Now they tell us

Inamin na rin ni Jojo Robles of the Manila Standard Today ang BS na madalas isubo ng Malacanang at mga pro-Arroyo media sa publiko.

That more than a few of the Statistics and Data the admin is trotting out are just "window dressing":

It was shortly after Neri assumed his position that the government drew a lot of flak for window-dressing the number of jobs created by no longer including those “not actively seeking work.” By pulling this rabbit out of his hat, Neri and the rest of the government’s economic team were able to show that the unemployment rate declined from 11.4 percent to 10.7 percent from 2004 to 2005.

Neri also made the outrageous claim that poverty actually declined during his watch—but only because of the absurdly low poverty treshold of per capita income. Currently, according to the National Statistics Coordinating Board, a family of five needs an annual income of P65,565. This translates to P1,092 monthly per person, which breaks down to P36 daily. No wonder the latest Social Weather Stations survey revealed that despite Neri’s claims of poverty alleviation, unemployment and hunger are still rampant, with more than half of all Filipinos actually believing that life has become more difficult in recent years.

I've posted about the manipulated unemployment and poverty level numbers of the Arroyo admin in the past. The admin also had used deception in their population data numbers (to justify their retarded stance on family planning) and education numbers (wala raw classroom shortage) in the past to mislead the public.

It's good that jojo robles is finally admitting this fact. Heck, it's refreshing to see that somebody... anybody with pro-Arroyo leanings is finally admitting this. Better late than never.