(Editor's note: This last column of Press Secretary Cerge Remonde was submitted just before he died yesterday from heart failure.)

Here's one I love to tell people who would ask me about what the solid accomplishments of President Macapagal Arroyo are that would readily remind us of her when she is no longer the President.

It's about that majestic St. Paul's cathedral in London. A curious visitor was asking the caretaker why there was no statue erected in honor of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who built that great structure. The caretaker showed the visitor a wall within the cathedral with an inscription in Latin that reads: Lector, si monumentum requires, circumspice. Roughly translated in English, it says, "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."

I believe that someday we would be reminded of that inscription when people start looking for a monument of one of the most hardworking and successful infrastructure builders of our time – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The proof of her monumental achievements would be everywhere, spanning the whole archipelago.

For no leader in our history could compare with her achievements when it comes to the building of infrastructures of growth such as roads and bridges, ports and airports.

President Arrroyo has built more roads and bridges on her watch than her three predecessors combined. We are talking about a total of 47,800 kilometers (kms) of major roads and 289,944 linear meters (lms) of bridges from 2001 to 2009, totaling P226 billion.

Let us make some comparison. Roads built under President Ramos totalled 14, 980 kms; President Aquino, 11,699 kms; and President Estrada, 7,647 – or a combined total of 34,326 kms. Compared to the Arroyo Administration's record of 47,000 kms, that means a difference of 13,474 kms.

With regards to bridges, 165,997 lms were built under the Ramos Administration; 41,996 lms under Aquino; and 66,754 lms under Estrada, – or a total of 274,747 lms. Compared to the Arroyo administration's 289,944 lms, that is a difference of 10,197 lms.

Moreover, considering that her three predecessors served a total of fourteen and a-half (14 ½ years) years, while President Arroyo would still be on her ninth-and a-half (9 ½) year, one can very well see the performance of the Arroyo administration compared to the three previous administrations in terms of infrastructure development.

In addition, the Arroyo administration from 2004 to 2007 was also able to build 1,665 of provincial and city road projects totaling around 4,280.80 kms under the Special Local Road Fund.

The administration built three new airports, one international and two of international standards; improved and/or upgraded three international airports, upgraded four airports to international standard; improved and/or upgraded 67 airports; and constructed five more, four of which are of international standard.

It also constructed and/or rehabilitated 164 ports; constructed and/or improved 373 municipal ports, and completred 47 fishery infrastructure projects.

Now, did President Arroyo get the thanks she so richly deserves? Not on your life.

I bring up the point, to illustrate how this administration must endure unfair criticism at every turn.

Aside from building the biggest number of roads and bridges in much shorter time compared to previous administrations, this administration has presided over 36 quarters of economic growth, capped by the last quarter of 2009. Thirty-six quarters, if I may stress, span the entire nine-year tenure of this administration.

The critics choose to keep quiet about it. I suppose it is true that you can't argue with numbers. And here they are:

In her very first year in office, the of them. And she succeeded admirably well. Under her watch, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has grown from a mere 400 agents to close to 500,000 workers, all getting above-average salaries and benefits.

As you very well know, call center agents are mostly college graduates, or college students at the very least.

Thus, the President has also created a job creation program for those who make up the bottom of the economic pyramid. At least a million people in the cities and in the countryside have been given jobs and livelihood opportunities, in the Department of Public Works and Highways and in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

In fact, as per the report of the National Statistics Office, as of 2008, more than 8 million jobs had been created since the start of her administration, putting her target of creating 10 million jobs by 2010 well within reach.

I suppose, however, that this administration will be defined more for its ambitious infrastructure building program, undertaken to spur and sustain economic growth.

Long after she is gone, President Arroyo will still be remembered, and all because of the infrastructure projects she has left behind.

In this manner, anybody who travels the length and breadth of this beautiful archipelago long after our President will have served her full term, will see the unmistakable imprint of her presidency. All he or she has to do is "look around," as the inscription within the wall of St. Paul's cathedral says.