‘UNPOPULAR
BUT RIGHT’
Allies defend Arroyo, VAT as popularity
sinks
MANILA – Not even her lowest net satisfaction
rating will make President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo change
her “unpopular” decision to keep the 12 percent
expanded value-added Tax (VAT) on petroleum products.
“She will stay the course because she
is convinced that this is what’s good for the country,”
said Secretary Cerge Remonde, chief of the Presidential Management
Staff (PMS).
Based on the results of a non-commissioned,
Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, Arroyo had a net satisfaction
rating of -38 in end of June 2008, her lowest since the -33
recorded more than three years ago.
Another Arroyo ally, Eastern Samar Gov. Benjamin
Evardone, said the presidency “is not a popularity contest.”
“Is this a popularity contest? It’s
so easy to boost one’s image in the short-term but the
effects of one’s decision are felt in the long-term,”
said Evardone, also the spokesman of the League of Provinces
of the Philippines.
Remonde said Arroyo will not heed the public’s
clamor to ease the skyrocketing prices of oil products by
suspending VAT.
“Politicians think of the next elections,
but the statesman thinks of the next generation,” Remonde
said.
He insisted that the government can’t
afford to lose the P70-billion revenue it is receiving annually
from the VAT on oil.
“She opts to do what is right, not necessarily
what is popular,” he said, adding that losing P70-billion
a year will result to unfunded social programs.
For his part, Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita said Evardone’s statements should be taken seriously
because the governor “knows the real situation"
in the provinces.
“People's hunger in the provinces will
not disappear if you present them with high popularity ratings,”
he added.
Remonde said suspending VAT would result in
low credit and financial ratings, which means low foreign
investments.
Without foreign investments, the peso value
will fall and the money saved by the people from lower oil
prices due to the suspension of VAT will just be “written
off,” Remonde explained.
Arroyo and her economic managers were actually
“torn” between bowing to the popular clamor to
remove VAT or keeping the consumption tax, he revealed.
Earlier, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said
Arroyo would not change her management style and policies
to gain popularity despite being tagged by the SWS survey
as the most unpopular president.
He added that the President would not make
any last-minute gimmicks for brownie points as her State of
the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28 nears.
“The President is consistent. She is
not going to change her style just because her SONA is nearing.
That’s not her moving spirit, she’d like to do
right,” Dureza said./PN
|
