This is the full text of a paper written by former president and current Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which was released to the media yesterday during a press briefing at the Manila Hotel.
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 1 of 4
The economy I turned over.
Countless studies have shown that rapid increases in average incomes reduce poverty. Policy research, notes economist Stephan Klasen, has shown that “poverty reduction will be fastest in countries where average income growth is highest.”
When I stepped down from the Presidency in June 2010, I was able to turn over to the next Administration a new Philippines with a 7.9 percent growth rate. That growth rate capped 38 quarters of uninterrupted economic growth despite escalating global oil and food prices, two world recessions, Central and West Asian wars, mega-storms and virulent global epidemics. Our country had just weathered with flying colors the worst planet-wide economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1930. As two-thirds of the world’s economies contracted, we were one of the few that managed positive growth.
If you look around you in our cities as you drive by the office towers that have changed the skyline, if you look around you in our provinces as you drive over the roads, bridges and RORO ports where we made massive investments, that is the face of change that occurred during my administration.
By the time I left the Presidency, nearly nine out of 10 Filipinos had access to health insurance, more than 100,000 new classrooms had been built, 9 million jobs had been created.
We built roads and bridges, ports and airports, irrigation and education facilities where they were sorely needed. To millions of the poor, we provided free or subsidized rice, discounted fuel and electricity, or conditional cash transfers and we advanced land reform for farmers and indigenous communities.
No amount of black propaganda can erase the tangible improvements enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of families liberated from want during my decade at the helm of the nation. But these accomplishments have simply been part of the continuum of history. The gains I achieved were built on the efforts of previous leaders. Each successive government must build on the successes and progress of the previous ones: advance the programs that work, leave behind those that don’t.
I am confident that I left this nation much stronger than when I came into office. When I stepped down, I called on everyone to unite behind our new leaders. I was optimistic and I was hopeful about our future.
However, the evidence is mounting that my optimism was misplaced. Our growth in the 3rd quarter of 2011 was only 3.2 percent, well below all the forecasts that had already been successively downgraded. The momentum inherited by President Aquino from my administration is slowing down, and despite his initial brief honeymoon period, he has simply not replaced my legacy with new ideas and actions of his own.
The politics of division.
In the last year and a half, I have noted with sadness the increasing vacuum of leadership, vision, energy and execution in managing our economic affairs. The gains achieved by previous administrations – mine included – are being squandered in an obsessive pursuit of political warfare meant to blacken the past and conceal the dark corners of the present dispensation. Rather than building on our nation’s achievements, this regime has extolled itself as the sole harbinger of all that is good. And the Filipino people are paying for this obsession--in slumping growth, under-achieving government, escalating crime and conflict, and the excesses of a presidential clique that enjoys fancy cars and gun culture.
Vilification covering up the vacuum of vision is the latest manifestation of the weak state that our generation of Filipinos has inherited. The symptoms of this weak state are a large gap between rich and poor — a gap that has been exploited for political ends — and a political system based on patronage and, ultimately, corruption to support that patronage. Recently, politics has seen the use of black propaganda and character assassination as tools of the trade.The operative word in all of this is “politics” – too much politics.
I know that the President has to be a politician, like everybody else in our elected leadership, whether Administration or Opposition, and we must all co-exist within this system. But what really matters is what kind of politics we espouse, not how much. The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ego above country and sensationalism above rationality; when we make everyday politics replace long-term vision in our country’s hour of need.
Everyday we draw nearer to what may be our country’s hour of greatest need, because an increasingly ominous global environment is aggravating our self-inflicted weakness. The leadership’s palpable deficiencies in vision and execution are hurting our economy at a time when the rest of the world faces the ever more real threat of a double-dip recession, one that we may have escaped the first time during my term, but might not be able to avoid again.
Our dream of growth
In order to avoid such a grim outcome, we must pursue the economic growth of our country as the permanent solution to our age-old problems of poverty and even corruption. Every postwar Administration to my recollection has sought to advance the economic growth of our country as a matter of highest priority. Only by enlarging the economic pie can there be more and bigger slices for everyone to enjoy.
It is in poverty that we find the material roots of the problem of corruption – because the political system based on patronage--and ultimately, corruption to support patronage--is made possible only by the large gap between the rich and the poor. This will persist until and unless we enlarge the economic pie. Unfortunately, the present Administration has chosen to turn the problem upside down, anchoring their entire development strategy on one simplistic slogan: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” If there is no corruption, there is no poverty—this is a proposition that also tells us that the undeniable persistence of poverty to this day therefore means the continuation of corruption under this Administration.
The Economist commented earlier that: “…The President’s approach to fighting corruption…is to punish the sins of the past rather than try to prevent crime in the future. Mr. Aquino has proposed few reforms to the system.”
Meanwhile, most analysts are downgrading their growth forecasts for this year and the next. The Dutch bank ING cited the government’s “under-spending in the name of good governance” as the reason for lowering its growth forecasts. Now more than ever, as the rest of the world faces renewed threats of financial and even sovereign defaults as well as economic recession, it is high time for us to return to the commitment to growth that has been the primary objective of every administration in the past.
See part 2 of 4.
Showing posts with label Speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Speech. Show all posts
Friday, January 13, 2012
It's the Economy, Student, part 4 of 4
This is the full text of a paper written by former president and current Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which was released to the media yesterday during a press briefing at the Manila Hotel.
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 4 of 4
Our children
For Filipinos, family is everything and the future of our children is sacred. That is why I invested so much time and effort in rejuvenating our education system. I met with teachers and other educators to get a first-hand look at the improvements that we need to make. I listened to what these fine public servants had to say, and in response to their advice, I increased the country’s total budget for education by nearly four times: from Ps 6.6 Billion in 2000 to Ps 24.3 Billion in 2010 when I stepped down. Those funds went into the following critical areas of educational spending:
We built 100,000 new classrooms, more than the three previous administrations combined. We supported one in every two private high school students—a total of 1.2 million students-with the GASTPE financial voucher program. In 2009 alone, we doubled TESDA’s budget.
For the long term, key recommendations were also submitted by the educational task force I created in 2007--comprising representatives from the major educational and private sector bodies under the leadership of former Ateneo president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres--in order to fashion a new educational roadmap with special attention to the needs of the youth and our growing knowledge-driven industries.
The task force report is the only document I personally handed to President Aquino, when we were together in the car being driven to his inauguration last year. Unfortunately that report seems to have landed in his circular file, making our schoolchildren yet another casualty of the ongoing vilification being waged against me.
I’m now saddened by news reports that the administration has been under-funding state colleges and universities without offering alternatives to the more than ten percent of our student population who attend these institutions.
Moreover, to my knowledge, any major educational reforms implemented by this administration have been limited only to adding another two years to basic education. I do not know how sound this is, or how widely supported among education professionals.
The poor
I often said during my Administration that we need to continue translating our economic and fiscal achievements into real benefits for the people. We must continue to invest in what I like to call the three “E’s” of the Economy, Environment and Education. These include such pro-poor programs as enhancing access to healthcare, food, housing and education, as well as job creation. They are central to lifting our nation up.
Over the past decade—fuelled by the windfall from our mid-term fiscal reforms—I initiated or expanded a raft of social programs for the poor. We increased PhilHealth insurance coverage, set up nearly 16,000 Botika ng Barangay outlets to deliver affordable medicines to the poor, ordered the drug companies by law to reduce their prices, energized 98.9 percent of our barangays, provided water service to 70 percent of previously waterless municipalities.And of course, we also introduced “Four P’s”, the highly successful conditional cash transfer program aimed at encouraging positive behavior among the poor in exchange for cash assistance.
But perhaps more than our social services, what the poor benefited the most from was the low inflation and the low unemployment we made possible through effective management of the economy. Despite the global food and oil price spikes of 2008, domestic inflation slowly declined on my watch, bottoming out at 3.9 percent by the time I stepped down in June 2010. And unemployment, which had peaked at nearly 14 percent under President Estrada, was averaging only around 7.5 percent toward the end of my term in office.
The problems of the poor are serious indeed, and they deserve serious thinking and serious solutions—not empty slogans, not the bloating of the cash transfer program for patently political ends, and certainly not the inability of this administration to keep the price of rice affordable or create more jobs by continuing the growth agenda. The moment that agenda is compromised, it is the poor who will feel first and the hardest the dire consequences.
The environment
No nation can aspire to become modern without protecting its environment.
On my watch as President, the country’s forest cover increased from 5.39 million hectares in 2001 to 7.17 million hectares by 2009. And we registered 40 projects abroad to reduce greenhouse gases—the sixth largest number of such projects among all countries.
I also signed a large number of laws to codify environmental protection—including new legislation to promote Ecological Solid Waste Management, Wildlife Resource Conservation and Protection, Clean Water, and Biofuels. And I tried to set the example for our countrymen by dedicating every Friday to environmental concerns.
I created the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change in 2007, which was later enhanced into the Climate Change Commission under the Climate Change Act of 2009. Under the law, the Chief Executive chairs this Commission, just one of only a few bodies headed by the highest official of the land. And yet President Aquino to date has not convened the Commission even once. The country can ill afford his lack of interest in this matter, now that climate change is causing calamities at the most unexpected times and places, such as the December typhoon floods in Cagayan de Oro and my home town of Iligan City.
Presidential drudgery
As my father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, used to say: “The Presidency of the Philippines is a tough and killing job that demands a sense of sacrifice.” At the end of the day, it comes down to plain hard work. A president must work harder than everyone else. And no matter what he thinks he was elected to do — even if that includes running after alleged offenders in the past — he must not neglect the bread and butter issues that preoccupy most of our people most of the time: keeping prices down, creating more jobs, providing basic services, securing the peace, pursuing the high economic growth that is the only way to vault our country into the ranks of developed economies.
Good management begins with planning ahead, not pointing fingers and blaming others after the fact. It means spelling out your vision quickly and clearly so your team grasps their mission at once and immediately starts to execute it.
Unfortunately, planning and preparation seem to be absent from this administration, whether it’s for taking OFWs out of harm’s way on short notice, or evacuating flood victims—or rescuing foreign tourists held hostage by a crazed gunman. By comparison to that incident, not a single life was ever lost in all the coup attempts against me that I had to put down by force. There is no secret behind this: it against any crisis, implemented with hands-on leadership from the very top.
Once the plan is in place, the leader must proceed to hands-on execution. There is no room for absenteeism, nor for coming to work late and leaving early. There is simply not enough that can be done if the Cabinet meets only four times in an entire year.
The last major task for good management is to exercise control without fear or favor.This was the principle I was following when I brought AFP controller General Garcia up on charges in 2005, and cancelled the NBN/ZTE deal in 2007.
These days—alas—there is absolutely no fear in the administration when they’re running after me or my allies. But there is definitely a lot of favor involved when they excuse— and even defends—their friends even from misdeeds committed in full view of the public.
This is not the kind of ethics that should be practiced by one who claims to have a genuine reform agenda.
Neither will it attract capital from investors who desire regularity and a level playing field. Nor do our people deserve to be consigned to economic stagnation, government lethargy, and nobody-home leadership. Neither the President nor anyone else can truly expect to govern the next five years with nothing but a sorry mix of vilification, periodically recycled promises of action followed by lethargy, backed up by few if any results, and presumptuously encouraging gossip about one’s love life in which no one can possibly be interested. Given the electoral mandate that he enjoyed in 2010— the same size as mine in 2004, as predicted by every survey organization at that time—our people deserve more, and better, from him.
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 4 of 4
Our children
For Filipinos, family is everything and the future of our children is sacred. That is why I invested so much time and effort in rejuvenating our education system. I met with teachers and other educators to get a first-hand look at the improvements that we need to make. I listened to what these fine public servants had to say, and in response to their advice, I increased the country’s total budget for education by nearly four times: from Ps 6.6 Billion in 2000 to Ps 24.3 Billion in 2010 when I stepped down. Those funds went into the following critical areas of educational spending:
We built 100,000 new classrooms, more than the three previous administrations combined. We supported one in every two private high school students—a total of 1.2 million students-with the GASTPE financial voucher program. In 2009 alone, we doubled TESDA’s budget.
For the long term, key recommendations were also submitted by the educational task force I created in 2007--comprising representatives from the major educational and private sector bodies under the leadership of former Ateneo president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres--in order to fashion a new educational roadmap with special attention to the needs of the youth and our growing knowledge-driven industries.
The task force report is the only document I personally handed to President Aquino, when we were together in the car being driven to his inauguration last year. Unfortunately that report seems to have landed in his circular file, making our schoolchildren yet another casualty of the ongoing vilification being waged against me.
I’m now saddened by news reports that the administration has been under-funding state colleges and universities without offering alternatives to the more than ten percent of our student population who attend these institutions.
Moreover, to my knowledge, any major educational reforms implemented by this administration have been limited only to adding another two years to basic education. I do not know how sound this is, or how widely supported among education professionals.
The poor
I often said during my Administration that we need to continue translating our economic and fiscal achievements into real benefits for the people. We must continue to invest in what I like to call the three “E’s” of the Economy, Environment and Education. These include such pro-poor programs as enhancing access to healthcare, food, housing and education, as well as job creation. They are central to lifting our nation up.
Over the past decade—fuelled by the windfall from our mid-term fiscal reforms—I initiated or expanded a raft of social programs for the poor. We increased PhilHealth insurance coverage, set up nearly 16,000 Botika ng Barangay outlets to deliver affordable medicines to the poor, ordered the drug companies by law to reduce their prices, energized 98.9 percent of our barangays, provided water service to 70 percent of previously waterless municipalities.And of course, we also introduced “Four P’s”, the highly successful conditional cash transfer program aimed at encouraging positive behavior among the poor in exchange for cash assistance.
