Thursday, December 13, 2007 PMS chief calls survey tagging Glo as most corrupt un-Christian, ‘but a challenge’
PRESIDENTIAL Management Staff Director General Cerge Remonde said a recent survey that rated President Arroyo as the most corrupt president in the country is unfair.
“The result of the survey is most unfair, unkind and un-christian,” Remonde told reporters yesterday. He was in Cebu for the quarterly Regional Development Council (RDC) full council meeting.
But rather than dismiss the survey, Remonde said the administration will take this as a challenge.
“It’s telling us that since there is this perception, then we have to work hard,” Remonde said.
He also explained that since the survey only tackled perceptions, then the results are “far from reality.”
Remonde described Arroyo as the most hard-working President and added that she initiated anti-corruption programs such lifestyle checks on government officials.
“These perceptions (results of the survey) are generated by the fact that this administration is dogged by a very vicious opposition,” Remonde said.
He further said that the opposition is not guided by the rules of civility, attacking every move of the President every chance they get.
“And you know, a lie repeated a thousand times will assume the substance of the truth,” Remonde said.
In a separate interview, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal said, “If one is in a government position, he must be in a position that will give him the opportunity to serve the people.”
He made the statement yesterday when asked by reporters for his comments on the recently published Pulse Asia survey.
The survey, which used face-to-face interviews with a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points, showed that 42 percent of its respondents said President Arroyo is the most corrupt president since 1965.
The late strongman Ferdinand Marcos followed with 35 percent.
Forty-five percent of the respondents also believe that it is Arroyo’s administration that experienced the most intense allegations of corruption.
Meanwhile, 66 percent of the respondents said that former president Corazon Aquino is the least corrupt or not a corrupt leader at all.
Challenge
“But I cannot say anything that is of comparison or in contrast with that survey in Pulse Asia because I have no proof.
There must be proof. I don’t know exactly how Pulse Asia came to gather the facts but they have these surveys. But you know naman that surveys are like that,” Vidal said.
He then challenged the government to take note of the results of the survey and do something about it.
“We cannot deny that there are instances (of corruption) that I myself experienced,” the cardinal said.
He cited an incident while trying to get the signatures for the permits for the Cebu Catholic Television Network (CCTN) Channel 47 several years ago at the regional office of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
The Archdiocese of Cebu is a partner institution of the Nonito Limchua Foundation Inc. in the operation of CCTN, which helps the archdiocese in its evangelization programs using the mass media.
“At that time, I did not tell them I am the cardinal. But I was there. It was already quarter to noon. We were the last in line. Nothing was happening. Then one of my companions speculated that they (government officials) probably want to ask something from us. But I said, ‘Let’s go!’ We left, without getting anything from NTC or they from us. So I went straight to the Office of the President and was able to get the signatures,” Vidal shared.
He urged government officials to show evidence of goodness according to their faith.
In his homily during the 74th feast anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church yesterday, he called on the Christian flock to look up to Jesus, listen to him, and learn from him “because these are lessons to live by as followers of Christ.”
“I hope that in times of change and new things, our pride as a cradle of Christianity will not change. With Señor Sto. Niño and Our Lady of Guadalupe, let us show evidence of our Christianity, because we have grown, because this is one way to show our faith in God, in Jesus, and in the Church,” he said in Cebuano. (JGA/NRC)
