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| 17 MARCH 2008 | . | |
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| 17 MARCH 2008 | . | |
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| Statement of Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye |
| President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the announcement of the appointment of Marianito Roque as Acting Secretary of Labor. |
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| It's a working Holy Week for PGMA |
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BAGUIO CITY -- It is going to be a working Holy Week for President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo as she visits five Northern Luzon provinces to personally
bring to the grassroots the benefits of the country’s growing economy. Leading her Serbisyo Caravan, the President is scheduled to visit the poorest areas of Pangasinan, La Union, Abra, Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya starting tomorrow (Holy Tuesday) until Monday next week to deliver enhanced government social services such as dental and medical care. She will also inspect or launch projects designed to soften the impact of the slowdown of the global economy, the steep prices of oil in the world market and rice on the poor. The soaring prices of oil in the global markets have impacted heavily on food prices and transport costs. Tomorrow, the first stop of the President’s province-hopping itinerary is the depressed areas of Malasique town in Pangasinan. From there, she will motor here to attend the Philippine Military Academy's (PMA) graduation exercises as the guest of honor of the occasion. On Holy Wednesday, she will visit Pilar, Abra; San Fernando, La Union on Holy Thursday; Benguet on Black Saturday and Nueva Vizcaya, next Monday. During her Lenten Week provincial sorties, the President will also hand out rice, conditional cash transfers and other commodity giveaways to the poor areas she will visit. On her way to Pangasinan tomorrow, the President will inaugurate the 93.77-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. In her message during the signing of the P1.227 trillion national appropriations of 2008, the President pointed out that ''the budget reflects our values and policy priorities for investing in our people.'' She said that she is determined to make the poor enjoy the beneficial effects of the various government programs and projects intended to uplift the lives of the poor. The Serbisyo Caravan is a multi-agency program to bring much-needed government services to the people. The overall coordinator of the project is the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor). As in previous years, the First Family is spending the Holy Week in Baguio City. |
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| PGMA to lead 103rd PMA graduation rites tomorrow |
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FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will lead
tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday, March 18) the 103rd commencement exercises of
the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). A total of 220 cadets, all members of the PMA “Baghawi” Class of 2008, will be graduating and subsequently joining their respective branches of service in the Armed Force of the Philippines (AFP). “Baghawi” was coined from the phrase “Bagong Halaw ng Lahi.” President Arroyo shall award the Presidential Saber and the “PGMA Achievement Award for Excellence” to class valedictorian Cadet Ariel Rallos of Zamboanga City; and the “President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Award for Leadership” to Cadet Malcolm Domingo of San Fernando, Pampanga, the class “baron” or the Brigade Commander of the Cadet Corps Armed Forces of the Philippines (CCAFP). Of the 220 graduating cadets, 119 will be joining the Philippine Army (PA), 12 of them female; 57 will join the Philippine Navy (PN), six of them female; and 44 will join the Philippine Air Force (PAF), five of them female. Six of the members of Baghawi Class 2008 are graduating magna cum laude, including topnotcher Cadet Ariel Rallos; while 23 are graduating cum laude. The 23 graduating female cadets compose more than 10 percent of the 220 graduating cadets, enthused Maj. Gen. Leopoldo Maligalig, PMA superintendent, who will declare the members of Baghawi Class of 2008 members as graduates and confer on them the degree of Bachelor of Science. Also in the PMA graduation ceremonies will be Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who will commission the cadets into the military service by virtue of the National Defense Act as amended, instantly promoting them to second lieutenants for those joining the Army and the Air Force, and to ensigns for those joining the Navy. AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon will administer the oath to the 220 newly commissioned AFP officers; while Cavalier Bonifacio Lomotan Jr., chairman of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAAI), will administer the oath of PMAAA membership to the organization’s latest batch of members. For the remaining members of the Cadet Corps, the most awaited part of the graduation ceremony will be the President’s Grant of Pardon for all outstanding demerits so that those with offenses could go home for summer break. By evening, the new officers shall be bussed to The Mansion – the official summer residence of Philippine presidents – where President Arroyo shall treat the group and their parents to dinner at The Mansion’s backyard lawn. Here, the President shall pin the chevrons on the shoulder loop of the “marchers” or the top graduates joining the three AFP major services – PA, PAF and the PN; while the parents of other graduates shall pin the chevrons on their children’s uniforms. |
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| President makes surprise market tour to monitor NFA rice prices |
