Press Release
December 15, 2008

Pia: Withholding of US aid is Arroyo regime's own undoing

Senate opposition member Pia S. Cayetano today said the Arroyo government is entirely to blame for the recent decision of the US Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) to withhold economic assistance to the Philippines next year for the latter's failure to curb corruption in the bureaucracy and institute much-needed social and economic reforms.

"In the end, it's the Filipino people who lose. Washington's decision to withhold aid under the Millennium Account is entirely the Arroyo regime's undoing, but everyone will now be made to bear the costs," said Cayetano.

"The absence of transparency and accountability in government dealings, compounded by the Arroyo administration's practice to stonewall every investigation on the numerous scandals involving its top officials, have eroded not only the people's trust in their leaders, but also our good standing before the international community."

Cayetano emphasized that aside from failing the "control of corruption" criterion (47 percent), the Arroyo government reportedly also failed to score above the median in 14 out of 17 indicators used by the MCC to measure a country's performance and eligibility to receive aid.

She stressed that the government also registered very low scores in health expenditures (19 percent) and primary education (32 percent).

"So it's not just in fighting corruption where we are failing, but also in providing enough support for people's basic needs like health and education."

"With this major rebuff from the MCC, I'm really curious as to how the Palace will react. Will it suddenly look into allegations of graft which has been happening right before their eyes? Or will it react the same way it did when World Bank suspended the grant of loans to the Philippines last year?"

She recalled a similar instance in November 2007 when the World Bank decided to suspend $323 million in soft loans for the Philippine road project due to reports of corruption.

"Instead of immediately acknowledging and investigating the complaint, the bright boys in Malacañang even had the gall to blame 'internal politics' in the World Bank that had supposedly caused the loan suspension. It's as if they were saying that the Palace cannot do anything wrong; that it is infallible like the Pope."

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