Fitch also credited Arroyo for PH’s ratings upgrade

Fitch Ratings and analysts recently promoted the Philippines to its first-ever investment grade. As usual, President Aquino was quick to take all the credit, even though all he did was basically to continue what Gloria Arroyo started. I’m not sure if Mr. Aquino is selfish or just completely oblivious to the fact that this achievement has as much to do with Arroyo as it does with him. Instead, Mr. Aquino would rather continue his vicious attacks against Arroyo and deny the reality that her work during her presidency contributed to the unprecedented Fitch grading.

Mr. Aquino and his administration can continue to prosecute Arroyo with fabricated charges, but they cannot deny the fruits of her labor. She was indeed a visionary who used her time as president to make sure she did things that would benefit the Philippines in the long run, even after her time as president. I can sit here and list all her achievements, even her instituting the unpopular yet beneficial VAT, but the “proof is in the pudding” as they say. The Philippines has already achieved that Fitch upgrading, and it would not have been able to do so had Arroyo not been president. Arroyo even said that no amount of black propaganda can erase the tangible improvements her administration has done.

Mr. Aquino doesn’t even have to thank Arroyo; all he has to do is build on her achievements and attain his own, instead of just riding on hers. Malacañang may say that what Arroyo started, Mr. Aquino finished. But nothing is done yet. As a matter of fact, Mr. Aquino has not done much to capitalize on the improved economy and recent Fitch grade. Unemployment is still ridiculously high, the so-called foreign investments have yet to come in and poverty is still a major problem with no solution in sight.

It would be great also if Mr. Aquino would stop attacking Arroyo and disparaging all the good she did under her presidency, but this seems highly unlikely. As pointed out earlier, Malacañang has already taken all the credit for the Fitch upgrade and discredited Arroyo. But thank goodness for the truth and the facts: they  reveal what Arroyo achieved for the Philippines. The Aquino administration may have been the one who sought the investment upgrade, but it was Arroyo whom Fitch singled out and to whom it attributed the reason for the first-ever Philippine investment grade.

As Fitch commented, “Improvements in fiscal management begun under President Arroyo have made general government debt dynamics more resilient to shocks.” Anyone can take a look at the full statement by Fitch, but what it basically states is that the upgrade is because of what Arroyo did. For Mr. Aquino’s part, he just has to continue it, but as Fitch itself has said, that remains to be seen.

—LESLIE CARPIO,

[email protected]