Malacaņang said today that about P1.64 trillion or nearly three-fourths of the outlays proposed in the P2.23-trillion Medium-Term Public Investment Program (MTPIP) will go to programs and projects under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 10-Point Agenda to alleviate poverty, spur economic growth, and enhance democracy and governance.

"The MTPIP presented to the President and the Cabinet recently shows that the government shall allocate the funds to make our development goals a reality, Secretary of the Cabinet Ricardo L. Saludo said. The P1.64-trillion total allocation underlines the need to boost revenues and ensure funding for our pro-poor agenda."

The MTPIP conforms with the government’s six-year expenditure program and fiscal targets aimed at balancing the budget by 2010. The list of the MTPIP estimates responsive to the 10-point agenda of the President, which amount to P1.643 trillion or 73.5 percent compared to the total MTPIP of P2.235 trillion follows:

1. 10 million jobs---P312.9 billion

• Strengthening government programs to support three million entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises by tripling loans to MSMEs ---P63.1 billion.

• Development of two million hectares of land for agri-business ---P249.8 billion.

2. Education for All---P140.9 billion

• Construction of at least 6,000 classrooms annually, provision of books and computers, and provision of high school scholarships or financial assistance---P140.9 billion

• Fiscal strength: Reduce the CPSD-to-GDP ratio from 6.7 percent to 1 percent of GDP in 2010; reduce the ratio of public sector debt-to-GDP from 136 percent in 2004 to 90 percent in 2010 ---P12.7 billion.

• Financial sector: Achieve a savings-to-GDP rate of 25-30 percent, manage inflation, promote stronger, stable, and deeper financial system and rationalize government pension and retirement schemes ---P5.2 billion.

• Transportation Networks: Strengthening of the East, Central and Western Nautical Highway--- P291.6 billion.

• Digital Networks: More efficient and effective sharing of network among all branches of government---P4.1 billion.

5. Provision of Power and Water to all Barangays---P643 billion

• Power generation: Total electrification of all barangays ---P241.5 billion.

• Water supply and water management: Covering all barangays nationwide and 130 has. of lands for watershed---P401.5 billion.

• Transfer of national agencies outside Metro Manila ---P1.8 billion.

• Transportation network to speed up traffic: North and Southrail projects, MRT-LRT loop, LRT Line 1 Ext., LRT 2 Phase 2, SLEX, and STAR--- P126.5 billion.

7. Development of Clark and Subic--- P84.2 billion

• Implementation of Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and Diosdado Macapagal International Airport and Subic International Port ---P84.2 billion.

8. Automation of the Electoral Process ---P5.9 billion

• Automated elections starting 2007--P5.9 billion

9. Peace Agreement with Rebel Groups --- P14.9 billion

• Peace Process: Rehabilitation and reintegration of former rebels, implementation of Madrasha Educational Program, Various infra and social projects, and others ---P14.9 billion.

Let us take this development in the spirit of unity and reconciliation as we deal with the steep challenges the country is facing.

The former Vice President is fit for the job and will certainly sustain and promote the interest of our people in that sensitive and crucial diplomatic post.

Eliminating poverty is the biggest and most difficult challenge facing any administration.

It requires a long period of deep and broad reforms in the social, economic, political and cultural landscape.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has a firm and clear roadmap to cut poverty in half within the decade.

The government is taking concrete steps to turn the country’s "dead assets" worth $133 billion into live capital along the Hernando de Soto anti-poverty development concept.

Undersecretary Gondelina Amata of the Urban Asset Reform Office-Presidential Monitoring Office (UAROPMO) said if the government "can move this dead assets into live capital, we won’t be needing foreign investment or foreign capital."

Amata made the statement during the briefing on the De Soto anti-poverty strategy for the Joint National Economic and Development Authority-National Anti-Poverty Commission (NEDA-NAPC) Cabinet groups this morning in Malacanang.

De Soto is the noted Peruvian economist known for his anti-poverty prescription for developing countries.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo convened the briefing session to ensure that members of the two Cabinet groups are fully grounded on all aspects of the De Soto anti-poverty program.

Amata said the De Soto concept, or the Urban Asset Reform Program (UARP), pertains to the integration of assets in the informal sector into the formal property system. "Through this formalization, the dead assets can be used as collateral to generate live capital," she added.

Based on a study of the Philippines, 60 percent of the nation’s properties, worth $133 billion, fall under the "dead capital" category.

Moving this dead capital to the formal property system will start with the titling or business registration of the assets, Amata said.

"But we need to change the people’s mindset, as our poor still believe that ownership of property is the end all to the property system," she pointed put.

UARP activities include pilot-testing of the De Soto projects in four sites. The initial pilot-test was launched yesterday at the 29-hectare government property in the 101-hectare Welfareville compound in Mandaluyong City.

The 29-ha. property has been earmarked for socialized housing for l,800 families of informal settlers.

Secretary Michael Defensor of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported today the filing of administrative and criminal charges against a town mayor, a former congressman and several others for alleged illegal logging.

In a briefing this afternoon at the Palace, the DENR chief named former Quezon Congressman Manolet Lavides and General Nakar town mayor Hernando Avellanada, also of Quezon, among those charged for reportedly having links to illegal logging operations.

