'Let people judge GMA'

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang belittled yesterday former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s warning of a “vacuum of leadership” under President Aquino and said it would be up to the people to judge her and her nine-year administration.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Arroyo was in no position to issue such a declaration because it was the problems that she had left behind that the Aquino administration was trying to address.

“We owe it to the people to let them know what happened before and what we’re doing to address (these problems),” Valte said.

She said only the people can tell if Arroyo has the credibility to attack the Aquino administration.

“Maybe it’s best to let the people speak because if we do the talking, they might say we’re just trying to defend President Aquino,” Valte said in Filipino.

In Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija on Wednesday, President Aquino told soldiers of anomalies that occurred during the Arroyo administration, including the alleged overpricing of nautical roads for the roll-on, roll-off projects.

He said the funds misused could have been spent for building more houses for soldiers and policemen.

Earlier, the National Food Authority also exposed the billions in debt incurred during the time of Arroyo as well as the anomalies in rice importation.

Arroyo’s son, party-list Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, is also facing tax evasion charges.

The Palace said it would start pressing charges against concerned Arroyo officials only after Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is impeached.

With her record of sitting on cases involving Arroyo and her officials, Gutierrez can never be expected to decide fairly on new cases to be filed against officials of the previous administration, Malacañang said.

A staunch House ally of the former chief executive had even warned of a “frontal attack” on the Aquino administration in response to the filing of a tax case against party-list Rep. Arroyo. But prominent opposition members distanced themselves from the threat made by Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.

Arroyo, in an interview with The STAR at her residence in Quezon City on Friday, said there was a “vacuum of leadership” under the Aquino administration, judging from its failure to address crises like the rising prices of fuel and basic commodities as well as the Quirino Grandstand hostage tragedy.

She claimed the Aquino administration had done nothing but “demonize” her.

But Valte said whatever mistakes committed by the current administration paled in comparison to the severity of corruption during Arroyo’s nine-year rule.

Valte cited as example the excessive bonuses, allowances and salaries of executives of government-owned and controlled corporations during the Arroyo administration and which Aquino eventually ordered stopped.

“Some GOCC (executives) really abused the benefits they were according themselves,” Valte said, noting that after Aquino ordered the cuts, the government was able to save a lot of money for the social programs of the administration.

“This is only one of the concrete examples so certainly, we do not agree with the allegations that we purely criticize and are not doing our jobs,” Valte said.

During her time, Arroyo was accused of cheating her way to the presidency in 2004 and she and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo had been dragged into controversies such as the fertilizer fund scam and the national broadband network deal with Chinese firm ZTE.

She was also heavily criticized for allegedly giving away money to stop her impeachment and buy the support of the military and local officials.

The election loss of most of the former president’s allies was seen as proof of the people’s outrage against her leadership.

Valte also said Arroyo and her allies could not seem to agree on how to go about performing their role as opposition members.

“Maybe there is confusion of leadership within Lakas (party) because their statements do not jibe. The other day they said there would be frontal attack, now there would be critical cooperation. So, at this point, we don’t know what’s really happening and we are quite confused,” Valte said.

Valte said an opposition is part of a democracy and “is really there to take the administration to task for what it has been doing for the people and, again, we have no problem with that.”

But she said the discussions and debates must be based on issues and they were hoping for real “critical cooperation” from the members of the opposition.

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Escudero asked the former president and her supporters to shut up and stop criticizing the less-than-a-year-old administration of President Aquino.

Escudero said Arroyo should ponder the nine years she had wasted instead of finding fault with the Aquino administration. “She had nine years and yet look what happened,” he said.

“Did the lives of Filipinos improve during her nine-year administration? No. We still have many problems,” Escudero said in Filipino.

He said Arroyo should wait for the proper time to air her grievances and not rush to judgment. - With Edith Regalado