DAVAO CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo formally inaugurated yesterday afternoon the P500-million Philippines-Korea Vocational Training Center (PKVTC) in Tibungco district here.

Accompanied by Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Yu Myung Hwan and Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) Executive Director Sungho Choi, the Chief Executive inspected the modern complex which stands on a 6.5-hectare compound.

Armando Aquino, PKVTC administrator, said the center aims to establish a quality technical-vocational training system for Mindanaoans to help uplift their technical skills and accelerate agro-industrial development in southern Philippines.

Aquino said the PKVTC offers state-of-the-art facilities and equipment and Korea-trained instructors.

The center, he said, has seven training workshops, a 200-seater auditorium, and a 200-bed dormitory.

Roberto Barajan, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) 11 regional director, said the center is a big boost to the government's poverty alleviation efforts.

"In PKVTC, we don't only offer trainings but generate jobs as well," he pointed out.

With new productive skill, he said, poor folk will be encouraged to engage in micro-finance enterprise.

He said the center will also provide opportunities for indigenous folk to improve their lives through training scholarships pledged by their local government units.

We can push forward with our fiscal reforms with renewed vigor now that the so-called word war over the budget is over.

We are not after pleasing our foreign benefactors with these reforms, rather, we are doing this because it is in the paramount interest of our people.

Our goal is to reduce dependency on foreign loans in financing our development projects.

The anti-terrorism law will be a good weapon for our national security.

This is an endemic problem that has been with us for a long time, but we are well on our way to making a huge dent against corruption.

We can expect perceptions to fester but this will abate over time as the President’s war against corruption begins to show results in the prosecution and conviction of the big fish and in administrative reforms to cut opportunities for graft.

CEBU CITY--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today told foreign and local investors that the national government is sure to overcome its fiscal problems, as she informed them of more investment opportunities in various parts of the country.

In her keynote address at the Philippine Investment Conference at the Shangri-la Mactan Island Resort in Lapu-Lapu City, the President said she sees the light at the end of the tunnel and is confident that Congress would pass the economic bills that would allow the national government to raise revenues and fulfill the goals of her fiscal consolidation program.

"My job is to meet these rigid tests in order to create jobs, grow the economy and end poverty as we know it in the Philippines. It is not an easy job, but I believe we are surely turning the economy of the nation around and are on a new round of reform and recovery," she said.

"I know fully well that it’s also possible that the light at the end of the tunnel is an ongoing train if Congress doesn’t pass the value-added tax (VAT) bill. But I generally believe that we’re poised for success and that Congress will deliver," she added.

The President explained the reasons behind her optimism, as she outlined the significant milestones achieved recently.

"Congress has passed the first revenue bills, and the first national budget in two years. The mining sector is now open for business. The new airport terminal in Metro Manila will be opened and the surge of jobs through call centers and IT investments continues unabated, a lot of them here in Cebu. New trade agreements with Japan and China offer tremendous opportunities," she told her audience.

"The light at the end of the tunnel is hope and opportunity borne of strong macroeconomic fundamentals, including fiscal responsibility, aggressive market initiatives, a positive climate for investment and major drives against corruption," the Chief Executive said.

President Arroyo cited economic indicators to prove that there is a valid reason for her optimism. "We’ve already heard about the 6.1 - 6.2 percent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004, the highest in 15 - 16 years. Exports last year grew 9.3 percent, the stock market is up 39 percent from its level a year-and-a-half ago. Our fiscal deficit is a year ahead of plan." 

The President also took pride of the country’s 75,000 call center and BPO agents who all speak English, noting that many of them also speak Spanish, Chinese, Japanese or Arabic, and all provide cyber services at par with global standards.

CEBU CITY--- The Malacañang sa Sugbo, President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo's official residence in this city, is a showcase of Cebu's thriving furniture industry not only because it was furnished by the industry but because "Cebu has made its industry environment-friendly."

The Chief Executive recalled that in 1992, when she was still a senator, she spoke before the (furniture) industry players who were then very much depressed because Europe had made a decision not to import wooden furniture.

Thirteen years later, the President noted, Cebu's furniture industry is thriving and using other materials other than wood.

"So we can develop and make an industry thrive and still be friendly to the environment," the President stressed.

And, the furniture makers here got the needed support from the President today when she announced that the P20- million worth of seized hot logs she inspected here earlier "will be able to feed the very lucrative furniture market of Cebu."

She also said that the reason she ordered the selective lifting of the log ban this week in some areas, "where we feel legal logging can be controlled and therefore illegal logging minimized, is also because we want the furniture industry of Cebu to continue to thrive."

On Tuesday, in her Mindanao sortie, the President said "legal logging brings good jobs and illegal logging brings corruption."

Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Mike Defensor, who was with the President when she inspected the seized hot logs from Davao Oriental and Maguindanao, said that it was a "selective lifting " of the total log ban as only 10 out of 80 areas were covered by the order.

CEBU CITY--- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today assured the "world and the people of the Philippines" of her determination to fight corruption and win the battle against a scourge that has beset the bureaucracy over the last 30 years.

