31 DECEMBER 2004

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), in its Annual Accomplishment Report submitted to Malacanang, said that its crime solution efficiency rate for 2004 was recorded at 90.4 percent and that the department has reduced crime incidents from 77,763 cases in 2003 to 71,179 cases in 2004 or a decrease of 8.47 percent.

The DILG said that the efforts of its Philippine National Police (PNP) and all other concerned agencies resulted in the neutralization of organized and high profile crimes.

Among the PNP’s accomplishments are the following:

• Achieved a decrease in kidnap-for-ransom incidents from 77 in 2003 to 28 in 2004 for a 70 percent decrease, with 18 or 64 percent of the 2004 incidents solved; and neutralized six of the top most wanted KFR personalities;

• Neutralized five international drug rings and 83 local drug syndicates; arrested 18,120 pushers and users; dismantled three clandestine laboratories and storage warehouses; confiscated drugs worth an estimated at P11.77 billion; filed 15,595 drug-related cases in court; and cleared 2,735 drug–affected barangays;

• Arrested 15,397 illegal gambling financiers and gamblers; filed 6,311 cases in court; and confiscated cash bets amounting to P5.5 million.

The DILG also reported that street crimes have been reduced by 32 percent, from 16,628 in 2003 to 11,336 in 2004.

On public safety, the DILG said that in 2004, it has responded and suppressed 7,762 fire incidents nationwide aside from conducting fire drills and training fire brigade volunteers to enhance firefighting skills.

At the Bureau of Jail and Penology an average of 45,656 qualified inmates have been released in accordance with applicable laws, while 55,992 inmates have undergone rehabilitation activities, recreational and religious activities; vocational programs; and healthcare services.

On excellence in local governance, the DILG self-pursued capability-building programs for local chief executives, through various training programs, which in 2004 numbered about 16, benefiting local government officials.

In 2004, the DILG conducted local governance festivals in Manila, Cagayan de Oro City, Iloilo and Davao to showcase the LGU exemplary practices, capacity development processes and innovative tools and strategies.

It has also assisted in providing infrastructure and social development assistance to local government units. Such assistance include the construction of water systems, toilets, bridges, and conducting education and training, and the provision of livelihood and other social support services.

The DILG also introduced systems and procedures to ensure sufficient service and enhance productivity. Included here are as follows--

• anti-red-tape project for LGUs. The project resulted in the installation of one-stop shop processing centers in 127 municipalities, establishment of customer complaint desks in 147 municipalities and simplification of civil application systems in 182 municipalities;

• local governance performance management system (LGPMS), an Internet-based self-assessment system that allows LGUs to monitor and check their level of performance and productivity in identified areas of governance.

On internal administration, the DILG initiated changes and improvements in DILG internal systems to bring about a client-focused, goal-oriented, and resource-efficient department.

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The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) cites positive gains from an integrated response to fight hunger while promoting basic education and economic self-sufficiency among poor families through its food-for-school and food-for-work programs.

In its yearend report, the DSWD reported a 100% school attendance of grades 1 and 2 pupils receiving a kilo of fortified rice to bring home to their families under the food-for-school program. The program seeks to address the nutritional needs of malnourished children and their families while encouraging the latter to keep their children in school.

Both programs cover nutritionally depressed areas, hard to reach barangays and those included in the matrix of poverty indicators in the region.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said initial results of the food-for-school program are encouraging because over 19,174 pupil beneficiaries have shown greater interest in school activities while their families improve their nutritional intake by eating fortified rice supplied by the National Food Authority.

"We continue to undertake social preparation activities to enable these poor families to become self-sufficient in the very near future. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Florencio Abad and I are quite happy with the initial results of this program which shows an improvement in class attendance and performance among the pupils benefiting from this program," Soliman said, adding that the idea to link poverty reduction with basic education came from Senator Ralph Recto.

The food-for-work program, on the other hand, enabled the poorest families in Garchitorena, Camarines Sur to weather the recent calamities brought about by typhoon Unding, Winnie and Yoyong.

The food-for-school program was launched on Nov. 8 in Cainta Elementary School by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, together with Education Secretary Florencio Abad, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and Mayor Mon Ilagan.

The program spearheaded by the Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Food Authority, was also simultaneously launched in Quezon City, Manila and Caloocan in the National Capital Region; Bulacan in Region III and Cavite and Rizal in Region IV-A.

Under the food-for-school program, each pupil would receive one kilo of fortified rice for five months. To date, a total of 1.2 million kilos of rice amounting to P22.8 million have already been given to 19,171 pupils belonging to the poorest families in these selected areas.

