The Best President after Marcos

I'm very disturbed why President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is so unpopular these days, I think its beacuse Filipinos have grown a lot more pessimistic about gov't these days due to the long streak of incapable presidents. GMA is a great president, proof of this is the positive performance of our economy and the rising importance of our country in the global level. The sad part is, the people these days don't listen to the good news they'd rather listen to the bad political issues that they have ironically grown tiresome of.

I mostly blame media for this ... but I also blame the foolish people who keep giving too much attention to these black propaganda by media and the opposition.

The best president after Marcos
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=26949

Congressman Joey Salceda has a unique but scintillating assertion. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is the best performing president after the 20-year reign of Ferdinand Marcos.

Once of one of Asia’s best and best-paid stock market analysts before he straddled into politics, Salceda has empirical data to back his theory. His data is difficult to dispute.

Among four presidents after Marcos—Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, and Arroyo, it is the incumbent president who delivered the best results in terms of GDP growth rate, low inflation, and record high OFW remittances.

Salceda reckons the growth of the economy, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) averaged 4.0 percent during Mrs. Arroyo’s presidency from 2001 up to the third quarter of 2005.

In contrast, during the term of President Aquino (1986 to the second quarter of 1992), GDP grew by an average of 3.8 percent.

Ramos has often been perceived as a very good president, which is why he thinks he has a moral authority to ask Arroyo to cut short her term.

The economy actually grew at a slower average of 3.7 percent during Tabako’s presidency (third quarter of 1992 to 1997).

President Joseph Estrada, the shortest-serving post-Marcos chief executive (third quarter of 1998 up to January 2001), posted the slowest GDP growth rate at 2.8 percent.

At the same, average inflation rate under Arroyo has actually been the lowest, at 5.3 percent, compared to 10.4 percent during Aquino’s term, 7.6 percent in the Ramos administration and six percent in the short-lived Estrada presidency.

Although GDP slowed down to 4.1 percent in the third quarter of 2005, Salceda notes that it was more than made up by the surge in gross national product (GNP or GDP plus remittances and other factor income from abroad) to 6.5 percent from 5.7 percent in 2004.

Remittances are estimated to have reached $12 billion in 2005, a record. And for two years in a row, Manila has been the second best performing stock market in Asia.

It seems, using Ramos’s favorite expression, the best is still to come.

During the remaining quarter of 2005, employment was up 2.8 percent, the value of production index, which measures the performance of the manufacturing sector, by 3.9 percent in July-September 2005, rail transport ridership by 13.4 percent, cellular subscribers grew by 13.7 percent, tourists by 14 percent, average hotel occupancy rates in Metro Manila by 3.2 percent, net sales of selected fast-food chains by 124.7 percent, commercial car sales grew by 7.7 percent, NAPOCOR sales by 14.1 percent, indicating expansion of industrial and manufacturing operations.

Salceda cites other positive factors:

• Net portfolio investments surged seven times in January-November 2005 compared to the same period in 2004.

• The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) stood at $18.086 billion as of end-October 2005. While this was lower by 2.5 percent compared to the previous month’s level of $18.542 billion, it exceeded the end-2005 target of $17 billion.

• During the first nine months of 2005 foreign direct investments (FDI) surged by 68.8 percent to $812 million from $481 million in 2004.

• The ratio of banks’ non-performing loans to total loan portfolio dropped to 9.43 percent from 20 percent a year ago, indicating a significant improvement in the banking industry’s financial condition.

• The budget deficit stood at P67.51 billion as of end-June 2005, versus the P97-billion ceiling. Full-year deficit is seen at P180.48 billion, down from P187.96 billion in 2004.

Despite that performance, Arroyo remains the most unpopular president in history

Iloilo Online, its updated!!!

OMG! I've finally updated my new Iloilo Website

It took months of development ... learning PHP, downloading a lot of content management systems, and thinking of great designs for the website. I became frustrated because none of them worked for me.

Hosting the website in blogger was my first idea, but I changed it because blogger wasn't versatile enough to create fully integrated categories... in the end, I finally decided to return back. And thank God! for that one.

I only made this blogger powered website for 2days.

Check it out:

http://iloiloonline.blogspot.com

A New Beginning

I should really be bursting in maniacal rage right about now, coz I'm feeling like I'm about to explode!!

I just deleted my blog .... ACCIDENTALLY! That's like a month's worth of life.

In as much as I would want to release all my frustrations, I'd rather channel it to a more positive alternative. Like thinking positively :crazy:

Y*D*P*T*!!!

Well, at least now I can start from scratch in making a better blog coz I have some new ideas to put in ... I'm still mad though