But perhaps more than our social services, what the poor benefited the most from was the low inflation and the low unemployment we made possible through effective management of the economy. Despite the global food and oil price spikes of 2008, domestic inflation slowly declined on my watch, bottoming out at 3.9 percent by the time I stepped down in June 2010. And unemployment, which had peaked at nearly 14 percent under President Estrada, was averaging only around 7.5 percent toward the end of my term in office.
The problems of the poor are serious indeed, and they deserve serious thinking and serious solutions—not empty slogans, not the bloating of the cash transfer program for patently political ends, and certainly not the inability of this administration to keep the price of rice affordable or create more jobs by continuing the growth agenda. The moment that agenda is compromised, it is the poor who will feel first and the hardest the dire consequences.
The environment
No nation can aspire to become modern without protecting its environment.
On my watch as President, the country’s forest cover increased from 5.39 million hectares in 2001 to 7.17 million hectares by 2009. And we registered 40 projects abroad to reduce greenhouse gases—the sixth largest number of such projects among all countries.
I also signed a large number of laws to codify environmental protection—including new legislation to promote Ecological Solid Waste Management, Wildlife Resource Conservation and Protection, Clean Water, and Biofuels. And I tried to set the example for our countrymen by dedicating every Friday to environmental concerns.
I created the Presidential Task Force on Climate Change in 2007, which was later enhanced into the Climate Change Commission under the Climate Change Act of 2009. Under the law, the Chief Executive chairs this Commission, just one of only a few bodies headed by the highest official of the land. And yet President Aquino to date has not convened the Commission even once. The country can ill afford his lack of interest in this matter, now that climate change is causing calamities at the most unexpected times and places, such as the December typhoon floods in Cagayan de Oro and my home town of Iligan City.
Presidential drudgery
As my father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, used to say: “The Presidency of the Philippines is a tough and killing job that demands a sense of sacrifice.” At the end of the day, it comes down to plain hard work. A president must work harder than everyone else. And no matter what he thinks he was elected to do — even if that includes running after alleged offenders in the past — he must not neglect the bread and butter issues that preoccupy most of our people most of the time: keeping prices down, creating more jobs, providing basic services, securing the peace, pursuing the high economic growth that is the only way to vault our country into the ranks of developed economies.
Good management begins with planning ahead, not pointing fingers and blaming others after the fact. It means spelling out your vision quickly and clearly so your team grasps their mission at once and immediately starts to execute it.
Unfortunately, planning and preparation seem to be absent from this administration, whether it’s for taking OFWs out of harm’s way on short notice, or evacuating flood victims—or rescuing foreign tourists held hostage by a crazed gunman. By comparison to that incident, not a single life was ever lost in all the coup attempts against me that I had to put down by force. There is no secret behind this: it against any crisis, implemented with hands-on leadership from the very top.
Once the plan is in place, the leader must proceed to hands-on execution. There is no room for absenteeism, nor for coming to work late and leaving early. There is simply not enough that can be done if the Cabinet meets only four times in an entire year.
The last major task for good management is to exercise control without fear or favor.This was the principle I was following when I brought AFP controller General Garcia up on charges in 2005, and cancelled the NBN/ZTE deal in 2007.
These days—alas—there is absolutely no fear in the administration when they’re running after me or my allies. But there is definitely a lot of favor involved when they excuse— and even defends—their friends even from misdeeds committed in full view of the public.
This is not the kind of ethics that should be practiced by one who claims to have a genuine reform agenda.
Neither will it attract capital from investors who desire regularity and a level playing field. Nor do our people deserve to be consigned to economic stagnation, government lethargy, and nobody-home leadership. Neither the President nor anyone else can truly expect to govern the next five years with nothing but a sorry mix of vilification, periodically recycled promises of action followed by lethargy, backed up by few if any results, and presumptuously encouraging gossip about one’s love life in which no one can possibly be interested. Given the electoral mandate that he enjoyed in 2010— the same size as mine in 2004, as predicted by every survey organization at that time—our people deserve more, and better, from him.
It's the Economy, Student, part 3 of 4
This is the full text of a paper written by former president and current Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which was released to the media yesterday during a press briefing at the Manila Hotel.
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 3 of 4
Infrastructure
Infrastructure strengthens our competitiveness and enables us to attract new levels of jobcreating foreign direct investment. Infrastructure investment not only drives economic growth, but also creates a more efficient, competitive economy, by improving productivity and lowering the costs of doing business.
I am alarmed that the pace of infrastructure build-out has slowed dramatically under this Administration, with some projects even being cancelled outright for no good reason—such as the earlier-noted flood control projects in Central Luzon—and our country being sued by investors. At a time when we should be wooing their money, we are inviting litigation from them instead. This kind of flip-flopping may help explain the tepid investor response to the Administration’s flagship public-private partnership (PPP) program, where only one project has been awarded after all of eighteen months.
I was heartened to hear the President announce recently his willingness to resume government infrastructure spending next year. However, one cannot help but notice the timing, so close to the upcoming 2013 election campaign.
Land productivity
In my first State of the Nation Address in 2001, I said that the first component of our national agenda should be an economic philosophy of free enterprise appropriate to the twenty-first century, while the second should be a modernized agricultural sector founded on social equity.
Within a couple of months after taking office in January 2001, I personally conducted Cabinet meetings to implement the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1995, which had never been implemented for lack of funds. After several discussions with selected department secretaries as well as heads of government banks, we uncovered budget items and available credit to channel more than P20 billion a year to provide fertilizers, irrigation and infrastructure, extension services, more loans, dryers and other post-harvest facilities, and seeds and other genetic materials to our farmers and fisherfolk. This was perhaps the biggest reason for the decline in poverty that was posted during my first few years in office.
The current Administration originally fixated on the single goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice by 2013. I too wanted to achieve rice self-sufficiency, but I knew the odds were tough. Since the Spanish period we’ve been importing rice. While we may know how to grow rice well, topography doesn’t always cooperate. Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong River like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile river delta plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbors in the path of typhoons from the Pacific. So historically we’ve had to import 10% of our rice, and so I took care to keep our goals for agriculture wideranging and diversified.
Recently the Administration seems to have retreated from the original objective of rice selfsufficiency by 2013. In its place, do they have an alternative vision in mind for our all-important agricultural sector?
The real challenge in this century is broader. The real task at hand is to make the finite land that we have planted to agriculture ever more productive, through agricultural modernization founded on social equity.
Higher productivity from farm lands is critical for our development. By making more food available at lower prices especially to our poor, we are effectively bringing down the required level of real wages in our country—already among the highest in the world, according to UP Professor Manny Esguerra—and helping to make our manufacturing industries globally competitive again.
As for social equity, being the daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, the father of land reform in our country, I am gratified by the evaluation of one of my favorite Economics teachers, UP Professor Gonzalo Jurado: “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, to the extent that it is a land distribution program, can now be described as having almost completely succeeded in attaining its goal. [CARP] should now be a developmental program aiming explicitly to raise farm productivity…so that the country as a whole will benefit from the tenurial rearrangement.” And of course it is the landowners who must set the example of compliance with the law in order to allow the rest of us to move forward—such as the Arroyos in my husband’s family, who voluntarily submitted long ago to land reform even without an order from the Supreme Court to do the right thing.
See Part 4 of 4
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 3 of 4
Infrastructure
Infrastructure strengthens our competitiveness and enables us to attract new levels of jobcreating foreign direct investment. Infrastructure investment not only drives economic growth, but also creates a more efficient, competitive economy, by improving productivity and lowering the costs of doing business.
I am alarmed that the pace of infrastructure build-out has slowed dramatically under this Administration, with some projects even being cancelled outright for no good reason—such as the earlier-noted flood control projects in Central Luzon—and our country being sued by investors. At a time when we should be wooing their money, we are inviting litigation from them instead. This kind of flip-flopping may help explain the tepid investor response to the Administration’s flagship public-private partnership (PPP) program, where only one project has been awarded after all of eighteen months.
I was heartened to hear the President announce recently his willingness to resume government infrastructure spending next year. However, one cannot help but notice the timing, so close to the upcoming 2013 election campaign.
Land productivity
In my first State of the Nation Address in 2001, I said that the first component of our national agenda should be an economic philosophy of free enterprise appropriate to the twenty-first century, while the second should be a modernized agricultural sector founded on social equity.
Within a couple of months after taking office in January 2001, I personally conducted Cabinet meetings to implement the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1995, which had never been implemented for lack of funds. After several discussions with selected department secretaries as well as heads of government banks, we uncovered budget items and available credit to channel more than P20 billion a year to provide fertilizers, irrigation and infrastructure, extension services, more loans, dryers and other post-harvest facilities, and seeds and other genetic materials to our farmers and fisherfolk. This was perhaps the biggest reason for the decline in poverty that was posted during my first few years in office.
The current Administration originally fixated on the single goal of achieving self-sufficiency in rice by 2013. I too wanted to achieve rice self-sufficiency, but I knew the odds were tough. Since the Spanish period we’ve been importing rice. While we may know how to grow rice well, topography doesn’t always cooperate. Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong River like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile river delta plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbors in the path of typhoons from the Pacific. So historically we’ve had to import 10% of our rice, and so I took care to keep our goals for agriculture wideranging and diversified.
Recently the Administration seems to have retreated from the original objective of rice selfsufficiency by 2013. In its place, do they have an alternative vision in mind for our all-important agricultural sector?
The real challenge in this century is broader. The real task at hand is to make the finite land that we have planted to agriculture ever more productive, through agricultural modernization founded on social equity.
Higher productivity from farm lands is critical for our development. By making more food available at lower prices especially to our poor, we are effectively bringing down the required level of real wages in our country—already among the highest in the world, according to UP Professor Manny Esguerra—and helping to make our manufacturing industries globally competitive again.
As for social equity, being the daughter of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, the father of land reform in our country, I am gratified by the evaluation of one of my favorite Economics teachers, UP Professor Gonzalo Jurado: “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, to the extent that it is a land distribution program, can now be described as having almost completely succeeded in attaining its goal. [CARP] should now be a developmental program aiming explicitly to raise farm productivity…so that the country as a whole will benefit from the tenurial rearrangement.” And of course it is the landowners who must set the example of compliance with the law in order to allow the rest of us to move forward—such as the Arroyos in my husband’s family, who voluntarily submitted long ago to land reform even without an order from the Supreme Court to do the right thing.
See Part 4 of 4
It's the Economy, Student, part 2 of 4
This is the full text of a paper written by former president and current Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which was released to the media yesterday during a press briefing at the Manila Hotel.
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 2 of 4
Sunshine industries
Returning to this mainstream commitment to growth enables the country to tap the opportunities of the 21st century.In line with this, during my time we promoted fast-growing industries where high-value jobs are most plentiful.
One of them is information and communication technology or ICT, particularly the outsourcing of knowledge and business processes. My Administration developed the call center industry almost from scratch: in June 2010 there were half a million call center and BPO workers, from less than 5,000 when I took office. It was mainly for them that we built our fifth, virtual superregion: the so-called “cyber corridor”, the nationwide backbone for our call centers and BPO industry which rely on constant advances in IT and the essentially zero cost of additional bandwidth.
These youthful digital pioneers deserve government’s continuing support – by upgrading instead of downgrading and politicizing CICT, the government agency that oversees our digital infrastructure; by continuing to fund related voc-tech training programs; by wooing instead of alienating foreign companies seeking to set up shop here. As countries like China and Korea rapidly make their own way up the value-added ladder of outsourcing, we must work harder to stay ahead of them.
I had coffee with some call center agents one Labor Day when I was President. Lyn, a new college graduate, told me, "Now I don't have to leave the country in order for me to help my family." I was touched. With the structural reforms we implemented to promote ICT and BPOs, we not only found jobs but kept families intact.
We created appealing employment opportunities by focusing on the development of priority sectors, such as BPO. We need to create more wealth and keep people working here at home. That is why I remained so stubbornly focused on the economy. Many times during my tenure I expressed how much I longed for the day when going abroad for a job is a career option, not the only choice, for a Filipino worker. My economic plans were designed to allow the Philippines to break out of the boom and bust cycle of an economy dependent on global markets for agricultural commodities, and pursue consistent and sustainable growth anchored on a large domestic market and the resiliency of Filipino workers at home and abroad.
My successor flattered me by parroting what I said, but tried to frustrate me by distorting what I did. Instead of acknowledging his debt to his predecessor, he accused me of doing the opposite of what I had achieved, by describing my government as “…[one] that treats its people as an export commodity and a means to earn foreign exchange”. Then he promised to install what I had already established and which he appears bent on dismantling: “… a government that creates jobs at home, so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity; and when its citizens do choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will still be the government’s priority.”
Indeed, it’s so easy to claim achievements that have already been accomplished by others, and take credit for what is there when the one who did the work has gone. Just make sure she is forgotten, or, if remembered, vilified.
The President’s words were brave indeed—and yet his government has consistently failed to back them up: by failing to rescue our countrymen from China’s death row, or promptly evacuate them from national disaster in Japan, or comprehensively secure them from political unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East. Now we are facing a new challenge of “Saudiization”, as the government of our largest OFW market, Saudi Arabia, sets out to implement a massive program of replacing OFW’s with its own nationals, starting next year.
Will this government have the will and the skill to properly navigate such uncertain waters? Protecting our overseas workers will urgently require contingency planning and continuous backdoor diplomacy with their host governments, while creating alternative jobs at home for them will require—again—the kind of commitment to economic expansion that I cannot overemphasize.
