RP heading in the wrong direction (and what to do about it)

I believe our country is heading in the wrong direction. Arroyo's plan for us Filipinos in a nutshell is like this:

Raise taxes and add a whole slew of new gov't fees to generate money for the gov't, without cutting on wasteful spending, or giving up their pork barrel.

Of course, malaki ang pera na makukuha ng gobierno, but it comes at a huge cost. Businessess are hurt by tax increases and exorbitant fees and at maraming nale-layoff dahil nalulugi na ang mga small at medium scale businesses.

And since maraming businesses at jobs ang nawala o nagsaraduhan (at lumipat sa ibang bansa), many Filipinos have given up finding work in their own country and have instead gone overseas to earn a living na lang.

Pero mukhang okay lang naman ito sa arroyo admin because OFWs send remittances here to prop up the economy, at dahil natatago yung incompetence ng admin pagdating sa job creations dito sa ating bansa.

You know, if arroyo had her priorities straight 5 years ago and focused mainly on the economy and implementing tough reforms during the 2001-2004 years instead of going after her enemies like lacson, roco, and FPJ (manapat's disqualification stunt) and preparing for the 2004 "presidential elections", we would not be in this deep a hole we're in now. If you'll recall, it was during her time nung sunod sunod ang credit downgrades, not erap's.

At bakit ni Arroyo tinaasan lang ang buwis after the elections? why did she wait until after the elections to make those "reforms"? Why didn't she do it back then in 2001 when the fiscal and economic problems were still managable? bakit hinintay pa niya hanggang lumala ito bago siya kumilos? hindi ba ang mandate niya sa edsa dos ay "repormahin ang ekonomiya" at "bawasan ang corruption"?

All I know is that she never campaigned for tax increases back in 2004. Admin senator Joker Arroyo criticized GMA back in july 25, 2004 for misleading the public:

EVEN before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could present her new tax measures, senators from both the administration and opposition camps are already against the imposition of new taxes.

"Isn't this a bit sneaky? Why? Because the President never mentioned her plan to impose a new round of taxes during her campaign. On the contrary, she deliberately avoided them. We are hearing them for the first time," Senator Joker Arroyo said.

"The President cannot claim that her election is an endorsement of her tax proposals."

So why did she wait until after the elections to make those "reforms"? And why did she spend most of her time in 2001-2004 going after her enemies and planning her "re-election" campaign instead of fulfilling her edsa dos "mandate"?

Unless of course, hindi naman talaga malala ang financial crisis under erap, at lumala lang ito during GMA's time because of her heavy borrowing (She borrowed more than the previous 3 presidents combined... erap, cory, ramos) para lang may panggastos siya sa 2004 elections. Then, after "nanalo" na siya sa 2004 election, tinaasan niya ang buwis natin para tayo ang magbabayad sa campaign spending at dagdag bawas operations ni arroyo.

btw, don't believe the crap na bumaba ng malaki ang unemployment rate natin. Statistical gimmickry lang ang ginamit ng Arroyo admin para lokohin ang publiko on the unemployment rate issue. From Ducky paredes:

according to the Ibon Foundation, the government is cheating as to the number of unemployed, What it has done is to erase from the number of unemployed those who say that, although they are actually unemployed, they have been looking for a job for more than six months. Also wiped out from the number are those who say that they do not believe that they can ever find a job.

The whole point of treating these unemployed as if they were invisible is to, again (as this administration has been doing in practically everything) to keep the truth from the rest of the world.

It even seems to me that this is the only thing that this government does with any consistency. It keeps the truth – the whole truth, part of the truth, pieces of the truth – from us. It can show that it is successful only by telling us things that are untrue and keeping what is true as far away from us as it can. Such is the nature of our present government.

Read this too.

Of course, these types of rejuggled statistics are meant not only to deceive the public, but to deceive the world as well. At hindi lang nangyayari sa atin ito. Take india for instance. Sabi ni colin gonsalves:

"India was not currently on track to achieve the goals set in relation to malnutrition and under nourishment” in the UN's Millennium Development Goals. The numbers are among the worst in the world. But instead of addressing the infinite nightmare of poverty, the Indian government appears to be doing away with the poor altogether by statistical jugglery and artificially lowering the poverty line...

I think these kinds of trickery is working though because for example, yung unemployment rate natin dati nung 2005 is estimated to be 12.2% (from the CIA factbook.)

Other websites that have copied the data from the CIA factbook here (updated june 6, 06), here (as of mar. 29, 06) has stated the same.

Now CIA factbook is using the new unemployment definition at 8.7% unemployment rate.

Other statistical panloloko by arroyo includes the no classrooms shortage claim, yung claim na "bumaba" raw ang population natin, wiping out poverty by "lowering the poverty line" trick.

A recent report by the Asian Development Bank points out that the Philippine government achieved the reduction of the poverty level not by raising the people's income but by lowering the poverty line. Indeed, while the general price level supposedly rose by some 15 percent between 2000 and 2003, the government raised the poverty line by just 7 percent - to just PhP 33.60 or some USD 0.60 a day.

when even a guy like joma starts to make sense, you know the admin is fcked.

This will be updated later... to be continued.

UPDATE: Continuation here.