“I’m not after being a great person. I said I want to be a good President, now to be (one) is not even necessarily history because in the end who is going to judge whether one is good or not?" President Arroyo asked.

Mrs. Arroyo said she herself could not tell now if she had been doing good because “that’ for the Lord to determine at the end of my life.”

Several impeachment complaints against her had been filed by various groups on allegations that she cheated her way to victory in the 2004 elections, among other charges involving her policies.

Mrs. Arroyo said her only focus now was to improve the economy and bring more investments into the country.

She said she was happy with the country’s current performance despite the political noise and the rising oil prices in the world market.

The President said the country could have achieved more without the political noise but given that, she noted the gains that the Philippines had been posting despite the global oil price hikes that had been hurting world economies.

She said she could not make things happen by waving a magic wand and that she would be needing all the support she could get as leader of the nation.

“We all have to make it (progress) happen,” the President said.

Mrs. Arroyo presided over the joint Cabinet-Regional Development Council meeting here where the various infrastructure projects to attract investments were discussed.

She said investors must start paying attention to the Philippines especially with the good economic indicators.

 “They should be told look at our economics, look at our indicators, look at our 5.5 percent growth rate, look at our budgetary surplus in April and May, look at our deficit that has gone drastically therefore look at our strong peso, look at our foreign exchange reserve, $21 billion when we only need $16 billion to make our peso stable, look at our benign inflation rate compared to the world oil prices," she said.

There was a 5.5 percent growth in the gross domestic product in the first quarter, and “we will be expecting even six percent for the second quarter."

She also noted the “historic” P18-billion budget surplus in April and P5 billion in May, which she said was “the biggest in almost a decade and yet we had expected to balance the  budget by 2008 or by 2010 yet."

The President said that “we have a marked inflow in foreign investments at $500 million in the first four months" and a “double digit growth of our exports at 17 percent for May."

“So if you look at the numbers, they can see that we achieved this in spite of the political noise. Of course, what more can we achieve without the political noise?" Mrs. Arroyo added.

She said that to boost the economy further, she has instructed Trade Secretary Peter Favila to organize a national competitiveness summit, and that a national competitiveness council was in the works.