See part 3 of 4
[I wrote this article on and off in my spare time during my house recuperation, re-hospitalization and hospital detention from October to December 2011.]
Part 2 of 4
Sunshine industries
Returning to this mainstream commitment to growth enables the country to tap the opportunities of the 21st century.In line with this, during my time we promoted fast-growing industries where high-value jobs are most plentiful.
One of them is information and communication technology or ICT, particularly the outsourcing of knowledge and business processes. My Administration developed the call center industry almost from scratch: in June 2010 there were half a million call center and BPO workers, from less than 5,000 when I took office. It was mainly for them that we built our fifth, virtual superregion: the so-called “cyber corridor”, the nationwide backbone for our call centers and BPO industry which rely on constant advances in IT and the essentially zero cost of additional bandwidth.
These youthful digital pioneers deserve government’s continuing support – by upgrading instead of downgrading and politicizing CICT, the government agency that oversees our digital infrastructure; by continuing to fund related voc-tech training programs; by wooing instead of alienating foreign companies seeking to set up shop here. As countries like China and Korea rapidly make their own way up the value-added ladder of outsourcing, we must work harder to stay ahead of them.
I had coffee with some call center agents one Labor Day when I was President. Lyn, a new college graduate, told me, "Now I don't have to leave the country in order for me to help my family." I was touched. With the structural reforms we implemented to promote ICT and BPOs, we not only found jobs but kept families intact.
We created appealing employment opportunities by focusing on the development of priority sectors, such as BPO. We need to create more wealth and keep people working here at home. That is why I remained so stubbornly focused on the economy. Many times during my tenure I expressed how much I longed for the day when going abroad for a job is a career option, not the only choice, for a Filipino worker. My economic plans were designed to allow the Philippines to break out of the boom and bust cycle of an economy dependent on global markets for agricultural commodities, and pursue consistent and sustainable growth anchored on a large domestic market and the resiliency of Filipino workers at home and abroad.
My successor flattered me by parroting what I said, but tried to frustrate me by distorting what I did. Instead of acknowledging his debt to his predecessor, he accused me of doing the opposite of what I had achieved, by describing my government as “…[one] that treats its people as an export commodity and a means to earn foreign exchange”. Then he promised to install what I had already established and which he appears bent on dismantling: “… a government that creates jobs at home, so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity; and when its citizens do choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will still be the government’s priority.”
Indeed, it’s so easy to claim achievements that have already been accomplished by others, and take credit for what is there when the one who did the work has gone. Just make sure she is forgotten, or, if remembered, vilified.
The President’s words were brave indeed—and yet his government has consistently failed to back them up: by failing to rescue our countrymen from China’s death row, or promptly evacuate them from national disaster in Japan, or comprehensively secure them from political unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East. Now we are facing a new challenge of “Saudiization”, as the government of our largest OFW market, Saudi Arabia, sets out to implement a massive program of replacing OFW’s with its own nationals, starting next year.
Will this government have the will and the skill to properly navigate such uncertain waters? Protecting our overseas workers will urgently require contingency planning and continuous backdoor diplomacy with their host governments, while creating alternative jobs at home for them will require—again—the kind of commitment to economic expansion that I cannot overemphasize.
See part 3 of 4
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Talumpati ni Benigno Aquino III on his first 100 days of Administration
Talumpati ni Benigno Aquino III
Message of His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III President of the Philippines
On The First Hundred Days of his Administration
[October 7, 2010, La Consolacion College, Manila]
Isandaang araw po ang nakalipas, nagpanata ako sa taumbayan: Hindi ko tatalikuran ang tiwalang kaloob ninyo sa akin. Ang nakalipas na isandaang araw ang magsisilbing tanda ng ating paninindigan.
Malalim at malawak po ang mga problemang minana natin. Nag-ugat ito sa isang gobyernong parang tatlong matsing na nagbingi-bingihan, nagbulag-bulagan, at gumawa ng sariling katotohanan.
Mali po ito. Ngayon, mayroon na po kayong gobyernong handang makipag-usap at magsabi ng totoo; handang makinig sa makabuluhang usapan; handang iangat ang antas ng pampublikong diskurso ukol sa mga isyung makaaapekto sa ating lahat, at maging sa mga darating na henerasyon.
Ang natamasa po natin ngayong unang isandaang araw ng ating panunungkulan: Mayroon na po kayong gobyernong hindi kayo binabalewala o inaapi.
Bumalik na po ang kumpyansa sa ating bansa. Tumatatag ang ating ekonomiya, at dahil dito, lumalago ang kaban ng ating bayan. Ang lahat ng inani at aanihin pa natin mula sa pinatibay na ekonomiya ng ating bansa, ibinabalik naman natin sa taumbayan upang tuluyan na tayong makaahon sa kahirapan. Binibigyan natin ng katuturan ang paggastos. Walang pisong dapat nasasayang.
Halimbawa po ang mga itinalagang opisyal sa mga GOCC. Naroon po dapat sila para pangalagaan ang interes ng taumbayan. Noon pong nakaupo sila doon, nilabag nila ang Memorandum Order 20, na pinirmahan noon pang Hunyo 2001. Inatupag po nila ang sariling interes na nagdulot ng pinsala sa interes ng taumbayan: nakakuha sila ng kung anu-anong mga bonus at allowance.
Ipinatutupad naman po natin ang Executive Order No. 7 na nagsuspinde sa lahat ng pribilehiyong iyon. Idiniin lamang po natin ang dapat naipapatupad na noong 2001. Sa isang kumpanya lang po tulad ng MWSS, ang napigil nating mahulog sa bulsa ng bawat opisyal ay umabot na sa dalawa’t kalahating milyong piso kada taon. Siyam po ang miyembro ng Board nila, at sa MWSS lamang po iyan. At ilan po ang mga GOCC, GFI, at mga ahensyang sakop ng EO No. 7? Isandaan, dalawampu’t dalawa (122) mga ahensya’t kumpanya.
Nariyan din po ang nangyayari sa mga kontrata tulad ng sa NAIA 3. Isipin lang po natin, tatlong administrasyon na ang dinaanan nito. Pang-apat na kami. Tumagal na po nang husto ang kasong ito, may mga pinaslang pa dahil dito. Kundi dahil sa mga tapat na nagmamahal sa bansa tulad nina Justice Florentino Feliciano at Justice Meilou Sereno, baka wala na ring pinatunguhan ang kasong ito. Sila po ang mga tunay na bida sa kaso, ngunit death threats pa po ang ibinayad sa kanila. Tila ba nagkulang sa aruga ang nakaraang gobyerno. Ngayon pong alam nilang suportado sila ng mga kapwa nilang nasa tuwid na landas, naresolba na po nila ang kontrata. Kung natalo po ang gobyerno natin rito, 990 million dollars ang nalagas sa ating mga pondo. 43.5 bilyong piso ang perang nailigtas nila at natin. Higit pa rito, mapapakinabangan na natin ang airport sa lalong madaling panahon.
Kung naaalala po ninyo, pinahinto natin itong negotiated contracts ng DPWH; pinarebid natin ito. Ginawa lang po natin kung ano ang tama, napigil na po natin ang paglustay ng 934.1 million pesos, at lumalabas na kung susunod tayo sa tamang proseso ay nasa 600 million pesos lang ang dapat gastusin sa mga proyektong ito. Nabalik po ang pera sa kaban ng bayan na kung pinahintulutan natin ang maling sistema ay natapon na naman sanang muli. Hindi lang po sa mga kalsada: sa DOTC, pinigil natin ang pagwaldas ng isang bilyong piso. Sa Department of Agriculture, 30 million at least ang natipid sa spectrometer na gusto sanang doblehin ang presyo. Lahat po iyan naibalik natin sa kaban ng bayan.
Mayroon pa po. May proyektong inaprubahan ang dating administrasyon, huhukayin daw nila ang Laguna de Bay para palalimin ito. Ang sabi raw dadami ang isda. Mas makakaiwas daw sa baha. Mas madali daw makakaikot ang mga bangka. Tatanggalin daw ang mga pollutant doon po sa Laguna de Bay. Ang tanong ko, saan ililipat ang lupa? Ang tatanggalin sa Laguna de Bay, itatambak lang din pala sa ibang bahagi ng Laguna de Bay. At magkano naman po ang uutangin ng gobyerno para rito? 18.5 billion pesos lang naman po. At pareho rin ang kuwento: Tila hindi na naman dumaan sa tamang proseso ang pag-apruba sa kontrata. Hindi natin dadaanin sa madaliang hokus-pokus ang proyektong ito. Pag-aaralan natin ito nang husto at sisiguruhing hindi masasayang ang pondong gagamitin para rito.
Napansin n’yo po ba, pati ‘yung weather forecasting gumanda? Napansin n’yo po ba na hindi na paulit-ulit ang mga mensahe ng PAGASA? Ngayon po, nakatutok na at mas malaman ang mga weather bulletin natin. Ang dating intermittent rainshowers across the country, ngayon, sasabihin na uulan sa ganitong lugar nang ganitong oras, delikadong lumabas.
Tama po na hindi pa kumpleto ang equipment natin. Pero ngayong nagsimula na po tayong magtrabaho, kakaunti na lang ang kulang na kagamitan. Maling sistema at maling palakad ang nangligaw sa pagtataya ng panahon. Ang mga update dati na dumarating kada anim na oras, kada oras na ngayon kung dumating. Marami po tayong binago sa PAGASA, at kasama na po rito ang bulok na sistema.
Nakita naman po natin ang katakut-takot na problemang minana natin, pero hindi po tayo natinag. Naisasaayos natin sa loob lamang ng isandaang araw ang hindi nagawa ng dating administrasyon sa loob ng tatlong libo, apat na raan, apatnapu’t walong (3,448) araw.
Hininto na po natin ang pagkatagal-tagal na sistema kung saan itinuloy nang itinuloy ang mga proyekto na walang sumisiyasat kung angkop ba o kung may katuwiran ba ang mga ito. Isinulong po natin ang zero-based budgeting. Ang sabi po namin, isa-isahin natin iyan. Kung hindi mo mapatunayang may saysay ka pa, tigil na ang ginugugol ng bansa sa iyo.
Ang mga Agricultural Input Subsidies na lalo lamang nagpayaman sa mayayaman na habang binalewala ang mga mahihirap; ang mga programa tulad ng Kalayaang Barangay at Kilos-Asenso na hindi naman inilatag nang malinaw kung ano ang prosesong dapat daanan, at kung saan napunta ang pera—inilipat po natin ang pondo ng mga ito tungo sa mga programang napatunayan nang nakakatulong sa taumbayan. Humigit-kumulang na labing-isang bilyong piso pa po ito na magagamit at mas mapapakinabangan natin lahat.
Sa edukasyon, kalusugan, at pag-ahon sa kahirapan po natin itinutok ang pondong natipid natin. Mula 175 billion pesos, umangat ang budget ng DepEd sa 207.3 billion pesos. Gugugulin po ito upang makabuo ng 13,147 bagong classroom, at ng sampung libong bagong teaching positions. Sa DoH, umangat mula 29.3 billion pesos ang budget papuntang 33.3 billion pesos, upang mapatatag ang National Health Insurance Program. Sa DSWD, lagpas doble na po ang budget, galing 15.4 billion pesos papuntang 34.3 billion pesos.
Ang punto po natin dito: Walang maiiwan. Hindi po tayo papayag na yayaman ang iilan habang nalulunod sa kahirapan ang karamihan.
Kaya nga po natin pinatatatag ang Conditional Cash Transfer Program. Salbabida po ito para sa mga nalulunod nating kababayan, upang makapunta na sila sa pampang ng pagkakataon at pag-unlad. Lampas doble po ang bilang ng mga pamilyang matutulungan ng Conditional Cash Transfers, mula isang milyong pamilya sa ngayon, tungo sa kabuuang 2.3 million na pamilya sa 2011.
On The First Hundred Days of his Administration
[October 7, 2010, La Consolacion College, Manila]
Isandaang araw po ang nakalipas, nagpanata ako sa taumbayan: Hindi ko tatalikuran ang tiwalang kaloob ninyo sa akin. Ang nakalipas na isandaang araw ang magsisilbing tanda ng ating paninindigan.
Malalim at malawak po ang mga problemang minana natin. Nag-ugat ito sa isang gobyernong parang tatlong matsing na nagbingi-bingihan, nagbulag-bulagan, at gumawa ng sariling katotohanan.
Mali po ito. Ngayon, mayroon na po kayong gobyernong handang makipag-usap at magsabi ng totoo; handang makinig sa makabuluhang usapan; handang iangat ang antas ng pampublikong diskurso ukol sa mga isyung makaaapekto sa ating lahat, at maging sa mga darating na henerasyon.
Ang natamasa po natin ngayong unang isandaang araw ng ating panunungkulan: Mayroon na po kayong gobyernong hindi kayo binabalewala o inaapi.
Bumalik na po ang kumpyansa sa ating bansa. Tumatatag ang ating ekonomiya, at dahil dito, lumalago ang kaban ng ating bayan. Ang lahat ng inani at aanihin pa natin mula sa pinatibay na ekonomiya ng ating bansa, ibinabalik naman natin sa taumbayan upang tuluyan na tayong makaahon sa kahirapan. Binibigyan natin ng katuturan ang paggastos. Walang pisong dapat nasasayang.
Halimbawa po ang mga itinalagang opisyal sa mga GOCC. Naroon po dapat sila para pangalagaan ang interes ng taumbayan. Noon pong nakaupo sila doon, nilabag nila ang Memorandum Order 20, na pinirmahan noon pang Hunyo 2001. Inatupag po nila ang sariling interes na nagdulot ng pinsala sa interes ng taumbayan: nakakuha sila ng kung anu-anong mga bonus at allowance.
