MANILA, Philippines – The administration of President Rodrigo Duterte has “achieved more” compared to the combined terms of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno S. Aquino III, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after Arroyo called on the administration to produce “tangible results” this year to ease poverty.

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Arroyo, currently Speaker of the House of Representatives, said the Duterte administration should urgently implement its promised economic programs this 2019 after she hailed the slowdown of inflation in December 2018.

READ: Arroyo hails inflation downtrend, urges swift gov’t programs

“Such is the consequence of what we have pointed out in our previous narratives on the President’s understanding of the intricacies of the Philippine economy, which he decisively addressed and which his economic managers implemented,” Panelo said.

Panelo cited the collaboration of the Executive and the House leadership “in taking action on the issue of inflation.”

“This is a good case of statesmanship demanded by our people from their elected leaders,” he said.

Arroyo, Panelo said, shared “the pronouncements of the economic team that we must produce tangible results; hence, we did not wait for the second half of PRRD’s term to come up the desired economic gains.”

“The Speaker must be aware that the two and half years of the Duterte presidency has achieved more than the combined terms of the Arroyo and Aquino presidencies in terms of major policy reforms and flagship infrastructure projects duly processed and ready for groundbreaking, and some already near completion,” he pointed out.

He also said the “administration has wasted no time and resources in enhancing workers’ employability and competitiveness, and for 2018, we generated 826,000 net employments with services and industry as main drivers for growth, as per the report of the Department of Labor and Employment.”

“We expect to create more jobs this year and the coming years with the Build, Build, Build Infrastructure Program now firing in all cylinders,” he added. /kga

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