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The government’s crackdown on profiteers preying on unsuspecting consumers
went into high gear this afternoon with no less than President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo making a surprise trip to the Dagonoy Public Market in San
Andres Bukid, Manila to see for herself if vendors comply strictly with the
government-regulated price of National Food Authority (NFA) rice. NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro, who briefed the President upon her arrival at the DPM, said that as of today, his agency has identified 11 of these unscrupulous businessmen overpricing NFA rice. Appropriate charges are being readied against the suspects, Navarro told the President. He added that most of the profiteers were operating in Barangay Botocan and Project 8 in Quezon City, and Bagong Silang, Caloocan City. The NFA has already filed a criminal case against the provincial manager of the NFA in Misamis Oriental for “conniving with unscrupulous rice traders in diverting NFA rice intended for the needy and diverting it to the commercial market.” In her speech keynoting the 4th Mindanao Cooperative Summit in Cagayan de Oro City last March 10, the President ordered the NFA to investigate reported “irregularities” involving the distribution of NFA rice, including the diversion of subsidized cereal intended for the Tindahan Natin outlets to commercial markets. In making her first of a series of surprise inspections of public markets, the President said she wanted to assure the Filipino people that the government is taking steps and will continue to take action to reduce the pain of the people brought about by high food prices. The President, who was joined by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, took a short tour of the market’s facilities. She also took time to talk to a stall owner before returning to Malacañang to join the Lenten Week recollection that she and several members of her Cabinet, the Legislative branch and other government employees are holding at the San Miguel Pro-Cathedral, a stone’s throw away from Malacañang Palace. |
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| PGMA appoints Brion to the Supreme Court |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Department of Labor and
Employment (DOLE) Secretary Arturo Brion as associate justice of the Supreme
Court (SC). Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita made the announcement today during a break in the Lenten recollection he, together with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress and government employees, were attending at the San Miguel Pro-Cathedral, a stone’s throw away from Malacañang Palace. “Secretary Brion has been named as the new associate justice of Supreme Court. We already sent his (appointment) papers to Chief Justice Reynato Puno an hour ago,” Ermita said. He said the appointment of Brion to the High Court was “long overdue.” Brion is a lawyer by training and experience, with years of hands on exposure in labor relations and, in his later years in the Department of Labor and Employment. Brion came to the Department academically prepared. He topped the Bar examinations of 1974 with a grade of 91.65 percent after finishing his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) at the Ateneo University as cum laude, class valedictorian, and recipient of the Ateneo’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. He was born in Manila on Dec. 29, 1946 to Edon B. Brion (a retired trial court judge) and Laura S. Dizon. He grew up and undertook his primary, secondary and part of his tertiary studies in San Pablo City, formerly a mainly agricultural community 87 kilometers southwest of Manila. Life for him in San Pablo was uncomplicated and serene, and he carries his simple provincial ways even to this day. Brion will fill the vacancy created by the retirement last month of Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez. He was a justice in the Court of Appeals before he accepted the labor portfolio. He also worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs under his mentor, the late Secretary Blas F. Ople. |
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| OWWA Administrator named Acting Labor Chief |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed today Administrator Marianito
Roque of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) as Acting
Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). He takes the place of Secretary Arturo Brion, who was appointed by the President to the Supreme Court. In a statement, Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye said the President “has approved the announcement of the appointment of Marianito Roque as Acting Secretary of Labor." Roque, who rose from the ranks at the OWWA, was responsible for a number of service improvements involving the special needs of more than eight million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) whose yearly remittances have been helping shore up the national economy. Notable among these service improvements are repatriation of thousands of OFWs, including undocumented ones, from strife-torn host countries, and the transformation of the Philippine Postal Bank into an OFW Bank. The OFW Bank charges less service fees on OFW remittances than other banks. Roque also spearheaded the opening of the OWWA Hostel and Halfway Home for OFWs, the activation of the modern OFW e-card, and the educational and other scholarship trainings for the less fortunate and returning OFWs including their families. Roque was one of the select group of young achievers recruited by the late Sen. Blas F. Ople to join his staff when he was named secretary of labor by then President Marcos. Among the other Ople protégées who made it to the labor department’s top post were Patricia Sto. Tomas, Ruben Torres and Brion, a 1974 bar topnotcher. |
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