Ipinatutupad naman po natin ang Executive Order No. 7 na nagsuspinde sa lahat ng pribilehiyong iyon. Idiniin lamang po natin ang dapat naipapatupad na noong 2001. Sa isang kumpanya lang po tulad ng MWSS, ang napigil nating mahulog sa bulsa ng bawat opisyal ay umabot na sa dalawa’t kalahating milyong piso kada taon. Siyam po ang miyembro ng Board nila, at sa MWSS lamang po iyan. At ilan po ang mga GOCC, GFI, at mga ahensyang sakop ng EO No. 7? Isandaan, dalawampu’t dalawa (122) mga ahensya’t kumpanya.
Nariyan din po ang nangyayari sa mga kontrata tulad ng sa NAIA 3. Isipin lang po natin, tatlong administrasyon na ang dinaanan nito. Pang-apat na kami. Tumagal na po nang husto ang kasong ito, may mga pinaslang pa dahil dito. Kundi dahil sa mga tapat na nagmamahal sa bansa tulad nina Justice Florentino Feliciano at Justice Meilou Sereno, baka wala na ring pinatunguhan ang kasong ito. Sila po ang mga tunay na bida sa kaso, ngunit death threats pa po ang ibinayad sa kanila. Tila ba nagkulang sa aruga ang nakaraang gobyerno. Ngayon pong alam nilang suportado sila ng mga kapwa nilang nasa tuwid na landas, naresolba na po nila ang kontrata. Kung natalo po ang gobyerno natin rito, 990 million dollars ang nalagas sa ating mga pondo. 43.5 bilyong piso ang perang nailigtas nila at natin. Higit pa rito, mapapakinabangan na natin ang airport sa lalong madaling panahon.
Kung naaalala po ninyo, pinahinto natin itong negotiated contracts ng DPWH; pinarebid natin ito. Ginawa lang po natin kung ano ang tama, napigil na po natin ang paglustay ng 934.1 million pesos, at lumalabas na kung susunod tayo sa tamang proseso ay nasa 600 million pesos lang ang dapat gastusin sa mga proyektong ito. Nabalik po ang pera sa kaban ng bayan na kung pinahintulutan natin ang maling sistema ay natapon na naman sanang muli. Hindi lang po sa mga kalsada: sa DOTC, pinigil natin ang pagwaldas ng isang bilyong piso. Sa Department of Agriculture, 30 million at least ang natipid sa spectrometer na gusto sanang doblehin ang presyo. Lahat po iyan naibalik natin sa kaban ng bayan.
Mayroon pa po. May proyektong inaprubahan ang dating administrasyon, huhukayin daw nila ang Laguna de Bay para palalimin ito. Ang sabi raw dadami ang isda. Mas makakaiwas daw sa baha. Mas madali daw makakaikot ang mga bangka. Tatanggalin daw ang mga pollutant doon po sa Laguna de Bay. Ang tanong ko, saan ililipat ang lupa? Ang tatanggalin sa Laguna de Bay, itatambak lang din pala sa ibang bahagi ng Laguna de Bay. At magkano naman po ang uutangin ng gobyerno para rito? 18.5 billion pesos lang naman po. At pareho rin ang kuwento: Tila hindi na naman dumaan sa tamang proseso ang pag-apruba sa kontrata. Hindi natin dadaanin sa madaliang hokus-pokus ang proyektong ito. Pag-aaralan natin ito nang husto at sisiguruhing hindi masasayang ang pondong gagamitin para rito.
Napansin n’yo po ba, pati ‘yung weather forecasting gumanda? Napansin n’yo po ba na hindi na paulit-ulit ang mga mensahe ng PAGASA? Ngayon po, nakatutok na at mas malaman ang mga weather bulletin natin. Ang dating intermittent rainshowers across the country, ngayon, sasabihin na uulan sa ganitong lugar nang ganitong oras, delikadong lumabas.
Tama po na hindi pa kumpleto ang equipment natin. Pero ngayong nagsimula na po tayong magtrabaho, kakaunti na lang ang kulang na kagamitan. Maling sistema at maling palakad ang nangligaw sa pagtataya ng panahon. Ang mga update dati na dumarating kada anim na oras, kada oras na ngayon kung dumating. Marami po tayong binago sa PAGASA, at kasama na po rito ang bulok na sistema.
Nakita naman po natin ang katakut-takot na problemang minana natin, pero hindi po tayo natinag. Naisasaayos natin sa loob lamang ng isandaang araw ang hindi nagawa ng dating administrasyon sa loob ng tatlong libo, apat na raan, apatnapu’t walong (3,448) araw.
Hininto na po natin ang pagkatagal-tagal na sistema kung saan itinuloy nang itinuloy ang mga proyekto na walang sumisiyasat kung angkop ba o kung may katuwiran ba ang mga ito. Isinulong po natin ang zero-based budgeting. Ang sabi po namin, isa-isahin natin iyan. Kung hindi mo mapatunayang may saysay ka pa, tigil na ang ginugugol ng bansa sa iyo.
Ang mga Agricultural Input Subsidies na lalo lamang nagpayaman sa mayayaman na habang binalewala ang mga mahihirap; ang mga programa tulad ng Kalayaang Barangay at Kilos-Asenso na hindi naman inilatag nang malinaw kung ano ang prosesong dapat daanan, at kung saan napunta ang pera—inilipat po natin ang pondo ng mga ito tungo sa mga programang napatunayan nang nakakatulong sa taumbayan. Humigit-kumulang na labing-isang bilyong piso pa po ito na magagamit at mas mapapakinabangan natin lahat.
Sa edukasyon, kalusugan, at pag-ahon sa kahirapan po natin itinutok ang pondong natipid natin. Mula 175 billion pesos, umangat ang budget ng DepEd sa 207.3 billion pesos. Gugugulin po ito upang makabuo ng 13,147 bagong classroom, at ng sampung libong bagong teaching positions. Sa DoH, umangat mula 29.3 billion pesos ang budget papuntang 33.3 billion pesos, upang mapatatag ang National Health Insurance Program. Sa DSWD, lagpas doble na po ang budget, galing 15.4 billion pesos papuntang 34.3 billion pesos.
Ang punto po natin dito: Walang maiiwan. Hindi po tayo papayag na yayaman ang iilan habang nalulunod sa kahirapan ang karamihan.
Kaya nga po natin pinatatatag ang Conditional Cash Transfer Program. Salbabida po ito para sa mga nalulunod nating kababayan, upang makapunta na sila sa pampang ng pagkakataon at pag-unlad. Lampas doble po ang bilang ng mga pamilyang matutulungan ng Conditional Cash Transfers, mula isang milyong pamilya sa ngayon, tungo sa kabuuang 2.3 million na pamilya sa 2011.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
SONA NI PRESIDENTE GLORIA ARROYO, JULY 23, 2001
Full text of President Arroyo’s 2001 Sona
PGMA’s State of the Nation Address at the opening of the 1st regular session of the 12th Congress
House of the Representatives, Batasang Pambansa, Quezon City (July 23, 2001)
His Excellency President Ramos, Senate President Drilon and the other Senators, Speaker De Venecia and the other congressmen and congresswomen, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the members of the Diplomatic Corps, mga maralitang tagalungsod nanonood ngayon sa video wall at sa TV; mga maraming nakikinig sa radyo; mahal kong kababayan:
Kamakailan, may sumulat sa aking tatlong batang taga-Payatas, sina Jayson, Jomar at Erwin. Ginawa nilang paper boats ang liham at pinalutang sa Pasig river patungo sa Malacañang.
Ito ang sinulat ng sampung taong gulang na si Jomar pabalan: “sana po ay mabigyan ng permanenteng trabaho ang tatay ko para hindi siya mahirapan.”
Sabi naman ni Jason Vann Banogan, sampung taong gulang: “sana po matulungan ninyo ako na makatapos sa pag-aaral ko hanggang kolehiyo, kasi po ang nagpapaaral sa akin ay ang lola ko lamang.”
At ang tanging nais ni Erwin Dolera, walong taong gulang: ipasara ang Payatas dumpsite, at bigyan ng lupa ang kanyang pamilya.
Napakalinaw, napakasimple ang hiling ng mga anak ng Payatas: trabaho. Edukasyon. Sariling tahanan . Idagdag na rin: pagkain sa bawat mesa. Ito ang mithiin ng masa.
And this, in common sense and plain talk, is the core of my vision.
A vision for the future must be rooted in the past.
A revolution gave birth to the first republic in Asia.
A sense of nationhood was born but also the dream of a better life for all Filipinos. Andres Bonifacio, the poor man, the great plebeian who started this revolution, nurtured this dream.
In 1963, another poor man rose. He rose to the most powerful position in the land and risked everything to fulfill the poor man’s dream.
Inspired by the great plebeian, my father, President Diosdado Macapagal, promulgated the Land Reform Law to emancipate the peasant from a feudal bondage to the soil.
In 1986 Filipinos peacefully reclaimed their civil liberties in the people power revolution. Under the leadership of Corazon Aquino, we reaffirmed our commitment to freedom and democracy on a mere stretch of highway — with hardly a drop of blood shed or a shot fired in anger.
Six months ago, on that same highway, people rose up to restore morality as the first institution of society and as the animating principle of justice and the rule of law.
Thus, we see, the historic pillars of a national vision: prosperity, freedom, justice.
Ito ang mga layuning ipinaglaban ng bayan mula nang ito’y isilang: kasaganaan, kalayaan, katarungan.
We also see in our great history a progressive advancement towards the ultimate goal to transfer power over the state from the traditional economic and political bosses to the people.
Last may one, the poor raised their voices in anger and their fists in fury. Imprisoned in poverty, shackled to shame, denied justice in society, they personally delivered the message that, 100 years after they revolted to establish this nation, they had yet to partake of the national dream.
Dinig na dinig ko ang pahayag nila, at napakumbaba ako. Hindi ba’t nasa balikat ko ang tungkuling mamuno sa pakikibaka laban sa salot ng kahirapan? Ako na siyang anak ng tinawag na “poor boy from lubao”?
I take this duty upon my shoulders.
I do so without fear or foreboding of failure.
For i know that the greatest obstacle we as a nation must overcome is inside us. The enemy to beat is ourselves: when we spread division rather than unity; when we put ourselves above country and profit above fairness; when we think the worst of those with whom we should be working for the common good, and when we wallow in despair rather than rise to achievement –indeed, when we make politics replace patriotism in our country’s hour of need.
Let us, here in the home of democracy, therefore resolve, to grab hold of this enemy within, and beat him.
The internal enemy engaged, the battle will not be easy. We inherited very difficult problems.
From 2.5 million jobless four years ago, unemployment now stands at four million. From a budget surplus in 1997 under President Ramos of more than a billion pesos, my government inherited a deficit exceeding 140 billion pesos. In the same period, poverty incidence rose from 36.8 percent of the population in 1997 to 40 percent in the year 2004.
And, unlike the situation in 1997 when a battered Asia could still lean on the strength of the advanced economies, today our main trading partners like Japan and America are slowing down as well.
But we will prevail. We will prevail because the mainstream of our nation is united.
In the may elections, this administration received a solid mandate to carry on with the business of governance and reform.
I do not view this mandate as a choice between personalities of this administration and those of the opposition.
I see it rather as a vote for all of us — administration and opposition — to roll up our sleeves, stop looking back, and move forward, most especially in the fight against mass poverty.
Hinalal tayo upang labanan ang kahirapan, hindi ang isa’t-isa.
Our challenge is clear: sugpuin ang kahirapan.
In this spirit, I appeal to everyone here today to undertake something unconventional but much to be desired in these especially hard times.
From today, let us set aside bickering and politicking for at least one year. We may congratulate ourselves on our forbearance at the next state of the nation address.
Sa halip ng alitan, isang taon tayong magtulungan sa ikabubuti ng taong bayan.
This is our duty. This is our mandate. This is our mission.
Unity for the country’s recovery will set the stage for national mobilization needed to undertake the great and difficult tasks ahead.
What are these tasks?
When i became president last January, i told the people about my vision of winning the war against poverty within the decade.
To succeed, the template of our national agenda must revolve around four components — apat na elemento ng pakikibaka sa kahirapan.
The first is an economic philosophy of free enterprise appropriate to the 21st century. Pagnenegosyo upang dumami ang trabaho. Not a pitiless free-for-all but free enterprise with a social conscience.
The second component is a modernized agricultural sector founded on social equity. Palalaguin ang kita at ani ng maralitang tagabukid.
The third component is a social bias toward the disadvantaged to balance our economic development plan. Pagkalinga sa mga bahagi ng lipunan na naiiwanan ng kaunlaran.
And the fourth component is to raise the moral standards of government and society. Moralidad sa gobyerno at lipunan bilang saligan ng tunay na kaunlaran.
Pagnenegosyo, pagpapaunlad ng agrikultura, kalinga sa nagigipit na sektor, at moralidad sa gobyerno at lipunan — ito ang mga sandata natin sa digmaang-bayan laban sa kahirapan.
I have therefore organized my interpretation of the state of the nation along these four components of our national anti-poverty ideology.
The first is an economic philosophy for the 21st century. Under this philosophy, the way to fight poverty is to create jobs, not destroy them.
To create jobs, we will attract investments. To attract investments, we will attend to macro measures and concerns.
In addressing macro concerns, we will focus on long-term structural issues. We started with the reform of the power sector, and i congratulate those of you who are here and who were in the previous congress for this accomplishment. Now, we will turn to other basics like infrastructure, productivity, and the savings rate.
