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| 15 FEBRUARY 2008 | . | |
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| 15 FEBRUARY 2008 | . | |
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Opening Remarks of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
at the Economic Briefing and FOCAP/MOPC
Meeting Rizal Ballroom, Makati Shangri-La Hotel February 15, 2008 |
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• Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming. And thank you, Bangko
Sentral ng Pilipinas, Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines,
and Manila Overseas Press Club, for organizing this briefing. • 2007 was the best year for the Philippine economy in over 30 years. Economic growth was 7.3 percent; a million new jobs were created; unemployment is down, poverty is down; the stock market is up; the peso is at its highest level in eight years. • Investment from abroad is pouring in; we have been cited by the Financial Times of London as the "Offshore Destination of the Year" and by the International Data Corporation the top global outsourcing destination after India, respectively. • Our billion-dollar investment club includes Texas Instruments with its $1.6 billion wafer fabrication facility; two new shipyards of Korea's Hanjin costing $3.7 billion, which make us the fourth biggest shipbuilder in the world. Marubeni, Tokyo Electric and America's AES have all invested billions of dollars in our power sector. And most recently, Mittal Global joined the ranks of Intel and Proctor and Gamble, to name but a few major investors. • 2008 holds real promise for a different reason: not only do we expect strong growth in the 7 percent zone, but as a result of our total economic overhaul, we are well-positioned to weather a global economic slowdown. • The real story for 2008 is that our macroeconomic fundamentals are stronger than ever due to tough choices on boosting revenues, cracking down on tax cheats, bringing reform to our revenue collection and modernizing our banking and financial sector. We have reformed our budget to be in balance ahead of the Medium Term Plan schedule. • Last year, our deficit was only P9.4 billion, the lowest in ten years and far below our ceiling of P63 billion. Revenues were up almost 16 percent from 2006. Seven years ago, no one thought we could do it, but we have. We are continuing the pace of progress that has made our economy so strong. • This new maturity in our economy has brought a new confidence that forms the foundation of sustained economic growth moving forward. We are at a tipping point. I am confident that the Philippines will tip forward in pursuit of reaching the status of First World Nation within a generation. • We should all be proud of what we have accomplished. We thank our economic managers, the leaders of industry, and most important, all the hard-working and dedicated Filipino workers leading this nation to a new beginning. • It is the people of this nation whom we serve — whom our government serves — and it is to the people that we owe my allegiance and dedication to advance this nation every single day. We have weathered a global transformation together as we fight to rise above the political noise in order to uplift the poor and dispossessed who deserve a rightful place at the table of economic opportunity and social justice. • The global economy is facing challenges. The slowing of the economy in North America and Europe is top of mind in our calculations to protect our economy. To that end, I have developed a program that includes: first, to insure continued investments in people and infrastructure; second, insure that we continue to pursue anti-corruption initiatives and to cut red tape; and third, to blunt the global rise in energy by providing targeted relief to the poorest amongst us who suffer the most from the high price of global energy. • We take the ZTE issue very seriously. I moved quickly to cancel the project as soon as I could after proper consultation with the government of China, our biggest export market. We want to fight corruption. The Ombudsman, who is constitutionally independent, has announced that she will carry out a review of this issue and the related allegations. I have given clearance to the Secretary of Justice to investigate those implicated who are not within the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. I cannot comment more on this until the reviews are complete. But I trust that the Ombudsman will investigate this issue thoroughly and that she will ensure a transparent process in doing so. I instruct the Secretary of Justice to likewise be thorough and transparent in his investigation. Let me also note that these types of charges have regularly emerged even in previous administrations as part of our less then impressive political culture. I just hope this set of charges will not be a political football. • We do not want to tolerate corruption. There is no room in the development of our country when so much remains to be done to invest in the nation. It is a sad fact that the Philippines has a legacy of political corruption. While that legacy will not be erased overnight, we have made tremendous strides. We have made anti-corruption one of the key areas of focus for reform in the remainder of our term. Last year I organized the Anti-Red Tape Task Force headed by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and a Procurement Transparency Group headed by Budget Secretary Nonoy Andaya. Last week I reminded them to link up with