State of Gloria Arroyo is off the record

Philippine Daily Inquirer
Leila Salaverria Christian V. Esguerra

MANILA, Philippines—It’s a matter of style, the Palace says, pointing out that “the state of Gloria Arroyo” is off the record.

Picking up from where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left off, her allies Tuesday continued the verbal assault on her political foes amid criticisms over her purported final State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde stressed that Monday’s SONA was Ms Arroyo’s “fitting valedictory as she prepares to leave office, and a restatement of the vision and mission she will bequeath to her future successor.”

Remonde said Ms Arroyo even left pieces of unsolicited advice for the next president—though many of them were sardonic and scathing.

“What can be clearer than that?” he asked in a press conference that also gathered members of the League of Governors to express support for Ms Arroyo.

Remonde said Ms Arroyo did not have to talk about her political plans in the SONA because such plans pertained to “the state of Gloria Arroyo.”

And unlike former President Corazon Aquino who was categorical about not prolonging her term in her final SONA, Ms Arroyo had her “own style of saying things,” he said.

Remonde noted that Ms Arroyo “set the tone already” in her fighting speech. But while his boss did not name names, he was unequivocal.

Remonde ridiculed former President Joseph Estrada’s work ethic after the ousted leader scoffed at Ms Arroyo’s address.

“The one she replaced would have only two appointments in a day, but would still cancel one of them,” he said of Estrada, while citing Ms Arroyo’s tireless schedule.

Remonde defended Ms Arroyo’s acerbic remarks in her speech, saying they just showed that the President was capable of “dishing out as much as she can receive.”

Gov. Jade Ecleo of Dinagat province said Ms Arroyo should have said more against her critics.

“If I were the President, these critics would have heard things they haven’t heard their entire life!” Ecleo said.

Remonde described the SONA as a “stinging rebuke to the critics and oppositionists who have been relentlessly hounding her of late, hoping to make political capital out of her refusal to take the low road they themselves find so congenial for their own ambitions.”

“To judge from their expressions of indignation at her remarks about them, or their incredulity at her achievements despite all the facts she mustered, one wonders if her critics were in fact watching the same speech as the rest of the country,” he said, reading from a statement.

“History will be a kinder—not to mention, much more objective, responsible, and credible—judge of the President’s legacy than that crowd of wannabes,” Remonde said.

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