While President Arroyo jacked up her public acceptance rating, her predecessor, deposed President Joseph Estrada, suffered a marked decrease in the public opinion polls.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo defended yesterday her appointment of certain politicians and former government officials to the Cabinet, saying they were chosen on the basis of competence, good reputation and performance. "What’s terribly wrong about recycling good people?" the President asked.
The latest survey by Pulse Asia, conducted in Metro Manila on Jan. 26, showed that Mrs. Arroyo’s trust rating more than doubled compared to the Jan. 20 poll, or from 16 percent to 38 percent.
Conversely, Estrada’s rating plummeted from 60 percent to 24 percent during the same period.
However, Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., who was at the center of the aborted impeachment trial of Estrada, had a hefty 48 percent.
"The positive trust rating has eluded Mrs. Arroyo since November last year," said Pulse Asia president Prof. Felipe Miranda. "What we are seeing now is the biggest improvement in the public’s trust for any official."
"The surge in her net trust rating is about the most incredible I have seen in survey data for any public official in the last 16 years," Miranda added.
Results of the same survey, which had 346 respondents, showed that six out of 10 Metro Manilans believe that Mrs. Arroyo’s ascension to power was constitutional and legal, while forty-one percent said otherwise.
Fifty-five percent of the respondents also believe a majority of Filipinos now support the Arroyo administration. The rest said only a few Filipinos support her.
Addressing a meeting of business leaders at the Dusit Hotel Nikko in Makati City, the President vowed to weed out graft and corruption, cut the expected budget deficit and spur economic growth.
She also announced the abolition of the Economic Coordinating Council and the creation of a new Cabinet cluster called Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Council.
"I am committed to restoring the Cabinet as the institution of the executive policy-making and coordination. This is a Cabinet that meets in the morning and not at midnight," Mrs. Arroyo said to the delight of her audience.
It was an apparent dig at her predecessor who allegedly maintained the company of drinking buddies, commonly referred to as the "midnight Cabinet," until the wee hours of the morning at Malacañang.
"The path is right for us to rise through the crisis and swiftly put our house in order in the face of daunting task of healing, unifying and rebuilding our nation," Arroyo said.
She appealed to the business leaders to give her new administration the "trust and support of civil society."
"I hope to leave a capable government that meets the expectations of our people. But it cannot be government as usual. We need that energized bureaucracy, honest and inspired leadership, and a competent corps of dedicated professionals in the public service," Arroyo said during the joint meeting of various business organizations led by the Makati Business Club (MBC).
She expressed gratitude for the businessmen’s commitment to maintain their workforce of about 150,000 for the first few months of her administration as their contribution to strengthen her government.
She also cited the track record in public service of her Cabinet secretaries, particularly Executive Secretary Renato de Villa, Alberto Romulo of finance, Emilia Boncodin of budget, Dante Canlas of economic planning, Mar Roxas II of trade and industry, Simeon Datumanong of public works and highways and Pantaleon Alvarez of transportation and communications.
Mrs. Arroyo said Roxas and Romulo co-chair the ICT Council, meant to push the country’s competitiveness in the IT-sector. She said the Philippines enjoys the largest pool of IT-skilled workers.
The President said among the reforms she wanted to institutionalize is "open participation by both the private sector and civil society" in policy-making process.
"Government needs to be both re-invented and returned to the people. This is part of the efforts to replace the politics of patronage with a new politics of consultation."
She also said she has decided to revive the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) as a mechanism for regular dialogue and consultation between Malacañang and the legislature.
"This body was created by law which I authored as a senator, although it was seldom convened in the past administration. It proved to be an effective vehicle in forging quality consensus and program of coordination between the executive (department) and Congress.
Estrada organized the ECC in January last year amid criticisms that his administration lacked economic policy direction.
Mrs. Arroyo justified her abolition of the ECC by saying it merely duplicated the functions of the National Economic and Development Authority.
At the same time, the Chief Executive admitted that the potential huge budget deficit is a "major problem" confronting her government.
"We want to trim down the expected budget deficit of P225 billion to P146 billion. This requires handiwork and sacrifice...to reduce expenditures, the effective austerity measures, and increasing income but intensified efforts to include tax collection," Mrs. Arroyo said.
"The job of fiscal deficit is not the sole responsibility of the government. Like good governance, it is everybody’s business. Thus I call on the business sector to continue doing its role in helping the government meet its fiscal targets and supporting the tax collection efforts," she said.
Apart from the MBC, other business groups present in the meeting were the Management Association of the Philippines, the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference, the Bankers’ Association of the Philippines, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, the Philippine Computer Society, the Federation of Philippine Industries, the Chamber of Real Estate and Builders’ Association, the Investment House Association of the Philippines and the Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines.
Presidential spokesman Renato Corona said it was the first political meeting convened by the president with her supporters, including those who were behind the people power II that ousted Estrada and paved the way for her rise to the presidency.
Corona did not rule out the possibility that EDSA forces may spin off into a political party or a coalition for the coming polls.
Mrs. Arroyo is expected to yield her leadership of the Lakas-NUCD-Kampi coalition.
Present at the meeting at the Macapagal ancestral home in Forbes Park, Makati were former President Fidel Ramos, chairman emeritus of Lakas-NUCD, Executive Secretary Renato de Villa of Reporma Party, education secretary-designate Sen. Raul Roco of Aksyon Demokratiko, former Cebu Gov. Lito Osmeña of Promdi, Presidential Management Staff chief Victoria Garchitorena of KOMPIL, and Senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Loren Legarda-Leviste.
Corona dismissed observations that the battle for the presidency between Mrs. Arroyo and Estrada has shifted to the coming elections.
Corona also said Arroyo’s political stock immensely improved, while that of Estrada plunged due to defections from the erstwhile ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino.
"That’s the political reality in the Philippines because nobody wants to be identified with losers," Corona added.
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople asked the Supreme Court to make a final ruling on pending petitions questioning the legality of the Arroyo administration.
Ople said Arroyo’s presidency "need not hang on the thread of an administrative resolution" of the High Tribunal authorizing Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. to administer the oath of Mrs. Arroyo.
Following De Castro in the survey were re-electionist Sen. Juan Flavier of Lakas-NUCD-UMDP and Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo, who will run under the Aksyon Demokratiko of Sen. Raul Roco.
Others in the so-called "Magic 12" are Sen. Franklin Drilon, lawyer-broadcaster Francis Pangilinan, Batangas Rep. Ralph Recto, former Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, broadcaster Korina Sanchez, former Press Secretary Ricardo Puno, former Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara, former Speaker Manuel Villar and former Philippine National Police chief Director General Panfilo Lacson.
It was the first time Lacson, still an active policeman, landed in the winning circle. If he chooses to run for the Senate, he will have to retire from the police force. — Romel Bagares, Marichu Villanueva, Perseus Echeminada, Jess Diaz, Liberty Dones, Non Alquitran