While corruption cannot be eradicated overnight, "we are making decisive moves to address the problem," she said during an interaction with mediamen.

The President met with members of the media after she addressed the Philippine Investment Congress (Euromoney) at the Shangrila Mactan Island resort in Lapu-lapu City this morning.

"I want to assure the world and our people that we are determined to address this endemic problem which has been existing in the country for the last 30 years or so," the President said.

The Chief Executive said it takes political will to fight corruption, and that she is providing the leadership needed to win the battle against the malady.

She said one of the factors that contributed to today’s culture of corruption was the removal from the school curriculum of values education during martial law. Thus, "we have a whole generation of children who are now adults, who grew up without institutionalized values education on a daily basis," she pointed out.

She said the campaign against illegal logging is related to the fight against corruption since illegal logging thrives on corruption.

The President inspected this morning an estimated P20 million worth of confiscated hot logs at the North Reclamation Area and at the bodega of the Provincial Environment Office here. The seized logs came from Pollok, Maguindanao, and Bangangga , Davao Oriental.

The President said her administration was making gains in its medium term solutions to the problem of corruption through the strengthening of the government’s investigative capacity.

This has resulted, she said, in the filing of charges against crooked government officials. The government is also readying forfeiture cases against individuals suspected of having illegally acquired wealth.

She also cited the introduction of the electronic procurement system in the bidding of government projects to ensure transparency, the reduction of red tape and the restoration of values education in the school system as initial moves to eradicate corruption in government.

The government is also working with church leaders on values education, and with the business sector on measures to reduce corruption in the corporate world, she said.

DUMAGUETE CITY - President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will fly here tomorrow to inspect and inaugurate the digital and transportation infrastructure of Negros Oriental that would help boost the road network of eco-tourism and create employment opportunities for the residents of Region 7 or Central Visayas.

The President, who will be coming from Cebu, is scheduled to inspect the SPI Technologies, Inc., the first business outsourcing facility in Negros Oriental and one of the leading content outsourcing service providers in the region. The project is located in Barangay Sacsac, Bacong, Negros Oriental.

She is also expected to visit the 60-seater medical transcription facility of Entheos IT, Inc., housed on the 3rd Floor of the L.G. Sinco IT building inside the main campus of the Foundation University in Dumaguete City.

The Entheos IT, which is owned by the Sinco family, is the first medical transcription facility in Central Visayas which offers international standard transcription services to healthcare professionals around the world. The Sinco family also owns the Foundation University.

The President is also scheduled to lead the groundbreaking rites for the P7-million Tinago bridge in Barangay Tinago here. The project is part of the President’s Bridge program.

The Chief Executive will also inaugurate the P9-million Sibulan RC Pier with covered walk project in Sibulan town.

The pier is expected to boost the trade and commerce between Negros and Cebu through its regular hourly trip by large pump boats going in and out of Cebu's southern backdoor.

On Friday, the President will fly to Siquijor povince to inaugurate the Larena Port, distribute free patents (land titles) to agrarian reform beneficiaries and administer the mass oathtaking of the barangay agrarian reform communities committee (BARC) chairmen in Larena town.

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez said today the corruption incidence rate in the Philippines is going down as the government’s campaign against corrupt practices in the bureaucracy starts to take roots.

"There were other (corruption) ratings before that would show that our rating is going down because of the initiatives that the government has taken, like the lifestyle checks and changes in the procurement system," Gutierrez said during a press briefing In Malacañang this afternoon.

Gutierrez said the anti-corruption reforms instituted by Malacañang include the setting up of a procurement watch at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the assignment of a procurement watchdog to the Department of Education (DepEd) to oversee the acquisition of books.

Gutierrez, the government’s anti-corruption czar, was commenting on a survey conducted by Hong Kong-based consultancy group, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (PERC).

She said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has adopted various measures to make sure that the government’s campaign against corruption would bear fruit in six to seven years.

The all-out war against corruption that the President announced during the celebration of the 19^th anniversary of the EDSA I People Power revolt, and the signing by the government of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption underscore the determination of the Arroyo administration to eradicate corruption, Gutierrez said.

She pointed out that the government has also tapped the expertise of Tony Kwok, the former chief of Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the agency that spearheaded the former Crown Colony’s triumphant battle against corruption.

"These are proofs that the Arroyo administration is really sincere and serious in fighting corruption. President Arroyo had been wanting to curb corruption under her administration," Gutierrez said.

The anti-corruption czar said Kwok predicted the Philippine government would be free of corruption in six to seven years.

The Arroyo administration also initiated the formation of the Coalition Against Corruption. The Coalition has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with seven government agencies on a common fight against corruption.

Among the non-government groups actively involved in the campaign against corruption is the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Gutierrez said forfeiture proceedings have been filed at the Sandiganbayan against erring officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) as well as three other ranking officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

"There are also pending graft, criminal and administrative cases filed against them. Forfeiture proceedings were filed to get back properties alleged to have been unlawfully acquired by them," she added.