March 08 2008

PGMA: “Green Philippines Plan” now being implemented

The Arroyo administration has started implementing the “Green Philippines Plan” – the macro blueprint for mapping the country’s environment and economic policies.

This was announced by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she sent off last Thursday (March 6th) at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City the “Sagip-Tulong ni PGMA Caravan” that brought emergency relief to the residents of flood-devastated Eastern Samar in Region 8 or Eastern Visayas.

In her speech at the relief goods send-off at the fixed-wing hangar of the Presidential Airlift Wing (PAW), President Arroyo enumerated her administration’s “initiatives that seek to protect the fragile ecosystems in Central Philippines, as part of the responsibility of the Philippines to future generations.”

“Protecting the environment is one of our top priorities. An example of our efforts to preserve the ‘Green Philippines’ is our support for the Samar Island protected area, the Southern Leyte ecosystem, and the Bicol River Basin…”

The President then revealed that the bigger environmental sustainability plan for the entire country is now in the works:

“On a broader scale, we have also begun the Green Philippines Plan, a blueprint for mapping our environment and economic policies that will allow for sustainable development that does not fall on the backs of the poor or erode our environment.”

The President, however, stressed that “there is a cost to make the Green Philippines come to life.”

“For instance, the enforcement against logging in the Samar Island protected area, the relocation of the Ginsaungon, Southern Leyte families to a new community, and the P250-million budget this year for the Bicol River Basin.”

But, President Arroyo pointed out, “the cost is greater without the plan and the investment in our people and our environment.”

Braving incessant rains that inundated the eastern seaboard of Region 8, President Arroyo visited Eastern Samar in mid-February, bringing goods for almost 35,000 people.

Each victim municipality also received from the President “a share of the 500 kilos of seaweed seed stock worth P75 million to help the victims back on their feet.”

The President has also “ordered the line agencies to effect as soon as possible the rehabilitation of all the provinces on the eastern seaboard hit by the heavy rains, especially the repair of roads and other infrastructure needed to return normalcy.”

Noting that the Philippines is prone to natural calamities such as flooding, landslides and earthquakes, and that these are caused in large part by climate change and global warming, the President assured that her administration has “taken and will continue to take actions to mitigate the pain on our people.”

“Malakas at lumalagong ekonomiya ang sinisikap nating ilikha upang makatulong na tiyakin ang kapayapaan, katiwasayan at katatagan sa ating bansa (We are working hard towards attaining a strong and growing economy to ensure peace and security).

“Ito ang dahilan kung bakit bumabangon tayo araw-araw para kumayod at mag-focus parang laser beam para ayusin ang ating ekonomiya. Gumawa tayo ng mahihirap at di popular na mga desisyong itaas ang buwis, at hulihin ang mga nandadaya sa buwis, para tayo ay makapuhunan sa ating imprastraktura at sa ating taong bayan.”

As for projects whose gains would surely trickle down to local populations, the President pointed to the surfing tourism business in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, where the administration has brought in investors for the purpose of creating jobs and ensuring a more predictable life for countryside folk.

“Kapag nagdadala tayo ng mga pamumuhunan gaya ng surfing tourism sa Guiuan, Eastern Samar, at lumilikha ng trabaho, may higit na matatag at predicable na buhay ang ating taong bayan,” she said.

“Sa higit ng mga pamumuhunan, kasama ang higit na buwis na maaaring ipuhunan sa mga paaralan, kalsada at tulay, gaya ng mga itinatayo natin muli sa Eastern Samar at Bicol, pati na rin para sa kalinga sa kalusugan, edukasyon at ang kapaligiran,” the President added, enthusing that “darating ang panahon na lahat ay makikinabang.”

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Gonzalez raps Drilon over insinuations against PGMA on Spratlys seismic project

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez today lambasted Aquino-time Justice Secretary Franklin Drilon for the latter’s seeming double standard in judging inter-country seismic projects, pointing out that Drilon had supported such a project between the Philippines and Australia in 1990.

Gonzalez also scored Drilon for the latter’s insinuations against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) that the country had earlier signed with China and Vietnam.

In a press release entitled “The Spratly (Islands) and Mr. Drilon,” Secretary Gonzalez cited the “wide gap” between Drilon’s opinion as then justice secretary some two decades ago and the latter’s opinion now as private citizen, pointing to Drilon’s then 1990 DOJ opinion about a similar seismic project with Australia over which Drilon had interposed no objection.

