There was only one problem, and that was that the public took a different take on it. I don’t know that the same thing will happen to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s posters. Those posters, in case you have not seen them (in which case you are probably living the life of a hermit, voluntarily or out of desperate straits), are the ones that proclaim “Ramdam na ang kaunlaran” (”The progress is now palpable,” “You can feel the prosperity,” “You can reap the harvest” take your pick). That was that the economic growth was finally trickling down to the poor. Those ads could not have come at a worse time. The shape of things to come was hinted at by a front-page story we had some weeks ago about a man who had queued up before the National Food Authority outlet on Visayas Avenue in Quezon City, only to be told before his turn came that all the rice was gone. Read More