KMU on legacy ads: Lying through her teeth up to the last minute, that’s Arroyo’s legacy

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno scoffed at the Palace’s massive ad campaign to convince the people of her government’s achievements in the past nine years, saying such costly peddling of lies stand out to be Arroyo’s legacy apart from her bad economic policies.

Recently, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) has urged other government agencies to pool in resources for Arroyo’s last ditch PR bid through legacy ads, saying “it is better late than never.” 

“Despite having three state-run TV stations, one radio station, MRT and LRT ads, and a circle of spokespersons, Gloria Arroyo has even embarked on propagating more lies via legacy ads, ironically highlighting the people’s well-entrenched distrust of her regime and the reality of poverty,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

“Lying through her teeth up to the last minute, that’s the legacy Arroyo is leaving to the Filipino people. Or perhaps, that’s her tragic fate, for she bragged for nine years and yet no one believes her up to the remaining days of her term,” he added. 

Labog said “rather than highlight the country’s so-called economic gains and record-high job generation, spending on legacy ads points to one thing: Hindi talaga ramdam ang kaunlaran.”

KMU ridiculed Arroyo’s full-spread print advertisements wherein data on major economic indicators like employment and hunger were purposefully left “unavailable”, making her then-and-now assessment look stupid. “Gagamit na nga lang ng datos para magmukhang kapani-paniwala, kulang-kulang pa,” he said. 

KMU said Filipinos are convinced that poverty has worsened to record-high levels under Arroyo’s term.Price of rice tripled, price of sugar more than doubled, price of diesel more than tripled. Meanwhile, historic joblessness and poor quality of work continue to force at least 4,000 Filipinos to seek a living abroad every day.

“It is even more difficult for Filipinos to stomach such legacy ads during this time when prices of rice, oil and sugar continue to climb and when one out of four Filipino families experience hunger. That’s sheer insensitivity on Arroyo’s part,” Labog said.

KMU warned that taxpayer’s funds to be used for more legacy ads could be used to beef up the campaign kitty of Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro and other administration bets. #