the administration's economic growth figures because they themselves are hit by the business slump.

He said the people's general sentiment that they can hardly feel the fruits of economic growth means either of two things: the benefits of GDP growth are not seeping down to the people or the administration's economic statistics have been window-dressed.