Meanwhile, the DSWD’s food-for-work program continues to benefit families affected by armed conflict in Mindanao, including some 140 Sabah deportees who have decided to stay in the region for good.

According to its yearend report, the DSWD distributed food coupons to some 365 families from Bwansan, Indanan; Anuling, Patikul and Purok Lubak; Aurias in Jolo, Sulu. The beneficiaries from barangay Bwansan were the 125 families affected by the armed conflict that are now being attended to by the DSWD as they attempt to rebuild their lives after being forced to evacuate from their original communities.

Initially, target beneficiaries for food-for-work program are 50,000 families coming from Camarines Sur, Eastern Samar, Sulu Province, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao.

As of December 23, the DSWD has released a total of 12,000 food coupons worth P14.4 million. The remaining 38,000 food coupons amounting to P45.6 million would be released to the beneficiaries upon submission of the project proposals for community service by the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office as a requirement for releasing food coupons.

Among the identified community service activities are communal gardening, repair of community facilities, sanitation, beautification and values formation. As the beneficiaries are engaged in community projects they are also being prepared for livelihood opportunities that would make them self-sufficient members of the community.

The food-for-work program enables each targeted family to avail of basic food items, using food coupons worth P1,200 per month, for three to six months. Among the commodities that can be purchased using the food coupon are fortified rice, oil, mongo, eggs, dried fish, sugar, noodles, milk and fish. The food coupons can be redeemed from any of the stores identified and accredited by the National Food Authority in the area.

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It is a time for reflection and stock-taking. We kneel in humility to seek the Lord’s grace to light our journey ahead.

2005 is a year for urgent change for the Philippines. As your leader, I pledge to you that we will improve tax collection, pass a budget that will support our 10-point plan and pro-poor agenda and take executive action to break the culture of corruption.

I know that the people cannot wait. I’m impatient, too, for the urgent change to be made. We must act now as one nation.

I call on Congress, the private sector and civil society to lead with me.

With unity and fortitude, we shall prevail.

Happy New Year to all. Mabuhay Ang Pilipinas.

God bless the Philippines.

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LAMUT, Ifugao - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today promised to put the country’s fiscal house in order, to use the 2005 budget to advance her 10-point legacy agenda, and to step up efforts to break the culture of corruption.

The President made this statement as her New Year's resolution during her visit here this morning where she distributed hybrid rice seeds and cash assistance to typhoon victims in the province.

On a personal note, the President said during a brief media interaction here that her New Year's resolution is to tone down her temper, adding that if it is operational or tactical, she would lessen her temper to "just one minute."

These remarks by the President drew laughter from the members of the Malacanang Press Corps who accompanied her during her sorties in Baguio City and neighboring provinces.

The President wished the people of Lamut a blessed New Year despite the damage to the province brought about by series of typhoons.

The President said that in her next year's agenda she would give priority to the electrification of the whole province of Ifugao.

She commended officials of the Ifugao Electric Cooperative for their efforts in providing electricity to the town of Lamut.

"I would like to communicate more with the people of Ifugao where we intend to develop more roads and enhance the electrification program in the area," she said.

Shortly after her arrival at the Lamut Municipal Hall Gymnasium, accompanied by Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman and Secretary Conrado Limcaoco, Cabinet Officer for Provincial Events (COPE), the President distributed 32 gift packs and 32 checks worth P2,000 each to the 32 families worst hit by the series of typhoons that struck the province.

Some 100 bags of Gloria hybrid palay seeds worth P240,000 were turned over by the President to 100 farmer-beneficiaries here while 14 certificates of free patents and titles were also given to the 14 family-beneficiaries.

The President also handed to Lamut Mayor Angelito Guinid, Jr. an additional check of P800,000 and another P1 million as calamity fund for the Municipality of Lamut.

Later, the President switched on the button that restored power to 18 barangays in Lamut.

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Communications Director Secretary Silvestre Afable described the year 2004 as an extremely challenging year for the Arroyo administration because it was "reform and change driven."

"When a leader starts to take bold steps to change the national landscape, there is bound to be resistance, frustration and disenchantment, but these will pass," Afable said.

"The President exercised strong leadership in 2004 at the expense of her own popularity in order to commit the nation to a long-term vision of stability and growth," Afable noted.

"People are hopeful and fully support the legitimacy of the Arroyo administration despite transient difficulties…destabilizers miscalculate the public mood when they think they can whip up revolutionary action," he added.

