MANILA - If there was any gift President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could give Filipinos, it would be her unrelenting efforts to keep the country afloat at the height of the global financial crisis, a Palace official said Wednesday.
"I feel that if there is anything that the President can show people it is the fact that we are able to prepare ourselves at what could be a worse economic situation," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told a press conference.
Ermita boasted of Arroyo being "a template" for other countries during the Clinton Global forum in Hong Kong earlier this month, which he said was a proof of Arroyo's moves to lessen the impact of the economic crunch.
And although acknowledging the year had not been very good for Arroyo politically, amid the controversies of the multimillion National Broadband Deal with China's ZTE Corporation and yet another impeachment complaint, Ermita also said it had not been a bad year.
"I would say it may not be very good but it is not bad either in a sense that while it is true there are political upheavals... I like to look at them as democratic space that everyone is given opportunity to give their sentiments," said Ermita.
"The President continues to be confident after encountering problems in the past month," added Ermita, referring the fourth impeachment against Arroyo which was dismissed at the House of Representatives.
Ermita said Arroyo will celebrate the Christmas with her family at the Palace before going to Baguio on December 27, a yearly tradition of the First Family.
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