Malacañang dismisses polls saying that Pinoys worse off

Malacañang on Friday dismissed the results of a survey which showed that 54 percent of Filipinos believe that their lives are worse off now than in 2004. According to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, the "worse off" feeling is merely "their (people's) perception" while Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that Malacanang never promised "instant results" from the country's economic surge and that it would take some time to lift the quality of life of the people as a whole. “This government never promised instant results from the economic surge, but the reality is that we have more jobs today, lower inflation and lesser debt," Bunye said. He admitted that there is still much to be done but said government officials are “rolling up our sleeves, which more and more Filipinos are doing." He said the country is gaining more confidence from the global community and that government has the revenues to fund the programs. The remarks came in reaction to the April 3 to 5 Pulse Asia survey which showed that 54 percent of Filipinos believe that their lives are worse off now than in 2004. The same survey said that 65 percent believe that the quality of life of their countrymen are also worse. For his part, Ermita said government needs to “project" the programs that it is implementing such as anti-hunger, anti-poverty, infrastructure development, and other productivity programs such as hog- and chicken-raising and the Tindahan Natin. He identified these are programs as the ones that President Arroyo ordered the National Nutrition Council to focus on. “Iyon siguro ang dapat nating i-project…The issue really is governance, kung ano ba ang mga programa na makapagpapabuti sa ating taumbayan," he said. - GMANews.TV