In focusing on infrastructure, we will harness the private sector via the build-operate-and-transfer law. Our priorities include telecommunications facilities for high-speed productivity at low cost, roads to target tourist destinations, infrastructure for the modernization of agriculture, mass transport infrastructure for metro manila, and commuter and transport systems to disperse communities towards Subic-Clark and Calabarzon.
We will minimize bottlenecks to productivity, such as the high cost of power, deterrents to investments in agriculture, overly confrontational labor-management relations, and corruption and red tape at the national and local government levels.
To reduce the cost of power, we will begin implementing the power sector reform law which the previous congress just passed.
To reduce deterrents to investments in agriculture, I ask Congress to enact a law making farm land acceptable as loan collateral.
To reduce excessive friction in labor and management relations, we will go the extra mile to work for industrial peace, and to work with labor and business to retrain workers for the fast-changing technologies of the new economy.
To reduce corruption in the Executive Branch, Cabinet Secretaries will have to deliver tangible results within 12 months in fighting graft. Our new e-procurement program will save billions and minimize anomalies. And I gave the reinforced presidential anti-graft commission added teeth to investigate and prosecute moto propio corruption in high places. And we will make the B.I.R. and customs showcases in this fight against graft and corruption.
To reduce corruption among elective officials, we will help honest people get elected by financing the full computerization of elections. We have released two billion pesos of the needed 3.4 needed for computerization. I ask congress to add another 500 million in the 2002 budget. Let us make the polls of may 14, 2001 the last national elections that use primitive methods of voter identification and ballot tabulation.
To reduce red tape in the national government, within 12 months, all government agencies will implement measures to cut in half the number of signatures required for their service. Housing permits shall only need 45 approvals, instead of 188. If legislation is required to effect this efficiency, the agencies concerned will draft appropriate bills for my endorsement to congress.
I congratulate the lto for issuing licenses in half an hour. I congratulate the nbi for issuing clearances in one day.
I ask our local governments likewise to streamline their operations and slash red tape. There must be continuity between national and local governments in their efforts to be investor-friendly.
We will address issues related to the savings rate, so that the cost of domestic capital can be reduced. These issues are tied up with the strength of the financial and fiscal sectors.
With regard to the financial sector, I ask congress to amend the BSP charter and the banking act to improve supervision and promote financial prudence. These amendments should take us out of the money-laundering list.
We adhere to a freely convertible peso and market exchange rates. However, we support the central bank’s measures to curb speculation.
To those speculating against the peso, i only have this to say: have you no pity for the common people, have you no love for your country? Makonsyensya naman kayo.
Instead of speculating, let us further strengthen the financial sector. We will design innovative policies to develop our capital market. We will set up a secondary housing mortgage market, an asset management company, and a provident fund for overseas filipinos. We will simplify and clarify the system of incentives. We will interpret investment laws in favor of the investor.
And I ask Congress to enact laws on capital market reform such as the Personal Equity Retirement Act, the Investment Company Act, the Securitization Act, and amendments to the Securities Regulation Code.
With regard to the fiscal sector, we will control the budget deficit by collecting taxes vigorously and spending money prudently. For the longer term, I ask Congress to enact a law providing for a gross income tax.
Alisin na natin ang mga tax deduction na nagiging sanhi lamang ng katakut-takot na corruption.
The strength of the financial and fiscal sectors partly lies in how we use the realities in the global and regional environment to our benefit. Thus we will enhance our relations with the United States, whose economic and military power continues to make it important as a factor in the affairs of the region and in the nation. We will also strengthen bilateral economic and political relations with Japan, our biggest source of development assistance and a major trading partner. And more and more, we will design foreign policy and foreign trade policy in the context of Asean. And i ask congress to enact a law giving overseas Filipinos, who continue to play a critical role in the country’s economic and social stability, giving them the right to vote.
Preparing our growth sectors of the future enables us to tap the opportunities of the 21st century.
We will promote fast-growing industries where high-value jobs are most plentiful. One of them is information and communications technology, or ICT, our English literacy, our aptitude and skills give us a competitive edge in ICT Filipino workers are ranked number one in the field, number one among knowledge workers. And analysts point to two developing countries as the likely world centers for software development and data management in this decade: India and the Philippines. We will live up to that forecast.
As a first step, let us declare that technology is the foundation of future economic development, as China did in 1998. ICT will jumpstart our old stalling economy and make it leapfrog into the new economy.
High-speed connectivity at low cost will increase the use of ICT it is also the way for Smart and Globe to properly interconnect. Then we will finally hear the last of those annoying words, “network busy.”
Our rules will promote rather than regulate ICT, but in turn, I ask cellular phone companies to stop charging on dropped calls, this is both irritating and unfair to the public.
I ask Congress to enact laws to address internet privacy and security, allow for multi-media convergence, and create a department of telecommunications and information technology.
To prepare our youth to be the next generation of knowledge workers, we will upgrade math and science teaching in basic education.
We will take a hard look at education and ask: is it preparing the youth for the jobs of the new economy? Or is it just-keeping-them-off-the-streets-until-they-are-thrown-there jobless after graduation? If they finish school at all.
To increase the chances of Filipino children finishing school, we will minimize the cost of going to school. When we stopped the collection of miscellaneous fees last enrollment day, 900,000 more students enrolled than anticipated. And to reduce the time and money spent to actually travel to school, i want a school building in every barangay by 2004. Ibig nating tumalas ang ulo ng mga estudyante, at hindi malaspag ang paa.
To improve the quality of education as required by the new economy, we will increase the number of textbooks per student as well as the quality of instruction. This year all public school students will have textbooks for priority subjects in grades one to four and in the first and second years of high school. And they will have better paid and therefore better motivated teachers not to mention more teachers because sound fiscal management enabled us to provide a supplemental budget of 1.5 billion pesos to hire more teachers and increase their pay without increasing our deficit.
Aside from ICT, we also have the competitive edge in tourism in the natural wonders of our country and the natural warmth of our people. We will provide the roads to those wonders and the means to take the tourists there. Thus, we will continue to liberalize the airline industry.
The second component of our national agenda to fight poverty is the modernization of agriculture founded on social equity.
Nasa bukid ang nakararaming maralita, kaya payayamanin natin ang pagsasaka at pangingisda.
There can be a million new jobs in agriculture and fisheries. Within the year, the department of agriculture shall begin to implement the program to generate them. We will approach this with a sense of urgency. I do not want the one million new jobs to come in the long term. I want a timetable. I want to identify accountabilities. I want milestones.
Hindi ito pangakong mapapako dahil nakasalalay rito ang kabuhayan ng milyung-milyong maralitang pilipino.
Mga kababayan kong magsasaka, ang inyong pangulo mismo ang magbabantay sa kagalingan ninyo.
Starting tomorrow I will hold office at the Department of Agriculture, until i can get a clear and demonstrable picture of our agricultural accomplishments for our first 100 days and i can see the program for the million new jobs get off the ground, and i can see that short-term goals are in synch with the goals of farmer groups and agribusiness.
Upang lumikha ng isang milyong trabaho sa kanayunan, tutuparin natin sa wakas ang agricultural and fisheries modernization act o afma. Hindi bababa sa dalawampung bilyong piso ang gagastusin upang mapalakas ang kita, ani at huli ng magsasaka at mangingisda. Kasama na rito ang mga sumusunod: anim na bilyon sa patubig; dalawang bilyon sa post-harvest facilities; dalawang bilyon sa imprastraktura; dalawang bilyon sa pautang; at dalawang bilyon sa research and development.
There is money — and there will be money — and the Department of Agriculture shall demonstrate its capacity to use these funds.
Sa anim na bilyong piso sa patubig at dalawang bilyon sa post-harvest mula aparri hanggang jolo, makakalikha tayo ng walongdaang libong trabaho. Sa pagbukas ng dalawangdaang libong ektarya ng bagong lupang masasaka makakalikha ito ng dalawangdaang libong trabaho. Sa ganitong paraan malilikha ang isang milyong trabaho sa kanayunan.
Ngunit dapat tiyakin ang merkado ng produksyon ng mga bagong magtatrabaho sa agrikultura at pangingisda pati na rin ng kasalukuyang magsasaka at mangingisda.
Para sa kaginhawaan ng taong-bayan, dapat hindi nagkukulang ang bigas. Sabi nga ng afma, sikapin nating magkaroon ng rice self-sufficiency. In the meantime, we will remove the monopoly of the nfa in importation. If a shortage seems likely, we will allow the farmers themselves to import rice, basta magbayad sila ng customs duties. Gagamitin naman ang binayarang buwis para sa modernisasyon ng rice production.
Murang bigas at masaganang magsasaka — ito ang hangad natin para sa masa.
Mas malaki pa ang matutulong ng gobyerno sa mga magsasaka ng niyog oras na maresolba pabor sa magsasaka ang kaso ng coconut levy. Kapag mangyari ito, gagamitin ang pondo para sa modernisasyon ng mga niyugan. Pinawalang-bisa ko ang kautusan sa coconut levy mula sa dating administrasyon upang hindi madehado ang magsasaka. Hindi tayo hihinto habang hindi nakikinabang ang mangnyo-niyog sa coco levy fund.
To fight poverty, agricultural modernization will be socially equitable. We shall redeem in earnest the promise of land reform, a commitment that spans several presidents. Isa pa itong pangakong hindi dapat mapako.
Bawat taon, mamahagi ang gobyerno ng (dalawangdaang) libong ektarya para sa reporma sa lupa: 100,000 of private land and 100,000 hectares of public land, including 100 ancestral domain titles for indigenous peoples.
We will bring our war against poverty to rural mindanao, especially the areas most affected by the past conflicts. We have helped more than half of the 27,000 evacuee families return to their farms and rehabilitate their homes. The rest will go back home this year. In the next 12 months, we will spend 500 million pesos from the OPEC fund for community projects in these areas.
If the long-delayed malmar irrigation dam is not completed by september, i will transfer its construction to the army engineering brigade. This dam is so important because it will irrigate 3,000 hectares immediately, with another 10,000 to follow next year.
We will make mindanao the gateway to asean by putting back on track the east asean growth area.
Inshala, mahimo tinu-od ang saad sa Mindanao ubos sa akong administrasyon.
The third component of our national agenda is a social bias to balance economic development.
This social bias consists in immediate measures for the poor as well as improving and ensuring the quality of life of the masses.
Bukod sa magbubukid, maralitang taga-lungsod ang malaking sektor na kailangan ang dagliang tulong.
Upang agad silang matulungan, nabigyan na ng ating administrasyon ang karapatang bumili ng lupang tinitirahan sa mahigit walumpung libong pamilyang maralita. And we will work double time to give security of land tenure to 150,000 urban poor families every year. Sandaan at limampung libong pamilya taun-taon ang magkakaroon ng karapatan na bumili ng sariling tirahan. Ginagawa ko ito dahil nalulungkot ako ‘pag may nakikita akong squatter sa sariling bayan.
Dapat din tugunan ang karaingan ng madla sa mahal na bilihin at kulang na sahod. Umaasa akong magpapasya ang kongreso o wage board sa nararapat na sweldo. Pansamantala, nananawagan ako sa mga negosyanteng may kakayahan: magbigay na kayo agad ng emergency cost of living allowance. Maaari naman itong i-credit kapag may bagong sahod o allowance mula sa batas o sa wage board.
Sa kabilang dako, kumikilos ang gobyerno upang mapigilan ang pagtaas ng presyo ng mga pangunahing pangangailangan ng manggagawa. Binabantayan ang presyo ng langis, at salamat naman na bumaba ito noong biyernes. Pinagsisikapan din ng gobyernong huwag itaas ang pasahe, lalo na ang LRT.
Dahil presyo ng bigas ay napakaimportante sa mga manggagawa, magpapasada tayo ng isanlibong rolling stores. Ang mga manggagawa at maralita ay makakabili dito ng bigas sa halagang labing-apat na piso sa halip na labing-walo bawat kilo.
Bababa din ang presyo ng gamot. Sa loob ng isang taon hahatiin natin ang presyo ng gamot na madalas bilhin ng madla.
At upang iwasan ang malaking gastos sa pagpapagamot, itong taon, ilalahok sa national health insurance ang kalahating milyong maralitang taga-lungsod. Sa ganoong paraan, ang insurance ang magbabayad ng pagpapagamot.
At upang maiwasan ang pag-upa na nagbabantang tumaas, tinutulungan natin na magkaroon ng sariling tahanan ang mga manggagawa at maralita. Handa na ang sampung libong tahahan sa iba’t-ibang lugar para lumipat na rito ang manggagawa at maralita. Pinondohan na rin natin ang pagtayo ng labing-walong libo pang tahanan. Taun-taon, magtatayo ng sandaang libong tirahan para sa manggagawa at limampung libong pabahay para sa higit na maralita. Nakahanda sa government financial institutions ang dalawampung bilyong piso para sa pabahay ng manggagawa.
Itaga ninyo: dalawampung bilyong piso para sa mga tahanan ng masa. Ito ang handog ng gobyerno para sa seguridad ng pamilyang pilipino.
Upang mapatakbo ng mabuti ang mga programang ito, hinihiling ko sa kongreso na lumikha ng kagawaran ng pabahay. A department of housing will not only build homes for the poor, it will also spark the housing industry and create jobs.
Hinihiling ko rin sa kongreso na sa tax reform na gagawin ninyo, damihan ang kategoriya ng manggagawang hindi na kailangang magbayad ng buwis.