"As we have been directed by the President to file the necessary cases, we have just filed cases today against Mayor Hernando Avellanada of General Nakar and his brother Ricardo Avellanada, Barangay Captain David Prudente and Ronnie Avellanada," Defensor said.

The DENR Secretary confirmed the arrest last Wednesday morning, January 19, 2005 of former Congressman Lavides from whose control and possession, authorities confiscated P1-million worth of hot lumber. The seizure, he added, was effected by virtue of a search warrant issued by a Quezon court.

Defensor likewise reported that in Mauban, Quezon alone some P12 million worth of illegal logs are expected to be confiscated.

"The cases filed are for violations of RA 3019 in relation to illegal logging, anti-graft and corrupt practices, gross negligence, Revised Penal Code article 208, direliction of duty, violation of the Code of Ethical Standards and the Revised Forestry Act," the Secretary explained.

The cases, he added, will be handled by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and was endorsed and signed at the Ombudsman by General Al Dagudag (Ret.), DENR’s head of its Task Force on Illegal Logging.

Defensor said other operations against illegal logging activities are currently being conducted by the DENR in Mauban and General Nakar, both in Quezon, and in Agusan del Sur.

"We were able to cut the operations of the financiers in Mauban and now we are going to the area of General Nakar to pinpoint personalities involved. We still need to build up cases on several personalities who are reportedly engaged in and financing illegal logging in that area, as well as those coordinating the operations" he added.

Defensor also told media about the illegal lumber retrieval operations of the DENR centered on the Quezon-Aurora-Balesin island areas.

He said the DENR has uncovered some 44,620 cubic meters of hot logs in Real, Infanta, Polilio and Balesin, all in Quezon. He added that the inventory of logs in Aurora includes 7,996 pieces of uprooted trees, logs and branches with an estimated volume of 8,473 cubic meters.

The DENR chief said they have also already identified possible relocation sites for the families displaced by the calamities in Quezon including a 50-hectare area straddling Barangays Anoling and Catabingan in General Nakar; 70 hectares in Brgys. Agos-Agos and Gomian and the possible additional relocation sites in Brgy Magsaysay, all in Infanta town.

In Real, he said, 56 hectares wee identified in Brgys. Kiloloron, Capalong, Talisay, Lubayat and Malapad, in addition to the Brgy San Jose housing project in Rodriguez, Rizal that now hosts some 300 families affected by the flash flood that hit the area in 2004.

Defensor also named a number of prominent and big-time illegal logging suspects in various parts of the country against whom the DENR has already filed appropriate charges in court.

Twenty-three largescale mining projects in the country will generate $6 billion investments, raise $495.4 million income and excise taxes annually for the government, and employ 200,000 Filipinos, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael T. Defensor said today.

In a media briefing in Malacanang this afternoon, Defensor placed annual expenditures on the mining projects at $92 million, gross sales at $3 billion a year.

"These are the major projects that we are presenting to mining corporations. These are the ones being held by our mining corporations in the Philippines," he added.

Investments in the mining sector are expected to increase dramatically following the Supreme Court’s decision allowing fully-owned foreign corporations to engage in mining explorations.

He said China Metallurgical Corporation has already signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to invest $100 million in mining operations in the country.

Another Chinese corporation, he added, has agreed to invest $200 million in a mining project. The agreement between the government and the Chinese firm will be formally signed during the mining summit on Feb. 2-3.

A 100-member delegation from 100 Chinese corporations will attend the mining summit, Defensor said.

He added that China’s biggest nickel company has agreed to invest $1 billion in Phil-Nikko, a mining company based in Surigao del Norte.

MANDAUE CITY -- With banners proclaiming their affection for her, residents of Barangay Pak-naan, a secluded area here, welcomed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with open arms Friday, a gesture that so elated the Chief Executive, it was like handshake season all over again.

Here to visit the family of conjoined twins Princess Anne and Princess Mae Manzo, who recently underwent a successful operation, the President was visibly surprised to see throngs of well-wishers, adults and children alike use the occasion to express their thanks for her pro-poor program.

"Daghang Salamat Madam President nga kami makaangkon ug yuta. Mahal ka namo (Thank you Madam President for allowing us to own land. We love you)," proclaimed one poster held by a member of the barangay homeowners association.

Practically mobbed by well-wishers on her way to the Manzo residence, the President could only answer back with a "Daghang Salamat" and Maayong Hapon" as she made her first visit this year to the city that gave her a resounding victory in the last elections.

With the President during the visit were Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Mandaue City Mayor Ted Ouano, and Saudi Arabia Ambassador Mohammad Wali, among others.

During the brief visit inside the modest Manzo dwelling, Ambassador Wali presented the Manzos an undisclosed cash gift from His Royal Highness Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulazis Al Said who took care of the surgery of the twins who were only four months old at the time.

The twins' parents, Jomari and Carina, told the visitors the siblings are doing well since their surgery eight months ago.

The couple thanked the President and the Saudi government for their all-out support, particularly to poor families like them.

After the visit, the President motored to the Cebu International Port Compound where she inspected, along with Reyes, Garcia Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmena, Congressman Raul del Mar of the first district and Customs Collector Billy Bibit, 17 smuggled luxury vehicles that were seized by the Cebu customs.

She was also shown smuggled corn starch confiscated by customs authorities.

She congratulated the local authorities for their vigilance, saying the government is doing its best to stamp out smuggling in the country.