Beating the Odds
Beating the Odds is a preview of how policy making and decision making was done by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the most challenging times of her presidency. The authors through intensive research and study showed a picture of her leadership skills which revolved around six issues that made an impact during her presidency. Namely terrorism, the peace process in Mindanao, the drug threat, the global emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an attempted rebellion the government and a ballooning budget deficit.
The book discusses a chapter on how they formed a ceasefire and launched several projects to oversee the start of the the rehabilitation for war-torn areas. Pushing for negotiations that helped to facilitate the Mindanao Peace Process. They invited third parties that could help to monitor the facets of the precarious process. Which also skilfully navigated dilemmas that were met along the way such as security and political. A model was installed in place for future leaders to follow through and emulate.
Another interesting chapter in the book is how they tackled the solutions in as far as the budget deficit was concerned. The budget was in dreary state in 2001. Revenues were low, debt was high, and inefficiencies and corruption drained the country’s coffers. Steps to ensure the proper ranking of government expenditures and allocations and implemented tax reforms to improve collections were implemented.
I highly encourage everyone to read the book to understand the demands and the issues that the President of our country has to go through. Get to know the revelations of the day-to-day grind that a President and Commander-in-Chief of the Philippines goes through to do what needs to be done. People interested in politics, policymakers and those interested in how government works will find this book a very interesting read.
To be honest this book still didn’t change my mind of what I thought about her. I really think that the rumors are true she assumed power in Malacañang through massive electoral fraud as exposed in the “Hello Garci” scandal, and persistently campaigned to change the constitution to extend her term. What ruined it for her was that she just couldn’t control her family. Her husband is involved in major cases of corruption exposed from 2001 to 2008. Her family indulged in billions of pesos of public funds while the people suffered poverty and hunger. Her family members have seats in congress. She even created a special district so that her son can secure a seat in Bicol. Just when I thought that I’ve had enough of her. Now she even secured a seat in congress. She’s just so power hungry that she just doesn’t want to leave.
This book is worth reading because it gives us an understanding on how her mind works and how she thinks. The book did a great job on chosing to focus on her administration’s touted gain nine-and-a-half years of unbroken economic growth, improved public finances, massive The infrastructure, antipoverty programs and automated elections. This is great for people who like her because they’ll respect her even more after reading the book. For those that don’t like her this will make them get to know her a bit more and maybe understand her.