“… What is most surprising is why my good friend, former Senate President Franklin Drilon, seems to have insinuated in the newspapers that the President may be impeached on the issue although he (Drilon) said that there is no treason involved,” stressed Secretary Gonzalez.

Gonzalez added, thus: “Maybe Mr. Drilon forgot that on August 27, 1990, in DOJ Opinion No. 157, Series of 1990, the same Drilon -- who was then Secretary of Justice who is now criticizing the President (Arroyo) -- wrote this very Opinion in connection with the proposed seismic project to be undertaken by the Government of the Philippines and the Government of Australia:

“The proposed offshore seismic project aims to provide data and expertise to the Philippine government in the determination and development of significant domestic energy resources and to provide training and data gathering, processing and interpretation techniques which would be useful in the future especially to administer petroleum exploration and development activities effectively,” the Drilon DOJ Opinion stated.

In the same DOJ Opinion, Drilon had further written: “We find no legal objection to the project proposal and to the execution of the MOA covering it.”

Drilon then positively concluded, thus: “As we see it, the project proposal which involves data gathering, processing and interpretation techniques are only pre-exploration activities which are not covered by Constitutional limitations.”

Drilon’s seeming double standard in judging two similar seismic agreements made Secretary Gonzalez question, thus: “Is there a wide gap from this opinion of Mr. Drilon as Secretary of Justice and Mr. Drilon as a private citizen who is identified with the opposition?”

In the same statement, Gonzalez lamented that “newspaper headlines have once more appeared to have already convicted President Arroyo in connection with the supposed agreement on what media claimed to be ‘exploration’ of the Spratlys by China, Vietnam and the Philippines.”

“Critics claim that this maybe an impeachable offense committed by the President for violating the Constitution because of Section 2, Article 12 which provides that ‘The exploration, development and utilization of our natural resources shall be under the full control and supervision of the State.’”

Gonzalez added that “once more, some members of the Senate and the House, who are obviously misinformed, appear to be elbowing each other as to who will be the first to conduct an inquiry into the supposed agreement.”

The DOJ Secretary – who pointed out that the undertaking will be conducted by private oil companies and not by the governments themselves -- surmised that “it is possible… that the critics don’t even know that the agreement refers not to ‘government-to-government’ basis but to private entities like the Philippine National Oil Company, the China Offshore Oil Corp., and Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation, all being chartered and governed by commercial laws by their respective countries.”

“They also don’t know that no government expenses can be charged against the Philippine government because in the tripartite agreement between the three private entities, it is provided that each party shall be responsible for the cost of his own personnel as well as the cost of the operations,” pointed out Gonzales.

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Malacanang offers two masses for the relics of St. Therese

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led welcome and farewell Masses last night (Friday, March 7) and this morning (Saturday, March 8), respectively, for the visiting relics of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.

The relics – which arrived at 7:50 p.m. – was housed for the night at the Kalayaan Hall of Malacanang where the welcome Mass was held at 9 p.m.

Following the Mass celebrated by Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak, the President proceeded to the relics, and kissed the cold glass casing of the church-shaped relics box containing the remains of St. Therese of Lisieux who was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925, only 26 years after her death at 24 from tuberculosis.

St. Therese – whose deepest wish was to help save souls in her own little way -- was declared as one of the three “Doctors of the Catholic Church” in 1977.

With roses surrounding her relics at the Kalayaan Hall of the Palace, the Catholic faithful picked roses and gathered fallen petals for keepsakes, as St. Therese is known to have made roses materialize for believers who had asked her for signs that she did hear their prayers.

Following the farewell Mass this morning, the relics of the young Catholic Saint – for whose heavenly intercession (nine-day) novenas of 24 “Gloria” or “Glory Be’s” are prayed everyday – was brought to the Manila Cathedral where it will stay for public veneration until 6 a.m. on Monday (March 10).

The young Therese, whose mother died of breast cancer when she was just four years old, had entered the convent at the young age of 15, personally entreating the Pope for permission as only 21-year-old and older girls were then allowed to enter the nunneries.

St. Therese’s “Little Way” is summarized in this quotation found among the three books that she had written in her short lifetime about her “little ways” of adoring God:

"The good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom for eternity..."

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08 MARCH 2008		.