[PHOTO -
President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO]
MANILA, MARCH 27, 2012 (INQUIRER) - To hecklers who claim he is just “Noynoying” in his job, President Benigno Aquino III has one answer: the economy is on the right track and “many things” have happened in the country since he took over the presidency 21 months ago.
During an interview with Agence France-Presse in Malacañang, Mr. Aquino pointed to a host of economic indicators to justify his enthusiasm, while displaying a relish for bare-knuckled political fights against his opponents.
Noynoying is a word coined by activists to refer to the President’s supposedly carefree style of coping with urgent problems confronting the country, including the escalating prices of fuel products.
“There are so many things that have transpired that none of us could even have imagined when we were campaigning,” Mr. Aquino said during last week’s interview, reflecting on his nearly two years in office that followed a landslide election win.
He referred mostly to the state of the nation’s economy, which after decades of underperforming has showed signs of steady, if incremental, improvement under his leadership and mantra of clean governance.
Kingpins of graft
Mr. Aquino cited a series of international credit ratings upgrades and the rise of the Philippine stock market to record highs in recent weeks as evidence.
Among his proudest achievements are luring foreign manufacturers and other investors to the Philippines, extending health cover, cutting government waste and expanding an incentive scheme to keep millions of poor children at school.
The President also insisted there would be no letup in the antigraft campaign.
“We are trying to get the kingpins of corruption,” he said.
Strong fundamentals
Critics have accused the President of lacking urgency on the economic front, pointing out that GDP (gross domestic product) growth was just 3.7 percent last year partly because he cut government spending when they say pump priming was needed.
But Mr. Aquino’s policies, which have an overarching theme of tackling the corruption infecting all sectors of the nation’s economy, have won endorsement from a wide range of sources.
The World Bank country director, Motoo Konishi, said last week the economy was in good shape with inflation stable at around 2.7 percent, manageable government finances and a well-focused social protection system.
“Besides having strong macroeconomic fundamentals, the country is benefiting from political stability and a popular government seen by many as strongly committed to improving governance and reducing poverty,” Konishi said.
Brand association
A survey released last week by the polling group, Pulse Asia, also found Mr. Aquino was holding onto the support that carried him to his election victory. The survey showed his popularity ratings at 70 percent, with just 9 percent disapproving.
A big factor in Mr. Aquino winning by a large margin in the 2010 presidential election was brand association.
He is the son of Corazon Aquino, one of the country’s most loved political figures who led the democracy movement against dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1980s and then succeeded him for six years as president.
Her death in 2009 led to an outpouring of support for the Aquino family, transforming the bachelor-son with a reputation for achieving little in politics into the country’s most popular politician.
Business support
Meanwhile, business leaders are showing their support by opening up their wallets.
One of the country’s biggest conglomerates, Ayala Corp., announced last week that its real estate arm would invest $1.4 billion over the next five years in projects within the country’s financial district of Makati.
“The economy is on a positive track … that’s why we’re aggressive in our investment,” said Ayala Land president Antonino Aquino, who is not related to the President.
Mr. Aquino said in the interview that holding the reins of the country felt much more comfortable than the initial period after taking over from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who ruled the Philippines for nearly 10 years before him. With a report from AFP
Read more at: http://www.newsflash.org/beframe.htm
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Reflection:
"NoyNoying" - a protest gimmick in the form of neologism which critics of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III have used to question his work ethic, alleging inaction on Aquino's part on the issues of disaster response and of rising oil prices. A play on the term planking and Aquino's nickname, "Noynoy", Noynoying involves posing in a lazy manner, such as sitting idly while resting their heads on one hand and doing nothing. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org
Seeing people doing this act in the streets when they are protesting about the high prices of goods in the market, gasoline and other issues that they can blame to the Aquino administration. Despite of this silly gimmicks people tend to ask why are they doing this to the administration?; is it really true that our president is just relaxing around in his office, dating ladies and etc? I find this noynoying thing funny, why because even pictures of Pnoy working in his office is edited just for the sake that he is not doing anything despite of all the problems of our economy. Pnoy in the other hand ignores this protest and tells them that the economy is doing great and things needed to be consider why such things are in that situations. Many are angry about the issues that are left unsolved many are which poor people from different places. I see this protest gimmick of them as a wake up call to let our president know that we are watching his every decisions and every move. But we cannot blame our president for doing such but it is the reality here in the Philippians. Let us just hope for the best and let our spirits up for the promises that a " Tuwid na daan " will be done.