the business sector, academe and the Church to implement reforms in government procurement systems. In fact as early as last year, Andaya already had representatives of the Makati Business Club and the clergy in Procurement Transparency Group. • The foundation of our economic renaissance is built on a vision for our nation that includes strong global engagement, tough economic reforms, and huge investments in people and infrastructure to move our nation forward. Our day in the sun will come if we redouble our efforts to achieve a moral transformation, social justice and economic equality. • The work of governance is difficult. The ability to change the status quo is an uphill fight every day. We battle to liberate every Filipino from poverty and invest in their health, education and welfare. • We will not rest until I leave office in 2010 from keeping this nation on the path of progress. We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. Though poverty has gone down, there are still too many poor. Though hunger has gone down, there are still too many hungry. There are still too many left out of our political processes. And there are too many cloaks themselves in easy rhetoric and lazy charges who would put personal ambition ahead of national progress. • We call on our political leaders of all parties and preferences to look to our future and ensure stability for the sake of the nation. Let us put aside partisan wrangling as candidates jockey for the presidency. Let us focus on a common agenda of growth, hope and opportunity that lifts up, rather than tears down, our nation at this important time in our history. • The results of 2007 show the promise of what the Philippines can and should be. Let us work together to make sure we attain this progress, uninterrupted. • I am confident and bullish on our economy, our people and our ability to join hands to move this nation forward. • As the theme of this economic briefing succinctly puts it, the Philippines is: Defying gravity. Rising steadily. |
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| PGMA clarifies stand on Charter Change issue |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today she would
support proposals to amend the Charter but stressed she would not initiate
such moves to rewrite the 1987 Constitution. "It is not really for me anymore to initiate constitutional reform, but if there are others who will do it, I will support them," the President said during the Philippine Economic Forum held at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel this morning. "One reform we need to make is reform of our political system," she said. The President acknowledged that the country's political system was "something that needs to be reformed more than the economy." Answering one of the questions thrown to her during the open forum, the President said: “Let me refer to my earlier speech” where she said there are two Philippines---one is that has attained economic progress and the other the political system that has “degenerated so much.” “Ours is a divided country,” the President said, referring to the partisan politics in the country. Earlier this week, local government officials were reported pushing for a shift to the federal form of government -- a move seen by government critics as a ploy to keep incumbent officials, including the President, beyond the expiration of their terms in 2010. |
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| We take the NBN-ZTE issue very seriously -- PGMA |
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For the first time since the controversy on the cancelled
national broadband network (NBN-ZTE) project was revived recently, President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo broke her silence today and said she was taking the
ZTE issue "very seriously." At the same time, the President called for an end to "partisan wrangling," especially among hopefuls in the 2010 presidential elections. "We take the ZTE issue very seriously. I moved quickly to cancel the project as soon as I could, after proper consultation with the government of China, which is after all, our largest export market," the President said in her message at the Philippine Economic Forum held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati City this morning. “We call on our political leaders of all parties and preferences to look to our future and ensure stability for the sake of the nation. Let us put aside partisan wrangling as candidates jockey for the presidency,” the President said. The President also called on the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice to ensure "transparency" in their investigations on the alleged scandal involving the $329 million contract forged between the government and China’s ZTE Corp. The Chief Executive cancelled the contract last year amid allegations of overpricing. "We want to fight corruption," she said as she scored those with political ambition for putting "easy rhetoric over lazy charges" and placing personal ambition ahead of national progress. "This type of charges emerged even in previous administrations as part of our less than impressive political culture. I hope this set of charges will not be a political football," she stressed. |
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| PGMA cites great strides in fight against corruption |
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Stressing that one of the key areas of focus for reform