Mayroon tayong espesyal na proyekto para sa mga kabataang maralita ng metro manila na hindi na makapag-aral, ngunit walang trabaho. This is the emergency employment program. Bawat taon, dalawampung libong out-of-work, out-of-school youth ang bibigyan ng dagliang trabaho. Maaari magtagpi ng bubong, mag-ayos ng railing, mag-gwardya sa eskwela ng kanilang barangay, maglinis ng kalsada o estero, o iba pang dagliang trabaho.
The social bias in our economic development plan involves ensuring the quality of life of the masses.
Sa sulat ni erwin na taga-payatas — ‘yung binanggit ko kaninang pag-umpisa ng diskurso — hiniling niya na ipasara ang dumpsite. Talaga namang dapat nang magkaroon tayo ng bagong sistema sa pag-aasikaso ng basura. Basura ang sanhi ng maraming problema sa siyudad: masamang hangin, paglaganap ng sakit, trapik, at iba pa. Tapusin na natin ito. Inatasan ko ang metro manila development authority na bago makalipas ang isang taon, maglunsad ng programa upang ayusin ang problema ng basura.
Suyang-suya na rin tayong lahat, lalo na ang madla, sa trapiko ng metro manila. Babawasan ang trapik sa tulong ng mass transit. Nagtatayo tayo ng limang bagong linya ng mass transit para makapagbigay-ginhawa sa halos apat na milyong pasahero. Tatlong linya matatapos sa 2004, isa sa 2005, at isa pa sa 2006. These five mass transit systems are being prioritized because they will add 119 kilometers of railway projects. During construction, i expect the mmda to minimize the resulting congestion, and i expect it to minimize the current congestion within six months.
Masyadong masikip ang metro manila, kaya miserable ang buhay sa slum areas. Magkakaroon ng mabilis na transportasyong magdurugtong ng mga karatig-rehiyon sa kamaynilaan. Ang nasisikipan na sa maynila, makakalipat balang araw sa maaliwalas na lalawigan.
We will decongest metro manila by attracting communities north towards Subic-Clark, and south towards Calabarzon and Batangas port. We will achieve this not by demolishing shanties but by building commuter and transport systems to better homes.
Whether in Metro Manila or in the countryside, we will make microfinance a cornerstone in our fight against poverty. Ang ibig sabihin nito ay maliliit na paluwagan para sa maliliit na negosyo. Kakalisensiya lang ng opportunity microfinance bank, ang unang micro-lending program sa bansa na naging bangko. Bawat taon, dadagdagan natin ng tatlongdaang libong maralitang kababaihan ang makikinabang sa paluwagang programa ng microfinance.
Panahon na upang makinabang ang maliliit sa iniimpok ng bayan. At umasa kayo, nagbabayad ang masa. In microfinance, the repayment rate is 98 percent.
Wala pang koryente ang marami nating barangay. Kaya araw-araw, gabi-gabi, magkakabit ng koryente sa apat na barangay. Sa ganoon, walumpu’t-limang porsyento ng barangay ay magkakailaw na sa loob ng isang taon.
With exports slowing down due to the world downturn, we will strengthen the domestic market. We will intensify efforts to promote small and medium enterprises or smes especially in the countryside. Last friday i inaugurated the sme board in the philippine stock exchange. To help small and medium enterprises, i will restore the policy of providing government guarantee for their bank loans.
The fourth component of our national agenda is improving moral standards and the rule of law.
We need every ounce of resource to wage this war on poverty. We cannot afford to lose anything to waste or graft and corruption.
First we must strengthen justice and the enforcement of law and order.
This pertains to two levels. At the level of principle, this administration affirms its commitment to the principle that no one is above the law.
Thus, our policy is to support the fair and speedy trial of all the accused involved in the cases against former president Joseph Estrada.
If there were times that I showed concern for the personal circumstances of the former president, it is not a sign of diminished determination to see justice done.
Rather, it is out of sensitivity to the feelings of the segments of our masa who have continued to identify with his personal circumstances.
But as I sometimes extend a hand covered by a velvet glove, inside it is an iron hand where justice and the rule of law are concerned.
As a sign of this, I will support legislation to amend the charter of the ombudsman so he can accept the services of private prosecutors.
The second level pertains to our sense that justice prevails and the rule of law works in our daily lives.
A re-energized police will stamp out the crimes that have plagued our businesses, terrorized the common folk, and embarrassed our country. In the economics of fighting crime, the more resources devoted to crime prevention, the less the amount of crime. Our administration will spend to modernize and professionalize the police. We will start with one billion pesos.
Although the numbers say that index crimes in the first semester were down 14 percent since a year ago, we are determined to stamp out violent crimes altogether. The ongoing reorganization of the police is part of the effort to add vigor to its anti-crime drive. The new national anti-crime commission will tighten coordination among law enforcement agencies as well as with the Chinese-Filipino community. We are giving special attention to the kidnap-for-ransom syndicates. I want the bulk of them to be behind bars before the year is over, so that every filipino will at last feel safe in his home, in his workplace, and in his streets.
On the drug front, i ask congress to enact a law reducing the amount of drugs in a suspect’s possession for him to be charged with drug trafficking.
We will uphold law and order through a holistic response consisting of political, economic, psychosocial and security components. We will meet the defense and security challenges of this era. To achieve this end, we have earmarked additional funding in several billions of pesos for the afp modernization program.
We have given the armed forces and the police the leeway to fight a treacherous and elusive enemy in basilan. But it must end, and it will end soon, for good. The leadership of the Abu Sayyaf has started to fall. The crackdown has neutralized 130 of them. Many of them have come down from their mountains because they have been abandoned by their leaders. Itaga ninyo sa bato: tatapusin natin ito.
On the peace process, while the AFP stands ready to protect our people at a moment’s notice, we will continue to talk with the moro islamic liberation front and the national democratic front as long as all sides maintain good faith. Our ceasefire agreement with the milf last month encouraged us in this.
To attain our full potential as a nation, let us come to terms with the fundamental issues in Mindanao. Let us forge consensus on a just, lasting, and honorable peace in one country. Peace and development are inseparable twins. But our framework must not compromise constitutionality, national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Instead, let us recognize that we have a multi-ethnic society which should be founded on social justice for all and institutionalized accommodation of ethnic traditions. This would finally introduce a new culture in our nation’s attitude towards mindanao.
We will also introduce a new culture in governance: a culture of plain talk and common sense.
Cabinet secretaries will do less cluster and inter-agency committee work so they can concentrate on running their departments. Less meetings, more action, more tangible results whether in generating jobs, improving peace and order, or fighting graft.
I throw full support behind bir commissioner rene ba”ez. He has undertaken a mission many believe impossible: overhauling the bir which accounts for 80 percent of our tax revenues.
Rene has been threatened. He has been blocked by restraining orders at every turn. After the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, he was accused of the very corruption he is stamping out.
This man needs friends, who share his goals, and i know he will find them in this young congress.
The Bureau of Customs is exceeding collection targets. But the anti-smuggling drive must be relentless. So must the drive against the harassment of legitimate businessmen doing legitimate imports. I call on all concerned to help end the open drawer syndrome.
But the government cannot do it alone. It cannot do it alone in customs, it cannot do it alone in fighting graft, it cannot do it alone in fighting poverty. I’m not a miracle worker. All of us must do our share. We have to think Filipino, buy Filipino, invest Filipino. I invite the taipans and other business people all over the country to start pump-priming the economy by investing once again in the Philippines. I invite you to create jobs, accelerate progress, and thereby address the root causes of the crime and unrest that so much alarm us.
Sa madaling salita, mga kababayan, magkaisa tayo at magtulung-tulong upang labanan ang salot ng kahirapan at isulong ang kasaganaan, kapayapaan, at katarungan sa bayan. Magkaisa tayo. Labanan ang kahirapan.
Marami na akong sinabi tungkol sa gagawin ko. Subalit mabibigkas sa ilang salita lamang ang pakay ng lahat ng mga plano, programa at panukalang tinukoy ko: trabaho, edukasyon, sariling tahanan, pagkain sa bawat mesa.
Sa lahat ng mabibigay ko sa bayan, kabuhayan, karunungan, tahanan at pagkain para sa masa ang ipagmamalaki ko nang higit sa lahat.
Lahat ng ito ay para sa mga kabataang tulad nila Jayson, Jomar at Erwin, at sa magiging anak nila dahil tungkulin natin ito sa mga darating na henerasyon.
Mga kababayan, nais ko pong ipakilala sa inyo ang mga anak ng Payatas. Eto sina Jason, Jomar, at Erwin.
Salamat sa inyo, Jason, Jomar at Erwin. Salamat at sumulat kayo sa akin ng mga liham na ginawa ninyong bangkang papel at pinalutang sa pasig.
Jason, Jomar at Erwin, pakinggan niyo ako.
Paparamihin natin ang mga kababayang may trabaho. Paparamihin natin ang mga batang makapag-aaral sa kolehiyo. Paparamihin natin ang mga kababayang may sariling tahanan. Paparamihin natin ang pamilyang may pagkain sa mesa. Ang pangarap ninyo ay pangarap ko rin. Gagawin ko ang lahat upang matupad ang pangarap natin.
Mga kababayan: tulungan ninyo akong tuparin ang pangarap nila Jason, Jomar, at Erwin. Magkaisa tayo upang lahat ng kabataan — kasama ang kanilang magulang — ay magkaroon ng bagong buhay at bagong pag-asa sa hinaharap.
Trabaho. Tahanan. Edukasyon. Pagkain sa bawat mesa.
Salamat, Jayson, Jomar at Erwin pinaalala ninyo sa akin ang napakahalagang tungkulin ko.
Pinaalala ninyo sa aming lahat kung bakit kami ay narito ngayon sa bulwagang ito.
Mga Senador at kongresista: ipangako natin sa kanila, sa harap at sa tulong ng poong maykapal, na sa mga susunod na araw, buwan at taon, tayong mga hinalal, tayong may pananagutan sa kanilang kinabukasan ay handang magsakripisyo at magkaisa para sa kabutihan, kaunlaran, katatagan ng bayan at sa kinabukasan ng kabataan.
Jason, Jomar, at Erwin, hindi namin kayo bibiguin.
I am not a miracle worker. But i will do what is right and i will do my best. Let us all do what is right, let us all do what is best and god will take care of the rest.
Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
TALUMPATI NI MANUEL L. QUEZON
TALUMPATI NI MANUEL L. QUEZON
MENSAHE SA AKING MGA KABABAYAN
MANUEL L.QUEZON
This was written in English and Spanish. The English version was from Manuel L. Quezon's article in PDI in 2004. The translation in Tagalog is mine.
Mga kababayan: Mayroon akong isipan na nais kong lagi ninyong alalahanin. Ito ay:
Na kayo ay mga Filipino. Na ang Pilipinas ay inyong bayan, nag-iisang ibinigay ng Diyos sainyo. Na kailangang alagaan ninyo ito para sainyong sarili, para sainyong anak at mga anak ng inyong mga anak, hanggang sa katapusan ng daigdig. Ag inyong buhay ay dapat para sa bayan at kung hinihingi ng pagkakataon na ibuwis ito ay
humandang mamatay para sa sariling bayan.
Ang inyong bayan ay dakila. Dakila ang nakaraan nito at may naghihintay na magandang kinabukasan. Ang Pilipinas nang mga nakaraang taon ay dinilig ng dugo at pag-aalay ng buhay ng mga bayani, mga martir at mga sundalo.
Ang Pilipinas ngayon ay pinararangalan ng mga pinunong mataos na nagmamahal, nagsisilbi ng hindi makasarili at may tapang ng loob.
Ang Pilipinas kinabukasan ay magiging bayan ng kasaganaan, kaligayahan at ng kalayaan.
Isang bansa na nakataas ang noo sa Kanlurang Pasipiko, hawak ang sariling kapalaran,
sa kaniyang kamay ay tangan ang ilaw ng kalayaan at ng demokrasya. Isang republika ng mga mararangal na mamamayan na may paninindigan at sama-samang magsisikap na paunlarin ang daigdig natin ngayon.
English Version:
Message to My People
MANUEL L.QUEZON
My fellow citizens: there is one thought I want you always to bear in mind. And that is: that you are Filipinos. That the Philippines are your country, and the only country God has given you. That you must keep it for yourselves, for your children, and for your children's children, until the world is no more. You must live for it, and die for it, if necessary.
The Philippines of today are honored by the wholehearted devotion to its cause of unselfish and courageous statesmen. The Philippines of tomorrow will be the country of plenty, of happiness, and of freedom. A Philippines with her head raised in the midst of the West Pacific, mistress of her own destiny, holding in her hand the torch of freedom and democracy. A republic of virtuous and righteous men and women all working together for a better world than the one we have at present.
Awitin o KantahingBayan, Talumpati,Jose Corazon de Jesus,Manuel Quezon,Tayutay,Tula,Talambuhay,
MENSAHE SA AKING MGA KABABAYAN
MANUEL L.QUEZON
This was written in English and Spanish. The English version was from Manuel L. Quezon's article in PDI in 2004. The translation in Tagalog is mine.
Mga kababayan: Mayroon akong isipan na nais kong lagi ninyong alalahanin. Ito ay:
Na kayo ay mga Filipino. Na ang Pilipinas ay inyong bayan, nag-iisang ibinigay ng Diyos sainyo. Na kailangang alagaan ninyo ito para sainyong sarili, para sainyong anak at mga anak ng inyong mga anak, hanggang sa katapusan ng daigdig. Ag inyong buhay ay dapat para sa bayan at kung hinihingi ng pagkakataon na ibuwis ito ay
humandang mamatay para sa sariling bayan.