"We are the past era of hate politics and people are settling down to doable community centered solutions and listening to sensible leadership; the opposition should read the writing on the wall," he stressed.

Afable said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had set a clear agenda to fight poverty and turn the economy around during the early weeks of her presidency.

"The final Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan was encoded by the President personally," Afable noted. It contains the President’s 10-point legacy agenda also known for its acronym, "Beat the Odds."

Within the first hundred days of the President’s term, she successfully resolved a hostage crisis in Iraq involving Filipino worker Angelo dela Cruz. His abductors freed Dela Cruz after the Philippine government withdrew its small humanitarian contingent two weeks in advance of its original schedule. The Department of Foreign Affairs, in partnership with the United Nations and Afghan government, was also successful in securing the safe release of UN volunteer worker Angelito Nayan who was abducted, together with two of his companions, by a bandit group in the said country.

The President initially received flak from some quarters for announcing a fiscal crisis that caught several sectors, including businessmen and legislators, off guard. Her declaration, however, resulted in concrete action for government reforms ranging from severe austerity measures to congressional action on major tax measures.

"Dissension over what constituted a fiscal crisis gave way to a convergence of action in support of the President’s fiscal roadmap to raise revenues while pruning public expenditures," Afable pointed out.

He said more than 1,000 municipal mayors, coming from different political parties all over the archipelago, passed a unified resolution of support for the economic reform initiatives of the President aimed at bailing the country out of the fiscal crisis.

"The march towards fiscal stability continues with our congressional leaders accepting the President’s call for a special session to pass additional revenue measures. This affirms the strong solidarity between the executive and legislative branches of government to move our country forward," Secretary Afable stressed.

Before offering his own shortlist of the administration’s major accomplishments in 2004, he credits the Filipino people for its resilient and patriotic spirit that has contributed to a stable economy and relative political peace.

"Despite several crisis in 2004, we have risen as one nation to meet and surmount these challenges guided by the national interest and strong faith in the Almighty," Afable said.

Below is the Communications Director’s own shortlist of the Arroyo administration’s key accomplishments for 2004.

• Armed conflict has fully deescalated in Mindanao. Peace yielded an initial agreement for the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to engage in joint undertakings to counter terrorism.
• The Philippine economy grew by 6.3% in the third quarter of this year, which beat the expectations of economists and compares with a 4.8% a year earlier. Strong growth in areas such as agriculture, which grew 7.9% and services, which grew by 7.1% helped lift the overall number.
• Industrial peace continues to flourish. DOLE records the lowest rate of strike incidence in 26 years.
• Foreign direct investment in the Philippines grew by 322%, to P148.2 billion in the first nine months of 2004.
• The Supreme Court has upheld the legality of the Mining Act, thereby opening the floodgates for foreign investment in a safe and environmentally sound mining industry.
• The Masinloc power plant was sold in the biggest sale of energy generation assets.
• On the foreign policy front, the Philippines was elected as chair of the APEC Counterterrorism Task Force. The United Nations General Assembly approved by consensus a resolution on inter-faith dialogues introduced to the body by the Philippines.
• The President reached a new free trade agreement with Japan that will help reduce the price of products such as electronics and machinery from Japan, make it easier to sell Philippine products in Japan and for Japan to invest in the Philippines, and will increase the number of Philippine nurses and nannies who can work in Japan.
• It was banner year in the administration’s battle against corruption as lifestyle checks conducted by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission led to the suspension and dismissal of top officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Bureau of Customs and Bureau of Internal Revenue. The court-martial of General Carlos Garcia has started and shall be pursued to its just conclusion, as other military officers are now the subjects of ongoing probes due to allegations of unexplained wealth.
• The President also acted to revamp the Department of National Defense by replacing four military undersecretaries and one assistant secretary with civilian executives. The changes are part of an effort to reinforce the civilian character of the defense department and speed up improvements to cut out corruption and improve services to soldiers.

"Terrorists are on the run. The drug trade has been cut in half. Street crimes are down and tourist arrivals are at a record high. We do have much to be thankful for," Afable stressed.

He said the administration is now helping disaster-affected areas in Quezon and Aurora in rebuilding their communities.

Before 2004 ended, the government took possession of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Passenger Terminal 3 in an expropriation complaint filed with the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City.

He said the President’s decision to expropriate NAIA 3 in accordance with a recent Supreme Court decision and to open this modern airport facility in six months marks the political will that will propel the country forward.

"Next year’s opening of NAIA 3 will serve as a symbol of our economic renaissance as we defeat corruption and bring our economic house to order," Afable said.

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