The whole is not the sum of the parts

The Inquirer reports: The European Union has commended the Philippines for its recent economic gains and the significant decline in the incidence of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the EU ambassador told a news forum yesterday.

According to European Union Ambassador, Allistair MacDonald, the Philippines' 7.3-percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007 deserves to e praised because "this is the best macroeconomic performance in some 50 years and we wanted to acknowledge that, noting as well that this was accompanied by controlled inflation, a balanced budget and an improved balance of payments", MacDonald said.

Ayos din si MacDonald. Kaya lang, naisip niya kaya na posibleng tinawagan din ni Gloria Arroyo si Garci para mahilot ang economic figure?

Kung sabagay, wala nga palang pakialam ang EU sa internal affairs sa Pilipinas. And it doesn't care kung tunay o hindi ang figures so long as these are official figures. Pero for a fact lang: dumami ang mga mahihirap from 24.4% to 26.9%; self rated hunger also grew up and is expected to soar with the increase of prices of the local commodities without the corresponding increase in the daily wage; self rated poverty also increased because the alleged increase in the GDP did not trickle down to the pockets; that self rated poverty will further increase considering na lalong dumami ang babayarang utang ng mga Pilipino dahil sa corruption.

Next, though it may be true that the number of extra-judicial killings declined, hindi naman gumalaw ng solution rate at wala ni isa pa man ang nappatunayang guilty sa mga namatay. Sa disappearances naman, wala pa ring lumilitaw. And though the numbers of the killings slightly improve, lumala naman ang sitwasyon sa freedom of speech and expression; nawala na rin ang transparency ng gobyerno lalo na ngayon na paborable ang naging desisyon ng Supreme Court sa kaso ni Neri vs Senate with regards the extent of the executive privilege. And this is much worse than extra-judicial killings. Binuhay mo nga ang tao ginawa mo namang parang hayup ang buhay niya.

Kung sabagay, wala namang pakialam ang EU dito sa Pilipinas. Siguro nga mas gusto pa ng EU na laging mahirap ang Pilipinas para maging dependent ang bansa ni Gloria Arroyo sa EU lalo na sa aids at loans. Kung mangyari ng ganun, mahawakan na rin ng EU sa leeg ang Pilipinas... a case which is no different from what the Imperial United States is doing.

Pero sana di tulad sa US ang EU. At sana sa European system of measurements, naiisip pa rin nito na "the whole is not always the sum of its parts".