Ang inyong bayan ay dakila. Dakila ang nakaraan nito at may naghihintay na magandang kinabukasan. Ang Pilipinas nang mga nakaraang taon ay dinilig ng dugo at pag-aalay ng buhay ng mga bayani, mga martir at mga sundalo.
Ang Pilipinas ngayon ay pinararangalan ng mga pinunong mataos na nagmamahal, nagsisilbi ng hindi makasarili at may tapang ng loob.
Ang Pilipinas kinabukasan ay magiging bayan ng kasaganaan, kaligayahan at ng kalayaan.
Isang bansa na nakataas ang noo sa Kanlurang Pasipiko, hawak ang sariling kapalaran,
sa kaniyang kamay ay tangan ang ilaw ng kalayaan at ng demokrasya. Isang republika ng mga mararangal na mamamayan na may paninindigan at sama-samang magsisikap na paunlarin ang daigdig natin ngayon.
English Version:
Message to My People
MANUEL L.QUEZON
My fellow citizens: there is one thought I want you always to bear in mind. And that is: that you are Filipinos. That the Philippines are your country, and the only country God has given you. That you must keep it for yourselves, for your children, and for your children's children, until the world is no more. You must live for it, and die for it, if necessary.
The Philippines of today are honored by the wholehearted devotion to its cause of unselfish and courageous statesmen. The Philippines of tomorrow will be the country of plenty, of happiness, and of freedom. A Philippines with her head raised in the midst of the West Pacific, mistress of her own destiny, holding in her hand the torch of freedom and democracy. A republic of virtuous and righteous men and women all working together for a better world than the one we have at present.
Awitin o KantahingBayan, Talumpati,Jose Corazon de Jesus,Manuel Quezon,Tayutay,Tula,Talambuhay,
Monday, July 28, 2008
STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO 2008
STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO DURING THE 2ND REGULAR SESSION OF THE 14TH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, 28 July 2008
Thank you, Speaker Nograles. Senate President Villar. Senators and Representatives. Vice President de Castro, President Ramos, Chief Justice Puno, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen:
I address you today at a crucial moment in world history.
Just a few months ago, we ended 2007 with the strongest economic growth in a generation. Inflation was low, the peso strong and a million new jobs were created. We were all looking to a better, brighter future.
Because tough choices were made, kumikilos na ang bayan sa wakas. Malapit na sana tayo sa pagbalanse ng budget. We were retiring debts in great amounts, reducing the drag on our country's development, habang namumuhunan sa taong bayan.
Biglang-bigla, nabaligtad ang ekonomiya ng mundo. Ang pagtalon ng presyo ng langis at pagkain ay nagbunsod ng pandaigdigan krisis, the worst since the Great Depression and the end of World War II. Some blame speculators moving billions of dollars from subprime mortgages to commodities like fuel and food. Others point of the very real surge in demand as millions of Chinese and Indians move up to the middle class.
Whatever the reasons, we are on a roller coaster ride of oil price hikes, high food prices and looming economic recession in the US and other markets. Uncertainty has moved like a terrible tsunami around the globe, wiping away gains, erasing progress.
This is a complex time that defies simple and easy solutions. For starters, it is hard to identify villains, unlike in the 1997 financial crisis. Everyone seems to be a victim, rich countries and poor, though certainly some can take more punishment than others.
To address these global challenges, we must go on building and buttressing bridges to allies around the world: to bring in the rice to feed our people, investments to create jobs; and to keep the peace and maintain stability in our country and the rest of the world. Yet even as we reach out to those who need, and who may need us, we strive for greater self-reliance.
Because tough choices were made, the global crisis did not catch us helpless and unprepared. Through foresight, grit and political will, we built a shield around our country that has slowed down and somewhat softened the worst effects of the global crisis. We have the money to care for our people and pay for food when there are shortages; for fuel despite price spikes.
Neither we nor anyone else in the world expected this day to come so soon but we prepared for it. For the guts not to flinch in the face of tough choices, I thank God. For the wisdom to recognize how needed you are, I thank, you Congress. For footing the bill, I thank the taxpayers.
The result has been, on the one hand, ito ang nakasalba sa bayan; and, on the other, more unpopularity for myself in the opinion polls. Yet, even unfriendly polls show self-rated poverty down to its 20-year low in 2007.
My responsibility as President is to take care to solve the problems we are facing now and to provide a vision and direction for how our nation should advance in the future.
Many in this great hall live privileged lives and exert great influence in public affairs. I am accessible to you, but I spend time every day with the underprivileged and under represented who cannot get a grip on their lives in the daily, all-consuming struggle to make ends meet.
Nag-aalala ako para sa naka-aawang maybahay na pasan ang pananagutan para sa buong pamilya. Nag-aalala ako para sa magsasakang nasa unang hanay ng pambansang produksyon ng pagkain ngunit nagsisikap pakanin ang pamilya. I care for hardworking students soon to graduate and wanting to see hope of good job and a career prospect here at home.
Nag-aalala ako para sa 41-year old na padre de pamilya na di araw-araw ang trabaho, at nag-aabala sa asawa at tatlong anak, at dapat bigyan ng higit pang pagkakakitaan at dangal. I care for our teachers who gave the greatest gift we ever received - a good education - still trying to pass on the same gift to succeeding generations. I care for our OFWs, famed for their skill, integrity and untiring labor, who send home their pay as the only way to touch loved ones so far away. Nagpupugay ako ngayon sa kanilang mga karaniwang Pilipino.
My critics say this is fiction, along with other facts and figures I cite today. I call it heroism though they don't need our praise. Each is already a hero to those who matter most, their families.
I said this is a global crisis where everyone is a victim. But only few can afford to avoid, or pay to delay, the worst effects.
Many more have nothing to protect them from the immediate blunt force trauma of the global crisis. Tulad ninyo, nag-aalala ako para sa kanila. Ito ang mga taong bayan na dapat samahan natin. Not only because of their sacrifices for our country but because they are our countrymen.
How do we solve these many complex challenges?
Sa kanilang kalagayan, the answer must be special care and attention in this great hour of need.
First, we must have a targeted strategy with set of precise prescriptions to ease the price challenges we are facing.
Second, food self-sufficiency; less energy dependence; greater self-reliance in our attitude as a people and in our posture as a nation.
Third, short-term relief cannot be at the expense of long term reforms. These reforms will benefit not just the next generation of Filipinos, but the next President as well.
Napakahalaga ang Value Added Tax sa pagharap sa mga hamong ito.
Itong programa ang sagot sa mga problemang namana natin.
Una, mabawasan ang ating mga utang and shore up our fiscal independence.
Pangalawa, higit na pamumuhunan para mamamayan at imprastraktura.
Pangatlo, sapat na pondo para sa mga programang pangmasa.
Thus, the infrastructure links programmed for the our poorest provinces like Northern Samar: Lao-ang-Lapinig-Arteche, right now ay maputik, San Isidro-Lope de Vega; the rehabilitation of Maharlika in Samar.
Take VAT away and you and I abdicate our responsibility as leaders and pull the rug from under our present and future progress, which may be compromised by the global crisis.
Lalong lumakas ang tiwala ng mga investor dahil sa VAT. Mula P56.50 kada dolyar, lumakas ang piso hanggang P40.20 bago bumalik sa P44 dahil sa mga pabigat ng pangdaigdigang ekonomiya. Kung alisin ang VAT, hihina ang kumpiyansa ng negosyo, lalong tataas ang interes, lalong bababa ang piso, lalong mamahal ang bilihin.
Kapag ibinasura ang VAT sa langis at kuryente, ang mas makikinabang ay ang mga may kaya na kumukonsumo ng 84% ng langis at 90% ng kuryente habang mas masasaktan ang mahihirap na mawawalan ng P80 billion para sa mga programang pinopondohan ngayon ng VAT. Take away VAT and we strip our people of the means to ride out the world food and energy crisis.
We have come too far and made too many sacrifices to turn back now on fiscal reforms. Leadership is not about doing the first easy thing that comes to mind; it is about doing what is necessary, however hard.
The government has persevered, without flip-flops, in its much-criticized but irreplaceable policies, including oil and power VAT and oil deregulation.
Patuloy na gagamitin ng pamahalaan ang lumalago nating yaman upang tulungan ang mga pamilyang naghihirap sa taas ng bilihin at hampas ng bagyo, habang nagpupundar upang sanggahan ang bayan sa mga krisis sa hinaharap.
Para sa mga namamasada at namamasahe sa dyip, sinusugpo natin ang kotong at colorum upang mapataas ang kita ng mga tsuper. Si Federico Alvarez kumikita ng P200 a day sa kaniyang rutang Cubao-Rosario. Tinaas ito ng anti-kotong, anti-colorum ngayon P500 na ang kita niya. Iyan ang paraan kung paano napananatili ang dagdag-pasahe sa piso lamang. Halaga lang ng isang text.
Texting is a way of life. I asked the telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. They responded. It is now down to 50 centavos.
Noong Hunyo, nagpalabas tayo ng apat na bilyong piso mula sa VAT sa langis-dalawang bilyong pambayad ng koryente ng apat na milyong mahihirap, isang bilyon para college scholarship o pautang sa 70,000 na estudyanteng maralita; kalahating bilyong pautang upang palitan ng mas matipid na LPG, CNG o biofuel ang motor ng libu-libong jeepney; at kalahating bilyong pampalit sa fluorescent sa mga pampublikong lugar.
Kung mapapalitan ng fluorescent ang lahat ng bumbilya, makatitipid tayo ng lampas P2 billion.
Sa sunod na katas ng VAT, may P1 billion na pambayad ng kuryente ng mahihirap; kalahating bilyon para sa matatandang di sakop ng SSS o GSIS; kalahating bilyong kapital para sa pamilya ng mga namamasada; kalahating bilyon upang mapataas ang kakayahan at equipment ng mga munting ospital sa mga lalawigan. At para sa mga kalamidad, angkop na halaga.
We released P1 billion for the victims of typhoon Frank. We support a supplemental Western Visayas calamity budget from VAT proceeds, as a tribute to the likes of Rodney Berdin, age 13, of Barangay Rombang, Belison, Antique, who saved his mother, brother and sister from the raging waters of Sibalom River.
Mula sa buwang ito, wala nang income tax ang sumusweldo ng P200,000 o mas mababa sa isang taon - P12 billion na bawas-buwis para sa maralita at middle class. Maraming salamat, Congress.
Ngayong may P32 na commercial rice, natugunan na natin ang problema sa pagkain sa kasalukuyan. Nagtagumpay tayo dahil sa pagtutulungan ng buong bayan sa pagsasaka, bantay-presyo at paghihigpit sa price manipulation, sa masipag na pamumuno ni Artie Yap.
Sa mga LGU at religious groups na tumutulong dalhin ang NFA rice sa mahihirap, maraming salamat sa inyo.
Dahil sa subsidy, NFA rice is among the region's cheapest. While we can take some comfort that our situation is better than many other nations, there is no substitute for solving the problem of rice and fuel here at home. In doing so, let us be honest and clear eyed - there has been a fundamental shift in global economics. The price of food and fuel will likely remain high. Nothing will be easy; the government cannot solve these problems over night. But, we can work to ease the near-term pain while investing in long-term solutions.
Since 2001, new irrigation systems for 146,000 hectares, including Malmar in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, Lower Agusan, Casecnan and Aulo in Nueva Ecija, Abulog-Apayao in Cagayan and Apayao, Addalam in Quirino and Isabela, among others, and the restoration of old systems on another 980,000 hectares have increased our nation's irrigated land to a historic 1.5 million hectares.
Edwin Bandila, 48 years old, of Ugalingan, Carmen, North Cotabato, cultivated one hectare and harvested 35 cavans. Thirteen years na ginawa iyong Malmar. In my first State of the Nation Address, sabi ko kung hindi matapos iyon sa Setyembre ay kakanselahin ko ang kontrata, papapasukin ko ang engineering brigade, natapos nila. With Malamar, now he cultivates five hectares and produces 97 cavans per hectare. Mabuhay, Edwin! VAT will complete the San Roque-Agno River project.
The Land Bank has quadrupled loans for farmers and fisherfolk. That is fact not fiction. Check it. For more effective credit utilization, I instructed DA to revitalize farmers cooperatives.
We are providing seeds at subsidized prices to help our farmers.
Incremental Malampaya national revenues of P4 billion will go to our rice self-sufficiency program.
Rice production since 2000 increased an average of 4.07% a year, twice the population growth rate. By promoting natural planning and female education, we have curbed population growth to 2.04% during our administration, down from the 2.36 in the 1990's, when artificial birth control was pushed. Our campaign spreads awareness of responsible parenthood regarding birth spacing. Long years of pushing contraceptives made it synonymous to family planning. Therefore informed choice should mean letting more couples, who are mostly Catholics, know about natural family planning.
From 1978 to 1981, nag-export tayo ng bigas. Hindi tumagal. But let's not be too hard on ourselves. Panahon pa ng Kastila bumibili na tayo ng bigas sa labas. While we may know how to grow rice well, topography doesn't always cooperate.
Nature did not gift us with a mighty Mekong like Thailand and Vietnam, with their vast and naturally fertile plains. Nature instead put our islands ahead of our neighbours in the path of typhoons from the Pacific. So, we import 10% of the rice we consume.
To meet the challenge of today, we will feed our people now, not later, and help them get through these hard times. To meet the challenges of tomorrow, we must become more self-reliant, self-sufficient and independent, relying on ourselves more than on the world.
Now we come to the future of agrarian reform.
There are those who say it is a failure, that our rice importations prove it. There are those who say it is a success-if only because anything is better than nothing. Indeed, people are happier owning the land they work, no matter what the difficulties.
