March 05 2008

Top exec of Citicorp Advisory Board cites impressive gains of RP economy

The chairman of the US-based Citigroup International Advisory Board (CIAB) said today he was deeply impressed by the phenomenal achievements of the Philippine economy.

James Wolfensohn, who paid a courtesy call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang this morning to “renew friendship,” said the economic strides made by the Philippines under the Arroyo leadership have been amazing.

He thanked the President for the “opportunity to talk to you.”

From a precarious meltdown mode in 2001, the Philippines vaulted into No. 25 position among the largest newly industrialized emerging markets in the world in 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia, the Philippines posted a real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 7.3 percent last year, its fastest pace in 30 years.

Wolfensohn told the President he was amazed that the country’s economy managed to reach its present position in less than six years since the President took the reins of government in 2002.

The President said that this was possible because of the brave men and women who make up the overseas Filipino work (OFW) force.

She said OFW remittances, which constitute 11 percent of the country’s GDP, have been instrumental in the breakthrough in the economy as well as the reduction of the budget deficit in 2007.

She also explained that more and more Filipino professionals, including nurses, engineers and doctors were getting jobs abroad, particularly in Saudi Arabia.

The President explained that there has been a sharp shift in the OFW mix from what used to be predominantly domestic workers decades ago to today’s highly-skilled professionals.

“Now, of the two million OFWs currently working in Saudi Arabia, only 100,000 are domestic helpers, the rest are professionals,” the President told Wolfensohn.

She added that a large portion of the OFWs going abroad is composed of nurses “who undergo rigid training” in Philippine nursing schools and hospitals.

To meet the increasing demand for Filipino nurses abroad, she has instructed the upgrading of primary hospitals to secondary hospitals “so that more nurses can train” in them, the President said.

Primary hospitals, she pointed out, have not yet been properly equipped to produce qualified nurses, unlike secondary hospitals which have adequate facilities and personnel to train nurses.

Wolfensohn was accompanied by his wife, Elaine and CIAB members Uwe Morawetz, Sugaporn Bertrand and Helen Pan.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves was also present during the courtesy call.

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PGMA vows to redouble gov’t efforts to reduce maternal mortality rate

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed to redouble government efforts to further reduce maternal mortality rate (MMR) nationwide, and put the Philippines “on schedule” in all eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under the United Nations global agenda for development.

Kicking off the country’s Women’s Month celebration in Calamba City, Laguna last Monday, the President said her administration has launched a two-pronged strategy to address the MRR that involves the stepping up of health services for pregnant women, and natural family planning.

The Philippines is a signatory to the 2000 Millennium Declaration on the global agenda for development by 2015. The eight MDGs seek to reduce by half extreme poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality; reduce child mortality; improve women’s health; stop and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases; and develop environmental sustainability and global partnership for aid, trade and debt relief.

From 209 mothers who died at childbirth per 100,000 live births in 1993, the MMR has gone down to 162 by 2006, according to the 2007 Philippines Midterm Progress Report (PMPR) on the MDGs.

In calling for further reduction of the MMR, the President explained that while the Philippines is “on schedule” in seven out of the eight MDGs, it is imperative that the country exerts more effort to lower maternal mortality rate further.

“Most surveys indicate a decline in the mortality ratio in the Philippines. Ngunit doon sa walong Millennium Development Goals, nasa pito ay on schedule tayo. Ang talagang pinakadapat i-trabaho natin ay yung pangwalo. Kailangan tayong magtrabaho para bumaba pa ang mortality rate o maternal mortality rate,” the President said.

“Kaya ito ang ginagawa natin. The government addresses maternal health through a two-pronged strategy: yung isa, health services to pregnant women for safe motherhood; at yung pangalawa, natural family planning,” she said.

In her message in the country’s midterm report, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Nileema K. Noble said that “the Philippines is now on track on meeting the MDG targets on poverty reduction, nutrition, gender equality, reducing child mortality, combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and access to safe drinking water.”

To improve maternal health, the President has ordered Health Secretary Francisco Duque to help local government units (LGUs) upgrade their primary hospitals to secondary hospitals.

She said that through this program, secondary hospitals would extend obstetric and gynecological and surgical services, adding that pregnant women have to be weaned away from home-based delivery where most maternal deaths occur.

“For safe motherhood naman, we are shifting to facility-based delivery instead of home-based delivery, kasi yung mga nanganganak sa bahay, yun ang maraming pinanggagalingan ng maternal death,” she said.

The President said that “para mas maraming pumasok sa ospital para manganak ay… yung pregnancy, puwede ng magamit ang PhilHealth ngayon.”

The President also cited a 2006 survey which found that half or 50.6 percent of married women within the reproductive ages of 15-49 years practice family planning, with most of them using contraceptives.

“May konti (gumagamit ng) natural family planning. Pero gusto natin -- dahil ang ating bansa ay bansang Katoliko, at ayon sa pag-aaral, isang malaking nag-i-impluwensiya ng desisyon natin tungkol sa family planning ay ang ating relihiyon at ang ating mga kultura -- pinapairal natin ang natural family planning…” the President said.

