“(I)f there was any commitment, it might have come from the International Monetary Fund but, certainly, since the WB has denied it, this could not have come from the World Bank!”
by Ducky Paredes
No amount of explanation can clarify why Gloria Arroyo took it upon herself to report to the world that the World Bank had agreed with her that they should help Asian nations and, thus, she reported, the WB pledged $10 billion towards that end.
The next day, the World Bank clarified that it did not “anticipate” what Gloria had suggested and thus denied that it had done as Gloria was telling everyone. According to Gloria, the meeting was held in Washington, DC and the ASEAN nations agreed to put up a standby fund to which the WB had pledged $10 billion.
Later, Malacañang admitted that Gloria Arroyo made a mistake in announcing that the World Bank had committed to infuse $10 billion into her proposed regional bailout fund. Obviously, Gloria was reporting what her economic advisers had reported to her. Except that, somehow, she had gotten it wrong. She misunderstood. Yet, like some cub reporter on her first day on the job, Gloria excitedly included the item in a speech.
The real question is this: Why does she feel compelled to report to the world on things that she does not fully understand, did not fully comprehend and has no business reporting on it? It even showed gross ignorance of protocol. One who was not even in a meeting has no business announcing the results of that meeting.
Her financial advisers who ought to be saying “mea culpa” since they obviously did not report whatever it was well enough so that she could not misunderstand the report, want to pass the blame to the rest of us.
Says Trade Secretary Peter Favila who told her about the development and, either did not fully comprehend it, did not get the full story, did not fully understand or failed to fully explain it to Gloria, says: “The President should not be blamed for it. Instead of bickering and finger pointing on an issue that can easily be clarified, we should work on getting the much-needed facility in the midst of a world financial meltdown.”
How did this snafu come about? Favila explains that Finance secretary Margarito Teves called him from Washington with the good news. Favilas then relayed this to the President. Clearly, something was lost in the retelling. As it turned out, if there was any commitment, it might have come from the International Monetary Fund but, certainly, since the WB has denied it, this could not have come from the World Bank!
Does this mean that Gloria and her financial advisers do not know the difference between the IMF and the WB? Or is it Teves alone who has no idea that the two are vastly different from each other?
Whatever it is, the more important question still is why Gloria Arroyo feel compelled to be the rapporteur for her Finance Secretary.
Why does she compete with the rest of the world in being the first to break the news. What’s in it for her? Certainly, even if this was an original Gloria Arroyo idea that a global financial institution (IMF or WB) approved, it is still far from being a truly original idea. It is Gloria wanting to be in on the global financial crisis. She would set aside bailout funds for Asia even as the region does not need it. What killed the European and American financial markets was a lack of regulation. Out part of the world is, if anything, over-regulated.
Note that no one else in Asia of ASEAN is thinking of bailouts. All of us know that every Asian country can take care of itself.
Gaya-gaya puto maya.
The story gets very complicated and our Trade Secretary even goes out of his way to pick a fight with some WB officials just to save his President from embarrassment.
The one to blame is, of course, Gloria herself. It is not right for her to be making these types of announcements. That is not what a President is supposed to do. One can understand a newscaster wanting to be President but why, in Heaven’s name would a President want to be a newscaster when she has never been one.
In fact, now Teves is saying that the regional fund that the Philippines proposed can still be set up with or without the IMF and/or the WB. This is a clear sign that the premature (contrary to all protocol) unauthorized announcement by Gloria Arroyo caused the two entities to back out altogether.
Does President earn points by being the first to deliver the news? Certainly, not if the news she brings is totally false. If she were a newscaster, she would be fired on the spot; it is too bad that there is no provision for firing an incompetent president.
* * *
If DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno and PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa were telling the truth about the cash hoard that was found on a retired PNP officer’s wife on leaving Russia after an Interpol meeting, that story would have died a natural death by now.
As it is, their constantly changing storylines only stresses that there are too many unanswered questions:
If the close to seven million pesos found in the bag of the wife of recently retired PNP comptroller Eliseo de la Paz was official PNP money, why was this in the possession of De La Paz’s wife? Shouldn’t this have been in De La Paz’s possession?
If this was money to cover the travel expenses of the PNP delegates to the Interpol Meeting in Russia, why was it still intact at the end of the trip?
Is it possible that the Russian customs personnel had been alerted that the wife was bringing out more than the allowed amount of currency? Because, why would she be the only one caught, if everyone else had also been so meticulously searched?
Is it possible that the De La Paz couple did not have this money when they left the Philippines since they never declared anything on leaving Manila or on entering Russia? (There is no cost or downside to declaring the amount of excess money one has on leaving or entering an international port. It is always wiser to do so. By not declaring one’s excess cash, one puts his money in danger of confiscation.)
Could this money have come from the Russian Mafia (which is constantly under surveillance) which could also be why Russian Customs knew that it would be in Mrs. De La Paz’s bag?
The police and customs in Russia used to be under the KGB, surely, they still have a lot of bright operatives working there – brighter than our own PNP officials, anyway.
# # # #
hvp 10.21.08)
Post a Comment