Sa SONA noong 2001, sinabi ko, bawat taon, mamamahagi tayo ng dalawang daang libong ektarya sa reporma sa lupa: 100,000 hectares of private farmland and 100,000 of public farmland, including ancestral domains. Di hamak mahigit sa target ang naipamahagi natin sa nakaraang pitong taon: 854,000 hectares of private farmland, 797,000 of public farmland, and Certificates of Ancestral Domain for 525,000 hectares. Including, over a 100,000 hectares for Bugkalots in Quirino, Aurora, and Nueva Vizcaya. After the release of their CADT, Rosario Camma, Bugkalot chieftain, and now mayor of Nagtipunan, helped his 15,000-member tribe develop irrigation, plant vegetables and corn and achieve food sufficiency. Mabuhay, Chief!
Agrarian reform should not merely subdivide misery, it must raise living standards. Ownership raises the farmer from his but productivity will keep him on his feet.
Sinimula ng aking ama ang land reform noong 1963. Upang mabuo ito, the extension of CARP with reforms is top priority. I will continue to do all I can for the rural as well as urban poor. Ayaw natin na paglaya ng tenant sa landlord, mapapasa-ilalim naman sa usurero. Former tenants must be empowered to become agribusinessmen by allowing their land to be used as collateral.
Dapat mapalaya ng reporma sa lupa ang magsasaka sa pagiging alipin sa iba. Dapat bigyan ang magsasaka ng dangal bilang taong malaya at di hawak ninuman. We must curb the recklessness that gives land without the means to make it productive and bites off more than beneficiaries can chew.
At the same time, I want the rackets out of agrarian reform: the threats to take and therefore undervalue land, the conspiracies to overvalue it.
Be with me on this. There must be a path where justice and progress converge. Let us find it before Christmas. Dapat nating linisin ang landas para sa mga ibig magpursige sa pagsasaka, taglay ang pananalig na ang lupa ay sasagip sa atin sa huli kung gamitin natin ito nang maayos.
Along with massive rice production, we are cutting costs through more efficient transport. For our farm-to-market roads, we released P6 billion in 2007.
On our nautical highways. RORO boats carried 33 million metric tons of cargo and 31 million passengers in 2007. We have built 39 RORO ports during our administration, 12 more are slated to start within the next two years. In 2003, we inaugurated the Western Nautical Highway from Batangas through Mindoro, Panay and Negros to Mindanao. This year we launched the Central Nautical Highway from Bicol mainland, through Masbate, Cebu, Bohol and Camiguin to Mindanao mainland. These developments strengthen our competitiveness.
Leading multinational company Nestle cut transport costs and offset higher milk prices abroad. Salamat, RORO. Transport costs have become so reasonable for bakeries like Gardenia, a loaf of its bread in Iloilo is priced the same as in Laguna and Manila. Salamat muli sa RORO.
To the many LGUs who have stopped collecting fees from cargo vehicles, maraming, maraming salamat.
We are repaving airports that are useful for agriculture, like Zamboanga City Airport.
Producing rice and moving it cheaper addresses the supply side of our rice needs. On the demand side, we are boosting the people's buying power.
Ginagawa nating labor-intensive ang paggawa at pag-ayos ng kalsada at patubig. Noong SONA ng 2001, naglunsad tayo sa NCR ng patrabaho para sa 20,000 na out of school youth, na tinawag OYSTER. Ngayon, mahigit 20,000 ang ineempleyo ng OYSTER sa buong bansa. In disaster-stricken areas, we have a cash-for-work program.
In training, 7.74 million took technical and vocational courses over the last seven years, double the number in the previous 14 years. In 2007 alone, 1.7 million graduated. Among them are Jessica Barlomento now in Hanjin as supply officer, Shenve Catana, Marie Grace Comendador, and Marlyn Tusi, lady welders, congratulations.
In microfinance, loans have reached P102 billion or 30 times more than the P3 billion we started with in 2001, with a 98% repayment record, congratulations! Major lenders include the Land Bank with P69 billion, the Peoples' Credit and Finance Corporation P8 billion, the National Livelihood Support Fund P3 billion, DBP P1 billion and the DSWD's SEA-K P800 million. For partnering with us to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit, thank you, Go Negosyo and Joey Concepcion.
Upland development benefits farmers through agro-forestry initiatives. Rubber is especially strong in Zamboanga Sibugay and North Cotabato. Victoria Mindoro, 56 years old, used to earn P5,000 a month as farmer and factory worker. Now she owns 10 hectares in the Goodyear Agrarian Reform Community in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay, she earns P10,000 a week. With one hectare, Pedro and Concordia Faviolas of Makilala, North Cotabato, they sent their six children to college, bought two more hectares, and earn P15,000 a month. Congratulations!
Jatropha estates are starting in 900 hectares in and around Tamlang Valley in Negros Oriental; 200 in CamSur; 300 in GenSan, 500 in Fort Magsaysay near the Cordero Dam and 700 in Samar, among others.
In our 2006 SONA, our food baskets were identified as North Luzon and Mindanao.
The sad irony of Mindanao as food basket is that it has some of the highest hunger in our nation. It has large fields of high productivity, yet also six of our ten poorest provinces.
The prime reason is the endless Mindanao conflict. A comprehensive peace has eluded us for half a century. But last night, differences on the tough issue of ancestral domain were resolved. Yes, there are political dynamics among the people of Mindanao. Let us sort them out with the utmost sobriety, patience and restraint. I ask Congress to act on the legislative and political reforms that will lead to a just and lasting peace during our term of office.
The demands of decency and compassion urge dialogue. Better talk than fight, if nothing of sovereign value is anyway lost. Dialogue has achieved more than confrontation in many parts of the world. This was the message of the recent World Conference in Madrid organized by the King of Saudi Arabia, and the universal message of the Pope in Sydney.
Pope Benedict's encyclical Deus Caritas Est reminds us: "There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love for neighbour is indispensable."
Pinagsasama-sama natin ang mga programa ng DSWD, DOH, GSIS, SSS at iba pang lumalaban sa kahirapan sa isang National Social Welfare Program para proteksyonan ang pinaka-mahihirap mula sa pandaigdigang krisis, and to help those whose earnings are limited by illness, disability, loss of job, age and so on-through livelihood projects, microfinance, skills and technology transfer, emergency and temporary employment, pension funds, food aid and cash subsidies, child nutrition and adult health care, medical missions, salary loans, insurance, housing programs, educational and other savings schemes, and now cheaper medicine-Thanks to Congress.
The World Bank says that in Brazil, the income of the poorest 10% has grown 9% per year versus the 3% for the higher income levels due in large part to their family stipend program linking welfare checks to school attendance. We have introduced a similar program, Pantawid Pamilya.
Employers have funded the two increases in SSS benefits since 2005. Thank you, employers for paying the premiums.
GSIS pensions have been indexed to inflation and have increased every year since 2001. Its salary loan availments have increased from two months equivalent to 10 months, the highest of any system public or private-while repayments have been stretched out.
Pag-Ibig housing loans increased from P3.82 billion in 2001 to P22.6 billion in 2007. This year it experienced an 84% increase in the first four months alone. Super heating na. Dapat dagdagan ng GSIS at buksan muli ng SSS ang pautang sa pabahay. I ask Congress to pass a bill allowing SSS to do housing loans beyond the present 10% limitation.
Bago ako naging Pangulo, isa't kalahating milyong maralita lamang ang may health insurance. Noong 2001, sabi natin, dadagdagan pa ng kalahating milyon. Sa taong iyon, mahigit isang milyon ang nabigyan natin. Ngayon, 65 milyong Pilipino na ang may health insurance, mahigit doble ng 2000, kasama ang labinlimang milyong maralita. Philhealth has paid P100 billion for hospitalization. The indigent beneficiaries largely come from West and Central Visayas, Central Luzon, and Ilocos. Patuloy nating palalawakin itong napaka-importanted programa, lalo na sa Tawi-Tawi, Zambo Norte, Maguindanao, Apayao, Dinagat, Lanao Sur, Northern Samar, Masbate, Abra and Misamis Occidental. Lalo na sa kanilang mga magsasaka at mangingisda.
In these provinces and in Agusan Sur, Kalinga, Surigao Sur and calamity-stricken areas, we will launch a massive school feeding program at P10 per child every school day.
Bukod sa libreng edukasyon sa elementarya at high school, nadoble ang pondo para sa mga college scholarships, while private high school scholarship funds from the government have quadrupled.
I have started reforming and clustering the programs of the DepEd, CHED and TESDA.
As with fiscal and food challenges, the global energy crunch demands better and more focused resource mobilization, conservation and management.
Government agencies are reducing their energy and fuel bills by 10%, emulating Texas Instruments and Philippine Stock Exchange who did it last year. Congratulations, Justice Vitug and Francis Lim.
To reduce power system losses, we count on government regulators and also on EPIRA amendments.
We are successful in increasing energy self-sufficiency-56%, the highest in our history. We promote natural gas and biofuel; geothermal fields, among the world's largest; windmills like those in Ilocos and Batanes; and the solar cells lighting many communities in Mindanao. The new Galoc oil field can produce 17,000-22,000 barrels per day, 1/12 of our crude consumption.
The Renewable Energy Bill has passed the House. Thank you, Congressmen.
Our costly commodity imports like oil and rice should be offset by hard commodities exports like primary products, and soft ones like tourism and cyberservices, at which only India beats us.
Our P 350 million training partnership with the private sector should qualify 60,000 for call centers, medical transcription, animation and software development, which have a projected demand of one million workers generating $13 billion by 2010.
International finance agrees with our progress. Credit rating agencies have kept their positive or stable outlook on the country. Our world competitiveness ranking rose five notches. Congratulations to us.
We are sticking to, and widening, the fiscal reforms that have earned us their respect.
To our investors, thank you for your valuable role in our development. I invite you to invest not only in factories and services, but in profitable infrastructure, following the formula for the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway.
I ask business and civil society to continue to work for a socially equitable, economically viable balance of interests. Mining companies should ensure that host communities benefit substantively from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations.
Our administration enacted the Solid Waste Management Act, Wildlife Act, Protection of Plant Varieties, Clean Water Act, Biofuels Act and various laws declaring protected areas.
For reforestation, for next year we have budgeted P2 billion. Not only do forests enhance the beauty of the land, they mitigate climate change, a key factor in increasing the frequency and intensity of typhoons and costing the country 0.5% of the GDP.
We have set up over 100 marine and fish sanctuaries since 2001. In the whaleshark sanctuary of Donsol, Sorsogon, Alan Amanse, 40-year-old college undergraduate and father of two, was earning P100 a day from fishing and driving a tricycle. Now as whaleshark-watching officer, he is earns P1,000 a day, ten times his former income.
For clean water, so important to health, there is P500 million this year and P1.5 billion for next year.
From just one sanitary landfill in 2001, we now have 21, with another 18 in the works.
We launched the Zero Basura Olympics to clear our communities of trash. Rather than more money, all that is needed is for each citizen to keep home and workplace clean, and for garbage officials to stop squabbling.
Our investments also include essential ways to strengthen our institutions of governance in order to fight the decades-old scourge of corruption. I will continue to fight this battle every single day. While others are happy with headlines through accusation without evidence and privilege speeches without accountability, we have allocated more than P3 billion - the largest anti-graft fund in our history - for real evidence gathering and vigorous prosecution.
From its dismal past record, the Ombudsman's conviction rate has increased 500%. Lifestyle checks, never seriously implemented before our time, have led to the dismissal and/or criminal prosecution of dozens of corrupt officials.
I recently met with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US agency that provides grants to countries based on governance. They have commended our gains, contributed P1 billion to our fight against graft, and declared us eligible for more grants. Thank you!
Last September, we created the Procurement Transparency Group in the DBM and linked it with business, academe, and the Church, to deter or catch anomalies in government contracts.
On my instruction, the BIR and Customs established similar government-civil society tie-ups for information gathering and tax evasion and smuggling monitoring.
More advanced corruption practices require a commensurate advances in legislative responses. Colleagues in Congress, we need a more stringent Anti-Graft Act.
Sa pagmahal ng bilihin, hirap na ang mamimili - tapos, dadayain pa. Dapat itong mahinto. Hinihiling ko sa Kongreso na magpasa ng Consumer Bill of Rights laban sa price gouging, false advertising at iba pang gawain kontra sa mamimili.
I call on all our government workers at the national and local levels to be more responsive and accountable to the people. Panahon ito ng pagsubok. Kung saan kayang tumulong at dapat tumulong ang pamahalaan, we must be there with a helping hand. Where government can contribute nothing useful, stay away. Let's be more helpful, more courteous, more quick.
Kaakibat ng ating mga adhikain ang tuloy na pagkalinga sa kapakanan ng bawat Pilipino. Iisa ang ating pangarap - maunlad at mapayapang lipunan, kung saan ang magandang kinabukasan ay hindi pangarap lamang, bagkus natutupad.
Sama-sama tayo sa tungkuling ito. May papel na gagampanan ang bawat mamamayan, negosyante, pinunong bayan at simbahan, sampu ng mga nasa lalawigan.
We are three branches but one government. We have our disagreements; we each have hopes, and ambitions that drive and divide us, be they personal, ethnic, religious and cultural. But we are one nation with one fate.
As your President, I care too much about this nation to let anyone stand in the way of our people's wellbeing. Hindi ko papayagang humadlang ang sinuman sa pag-unlad at pagsagana ng taong bayan. I will let no one - and no one's political plans - threaten our nation's survival.
Our country and our people have never failed to be there for us. We must be there for them now.
Maraming salamat. Magandang hapon sa inyong lahat.
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