Arroyo’s Legacy: Damaged Political Institutions, ‘Distorted and Disintegrating’ Economy

Published on July 25, 2009

When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers what is supposed to be her last State of the Nation Address this Monday, she will probably claim that she has accomplished what she said she had set out to do in 2001 and 2004. To her critics, however, the past nine years have been “the reign of Gollum.”

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — When Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2001, following the People Power II uprising, she wasted no time in enunciating her supposed platform of governance, which she said was anchored on “four core beliefs”: boldness in national ambitions as key to winning the fight against poverty, improvement of moral standards in government and society “to provide a strong foundation for good governance,” changing the character of Philippine politics to “create fertile ground for true reforms” that would do away with the politics of personality and patronage, and “leadership by example.”

In 2004, Arroyo was proclaimed as the winner in a presidential election marred by massive fraud and violence.

In her inaugural address that year, she unveiled what she said would be her “10-point legacy” when she bows out of office – which is supposed to be in 2010. This legacy, she said, would be composed of the creation of 6-10 million jobs; education for all; balancing the national budget; development of transport and digital infrastructure to connect the entire country; provision of power and water supply to all barangays (villages); decongestion of Metro Manila by developing new centers for government and housing in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; development of Subic and Clark into the best international service and logistic centers in Asia; automation of the electoral process; just completion of the peace process; and “closure of divisions” resulting from the three Edsa uprisings.

Nine years after first assuming power and five years after supposedly receiving a fresh mandate to serve as president, has Arroyo fulfilled her platform of governance anchored on her declared “core beliefs,” or her “10-point legacy”? When she delivers what is supposed to be her last State of the Nation Address (Sona) this coming July 27, Arroyo will probably claim that she has accomplished what she said she had set out to do in 2001 and 2004.

But analysts at the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) and Ibon Foundation do not think so.

In a July 25 forum organized by CenPEG, and hosted by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), political analyst Roland Simbulan compared Arroyo to Gollum, a villain in J. R. R. Tolkien’s best-selling novel, The Lord of the Rings, who would do everything to get the ring of power even if it means destroying the world.

“Nine years of our own version of Gollum (have) put our political institutions in shambles, and while this Gollum and her ilk help themselves with the coffers of the state, millions and millions of Filipinos starve in the streets, are homeless, and hardly eat twice a day,” said Simbulan, a professor of development studies and public management at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Manila.

Simbulan, who is also a CenPEG fellow and current corporate secretary of Ibon’s board of directors, said the nine years of the Arroyo administration has been characterized by five prevailing trends: the transformation of the military into an institution for the preservation of personal power by the president; the further entrenchment of corruption at the highest levels of power; the “manipulation and undermining of Philippine political and economic institutions in the quest for maintaining power”; the perpetration of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and other crimes against the people “by minions of the state against the democratic opposition”; and foreign policy being “plunged into the abyss for getting international support for an unpopular regime.”

Meanwhile, economist Jose Enrique Africa said the Arroyo administration has wasted its nine years in power – a period which, he said, is more than enough to put in place an economic program and to realize results. He cited Arroyo’s Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) 2004-2010, which is supposedly intended to accomplish the “aspirational” targets put forward in the president’s 2001 Sona.

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