Aquino admin no 'student government'

The Palace on Tuesday challenged Senator Joker Arroyo's remark that the Aquino administration is running the country like a student government as it emphasized the county's recent economic successes. "If you speak about our success in the peso global bond float, if you speak about the confidence of the stock market, if you speak about the underspending right now, all these good news, certainly we would say we are performing well, that we're doing the best we can and so it does not appear like we are a student body running this country like a student council," presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a press briefing in Malacañang. "Last time I checked, [we have no] sergeant-at-arms," added Lacierda, referring to a position student governments usually have. Last week, the net foreign buying on the Philippine Stock Exhange reached P2.133 billion, pushing the main index to close at all time high of 3,972.60, on a value turnover of P8.05 billion. Earlier this week Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima announced a P1.3-billion budget surplus, which Lacierda attributed to the Aquino administration's sound fiscal management that included tightening government-owned and controlled corporations' personal services and subsidies, lower rice importations, and reviewing public works contracts. Last Sunday, Arroyo faulted the Aquino administration for supposed mistakes in allocations in the proposed 2011 budget. Arroyo said the Palace's budget priorities for next year are "misaligned" and "lopsided" because the Department of Social Welfare and Development got a 123-percent increase, while the judiciary, which is co-equal with the executive and legislative branches, will again receive less than 1 percent of the total budget. Malacanang has previously said it is open to holding dialogues with the judiciary over its budget. Arroyo also slammed the Aquino government for its decision to present the Incident Investigation and Review Committee's report on the August 23 hostage tragedy first to Chinese authorities before making it available to the Filipino public. Eight tourists from Hong Kong as well as the hostage-taker dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, were killed in the hostage crisis. The death of the tourists was widely condemned in Hong Kong, a special Chinese territory, and authorities' handling of the incident was criticized worldwide. President Benigno Aquino III said the IIRC report was given to Chinese authorities first, to avoid miscommunication because the Philippines is trying to repair its relations with China. Arroyo, a former human rights lawyer, served as Executive Secretary during the presidency of the late Corazon C. Aquino, the President's mother. As a senator during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, not a direct kin but who is a Lakas-Kampi-CMD partymate, he often took a stand on major political issues that favored Mrs. Arroyo.—JV, GMANews.TV