in her remaining years in office until 2010 is fighting corruption,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today she is determined to put a stop
to a “legacy of corruption” In her message at the Philippine Economic Briefing at the Rizal Ballroom of the Makati Shangri-La Hotel this morning, the President cited the need for moral transformation where government must redouble its efforts. “We want to fight corruption…We do not want to tolerate corruption,” the President stressed. She said it is a sad fact that the Philippines has a “legacy of political corruption” which could not be stopped overnight. However, she said the Arroyo administration has made great strides in its fight against corruption through tough reforms. She said that these reforms include the creation of the Anti-Red Tape Task Force headed by Trade Secretary Peter Favila, and the Procurement Transparency Group led by Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. She added that to put more teeth in the implementation of anti-corruption measures, she ordered last week the two Cabinet men to “link up with the business sector, academe, and the Church to implement reforms in government procurement systems.” “Our day in the sun will come if we redouble our efforts to achieve moral transformation, social justice and economic equality,” the President said. |
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| PGMA signals start of construction of RP’s 1st elevated interchange in Makati |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo supervised today the
start of the construction of an elevated u-turn slot in a bid to ease the
perennial traffic gridlock brought about by the big volume of vehicles at
Circumferential Road 5 and Kalayaan Avenue in Makati City. Immediately after her engagement at Makati Shangri-la Hotel where she addressed the Philippine Economic Briefing with the Manila Overseas Press Club-Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines this morning, she motored to the nearby C-5/Kalayaan Avenue intersection to lower the time capsule of the project and made a quick inspection in the area where the elevated u-turn interchange will be placed. Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando told the President that the elevated u-turn project would ensure unimpeded vehicular flow and fastest average travel speed of the vehicles from southern Metro Manila going north and south and to other destinations. “This traffic engineering is one of our permanent solutions to reduce the traffic conflicts along C-5 and Kalayaan Avenue especially during rush hours where vehicles can hardly move about in any direction at any given time,” Fernando said. He also told the President that the C-5/Kalayaan elevated u-turn scheme is the first in the country and is far better than the existing Balintawak-Cloverleaf interchange in Quezon City based on prior computer simulation tests conducted by the MMDA Traffic Engineering Center (TEC). Fernando said the advantage of the project is that the elevated u-turn slot is much cheaper compared to the tunnels and underpasses. The project will costs P300 million compared to the P600 million total expenses for the tunnel interchange. The project is expected to be completed by the end of July this year, Fernando said. Unlike in tunnels and underpasses, the u-turn scheme would no longer require the use of 24-hour lighting and water pumps to take care of the floods during the rainy season. Construction wise, he said, the u-turn slot will be completed within six months while the tunnel will take more than one year to finish. While the construction of the elevated u-turn project is ongoing, no lanes along C-5 and Kalayaan Avenue will be closed to traffic, he further said. Also, the intersection requires no traffic enforcers to man the area and traffic signals facilities will no longer be necessary. “Makakatulong rin, Ma’am, and elevated u-turn slot sa kampanya natin laban sa kotong cops kasi walang dahilan ang traffic enforcers na manghuli dito,” Fernando added. |
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| Differing interpretations of ‘communal action’ worry Cardinal Rosales |
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Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales is worried
over the differing interpretations that have been spawned by an earlier
statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that
was actually entitled “Reform Yourselves and Believe in the Gospel!” The CBCP statement – which has come to be dubbed in media as a call to “communal action” – had actually called for “personal and communal conversion… by beginning with ourselves.” Interviewed over the Catholic Church’s Radio Veritas two days ago (Wednesday, Feb. 13), Cardinal Rosales was asked about the exact meaning of “communal action,” with the interviewer noting that the said phrase has taken on various differing versions (“nagkakaroon ng iba’t-ibang version)”; and that the said call is being used by the opposition to call for mass action, specifically the latter’s call to mass action in Makati today (Friday, Feb. 15). “Iyon nga po ang nakakabahala diyan. Ano nga ba ang communal action? Maliwanag naman iyong sinasabi ng CBCP na, iyon nga, hindi pag-aaklas talaga ang tina-target ng CBCP. “Hindi naman iyon ang bagay na inaasam – lalo na ngayon na panahon ng Cuaresma (Lent),” stressed Cardinal Rosales. On the same day (Feb. 13), the Archbishop of Tuguegarao -- together with two other top Catholic prelates based in Northern Luzon -- called for “communal action” from the Catholic faithful but stressed that any communal action