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Partners 10 April 2008 |
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At the National
Congress of the Philippines Councilor’s League (PCL), I met close to
6,000 of the country’s councilors, about one-half of the total
membership of the league. They had gathered to elect their new set of national officers, and at the same time to get a technical briefing on the super regions, national security and the bio-fuel program. "As your pro-active partners in building a Strong Republic," Arecio R. Rendor, Jr. of Oas, Albay, Interim National President and Michael B. Fernandez of Dagupan City, Interim National Chairman, said in their invitation letter, "we would like to hear from you updates on the super regions." I gladly accepted the invitation and expanded my presentation into an overview of the government infrastructure and other social payback programs, like the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises or MSME Program. Councilor Fernandez would be regularly constituted PCL Chairman in the subsequent election. Meanwhile, in my briefing, I challenged the League to go into a formal arrangement for PCL, or its members, individually, to go into institutional and individual tie-up’s for our MSME Program. To provide more jobs to our people, specifically the poorest of the poor, the government supports MSME which for the period 2004-2007, generated more than 2.1 million new jobs through the release of P203.61 billion loans to more than 3.65 million clients. Of that amount P86.89 billion was released to 3.6 million active micro-finance clients, generating 1.56 million new jobs; while P116.72 billion was released to 57,505 SME accounts under the Sulong Program, supporting 540,000 new jobs. Majority of the microfinance beneficiaries are farmers (33 percent), workers in the informal sector (27 percent) and fisherfolk (23 percent). Other beneficiaries include the urban poor, indigenous people, and the youth. The PCL, with its vast network that goes down to the last municipality, can truly be our pro-active partner in MSME, given its institutional philosophy to share resources and experiences beneficial to its members. Another area of cooperation is in the battle to reduce hunger and ensure that the poor have access to affordable basic commodities, the Tindahan Natin (TN) Program and the Barangay Food Terminal (BFT). The TNP, which provides affordable basic food commodities at a discount, provided some 8 million poor households in Metro Manila and in many depressed areas in far flung barangays of the country with rice at P18.25 per kilo and P4.25 per pack of instant noodles through 7,964 Tindahan Natin outlets. For those who cannot access the Tindahan Natin and BFTs, government also implemented the Food for School Program. Providing rice to families suffering from severe hunger through their school children, the program as of December 2007, distributed 793,630 bags of rice to 2.6 million severely hungry children in the 10 food poorest provinces, the NCR, and the 4th, 5th and 6th class municipalities of the 44 poorest provinces in the country. A major area of cooperation with the PCL is in project monitoring, with its presence in all provinces, cities and municipalities. With over, 16,000 members, we will have 32,000 boots on the ground, and 32,000 eyes on the projects, giving us a virtual CCTV or Closed Circuit TV on all priority infra projects that we monitor. Already, the Local Government Units (LGU) through Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico, President of the Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) sits in the Pro-Performance Steering Committee, a multi-sectoral oversight body created by the President to ensure that priority projects are completed on time and in the most cost-effective and transparent manner. Other members in the Committee are business, youth, media, NGOs, the religious sector and international development organizations. Addressing the PCL general membership directly reinforces the partnerships forged at the Pro-Performance Steering Committee level. |
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