The government is pushing natural family planning “para itong 50.6 percent na gumagawa ng tinatawag na responsible parenthood ay maitaas natin at gawing 60 percent by 2010 sa pamamagitan ng dagdag na pag-ensayo sa natural family planning,” she added.

The President pointed out that the Philippines was the first country to fund programs for women, and fund hospitals to help women needing medical attention.

“Tayo ang unang bansang nagtakda ng pondo para sa mga programang pangkababaihan, at yung maglalagay tayo ng pondo sa ospital, pero nakatukoy doon sa tutulong sa kababaihan, kasama doon sa ating ginagawang (United Nations) CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women),” she said.

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Statement of the President: On E.O. 464

Effective immediately, I am revoking E.O. 464. Executive officials may no longer invoke E.O. 464 to excuse non-attendance from legislative inquiries. Executive officials are instructed to abide by the Constitution, existing laws and jurisprudence when invited to legislative inquiries.

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PGMA kicks off construction of mass housing for 8,673 homeless Cavite families

GENERAL TRIAS, Cavite--President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo broke the ground today for the construction in Barangay Pasong Kawayan in General Trias of the 53-hectare row-type housing project dubbed as “Pamayanang Maliksi Cavite Mass Housing Project.”

The President, during the rites, laid the time capsule containing the blueprint of the project and some coins for luck with the assistance of Vice President Noli de Castro, Cavite Gov. Ireneo “Ayong” Maliksi, Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr., Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, Carmona Mayor Roy Loyola, General Trias Mayor Luis Alanday Ferrer and Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Ramon Aquino.

After, the ceremony, the President distributed 15 certificates of lot allocation of Pamayanang Maliksi.

At least 8,673 Cavite families stand to benefit from this row/duplex-type of houses that will be built on 32 or 48-square meter lots. It is the country’s first provincial mass housing to be built by the province of Cavite in partnership with the R-11 Builders.

The President also handed over to General Trias Mayor Ferrer for distribution to his constituents 125 scholarship vouchers worth P1,175,000 under PGMA Training for Work Scholarship Program for welding and finishing course for call center agent and slaughtering.

Tanza Mayor Marcus Arayata, Trece Martires City Mayor Melencio Desagun, Jr and Mayors League President Mayor Roy Loyola also received their respective share of scholarship vouchers with the same amount intended for their constituents.

She also gave away 25 “Galing Mekaniko” kits and 25 “Galing Masahista” kits to the Cavitenos.

In celebration of the 2008 Women’s Month, the President released 23 white doves to signal the month-long observance of the said women’s month in this province.

The 2008 Women’s Month celebration will revolve around the theme of the 52nd Sessions of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, “Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.”

This year’s international theme shall focus on the need to generate resources to finance initiatives on gender equality and empowerment of women, while the local theme is “CEDAW ng Bayan: Yaman ng Kababaihan.”

The President noted that CEDAW is a UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

She said that CEDAW fights for the rights of women worldwide.

“Ipinagbubunyi natin ang tema ng Buwan ng Kababaihan, CEDAW ng Bayan : Yaman ng Kababaihan. Ipinagmamalaki natin ang ating bansa gawa ng kinikilala tayo na mahusay sa pagtupad ng CEDAW na pinagmumulan ng kabuhayan at pagtatanggol ng karapatan ng kababaihan kaya’t tayo sa buong mundo ay pang-anim na bansa sa husay ng pagsunod sa mga panukala ng CEDAW,” she said.

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PGMA revokes E.O. 464, instructs her men to attend legislative inquiries

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo revoked today Executive Order No. 464 and instructed executive officials to abide by the Constitution and existing laws and jurisprudence when invited to attend congressional inquiries.

“Effective immediately, I am revoking Executive Order 464. Executive officials may no longer invoke E.O. 464 to excuse non-attendance from legislative inquiries,” the President said.

“Executive officials are instructed to abide by the Constitution, existing laws and jurisprudence when invited to legislative inquiries,” she added.

Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio R. Bunye said the President made the announcement during the special meeting this afternoon with the Malacanang legal team and members of influential religious groups, majority of them coming from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Last week, the President instructed Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to create the legal team to study the recommendation of the CBCP to abolish E.O. 464.

In a teleconference with the media in Malacanang, Bunye said the President joined them in the middle of the special meeting and made the announcement that was “welcomed very warmly by those who attended the meeting.”

“No Cabinet members from hereon can invoke EO 464,” Bunye said.

He added that Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Romulo Neri who invoked EO 464 should also abide by the ruling once the Supreme Court decides on his pending case on the issue.

“All other members of the Cabinet are supposed, even if they are not direct party with the case filed, to abide by that ruling,” Bunye said.

He said the President decided to revoke E.O. 464 to end all speculations and disparity created by the Senate probe on the cancelled national broadband network (NBN) deal.

E.O. 464 was issued to safeguard the rights and dignity of executive officials from abusive language when they attend as resource persons in congressional inquiries.

Bunye said the President wants stability, peace and harmony with other branches of government, to heal the nation, address poverty, the growing economy, create more employment and lift the people out of poverty.

“The President, like anybody else, is after truth. The President is after justice, the President’s mission is for the people. And she believes that it is in the best interest of everybody to heal our present conflict with regards to the legislature so she issued the (revocation) Order effective immediately,” Bunye said.

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05 MARCH 2008		.