must be “for deep reflection, discernment, sobriety, and for the way of peace.” This call by Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan of Tuguegarao, Bishop Ramon Villena of the Diocese of Bayombong (Nueva Vizcaya), and Fr. Rodolfo Beltran, Apostolic Vicar of Bontoc-Lagawe (Mountain Province) was practically echoed by the Manila Archbishop, thus: “Maliwanag iyon, kung ano ang lalamanin ng ating communal action – reflection, discernment as an individual, as family… iyon po ang nakalagay doon…” Cardinal Rosales said. In their own call to communal action, Archbishop Talamayan’s group stated, thus: “In solidarity with the CBCP, we raise our voices in a call to communal action (but) above all, the action to which we invite all our people must be on the way of peace!” (Italics care of the bishops’ statement.) Back to the CBCP statement, in the section entitled “Personal and Communal Conversion Towards a Social Conscience,” the CBCP said: “We are asking you, our beloved people, to be with us in the moral-spiritual reform of our nation by beginning with ourselves. That is what we need – conversion, real conversion, to put it in terms of our faith, for all of us to deliberately, consciously develop that social conscience that we say we sorely lack and to begin subordinating our private interests to the common good…” |
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| PGMA bullish on economy despite fallout of U.S. recession |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rules out complacency
when it comes to the country’s economy in spite of her administration’s
achievement in turning the economy around last year. In her message at the Philippine Economic Briefing at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel this morning, the President stressed that in spite of successfully keeping the nation on the path of progress, she recognized that there is much more that needs to be accomplished to finally uplift the lives of the poor. “2007 was the best year for the Philippine economy in over 30 years. Economic growth was 7.3 percent; a million new jobs were created; unemployment is down, poverty is down, the stock market is up; the peso is at its highest level in eight years,” the President said. She added that investments come pouring in and as a result of renewed confidence of the international business community, the country’s deficit in 2007 was only P9.4 billion, the lowest in 10 years, as against the target of P63 billion and revenues are up. “This new maturity in our economy has brought new confidence that forms the foundation of sustained economic growth moving forward. We are at a tipping point. I am confident the Philippines will tip forward in pursuit of reaching the status of a First World nation within a generation,” the President said. But despite the strong economic and fiscal fundamentals, the President, aware of the adverse effects the slowdown of the US economy would have on developing nations like the Philippines, said is “top of mind in our calculations to protect our economy.” Stressing that 2008 “holds real promise for a different reason, not only do we expect strong growth in the seven percent zone,” the President said a program has been developed to shield the economy from external threats. These measures include continued investments in physical and human infrastructure, stamping out corruption and cutting red tape, and providing “targeted relief” to cushion the effects of oil price spikes in the world market, especially among the poor. The President said she has ordered a surge in infrastructure projects through the frontloading of some P200 billion to provide the stimulus to the economy and overcome the fallout of the US recession. She also said that there is a need to bring long-lasting peace in Mindanao for the island to finally achieve economic progress. “The work of governance is difficult. We battle to liberate every Filipino from poverty and invest in their health, education and welfare,” the President said even as she vowed “we will not rest until I leave office in 2010 from keeping this nation on the path of progress.” “I am confident and bullish on our economy, our people and our ability to join hands to move this nation forward,” the President added. |
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| PGMA leads groundbreaking rites for P41-M 4-storey school bldg. in Marikina |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led today the
groundbreaking for the construction of the P41-million school building of
the Nangka Elementary School, the center of learning in the boundary of
Marikina City and San Mateo, Rizal. The President arrived at the school compound two hours ahead of the 2 p.m. schedule amid tight security of the Presidential Security Group which is not taking for granted the intelligence report on death threats against the Chief Executive. Welcoming the President were Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Jesli Lapus, Marikina City 2nd District Rep. Del de Guzman, Marikina Vice Mayor Marion Andres, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando, DepEd-National Capital Region Director Teresita Domalanta, and School Principal Regino Paytama. The President led the capsule-laying rites for the four-storey, 27-classroom building that would be constructed starting next week. The new building is expected to enhance the educational opportunities for 3,500 students of the school, which has been named as a “Most Improved School” in 2004. |
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