PGMA inspects P500M QC underpass

Leaving nothing to chance in the implementation of her pet projects, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo saw for herself the progress of civil works on the P500-million underpass in Novaliches, Quezon City. The President also presided over a Cabinet meeting in the area, specifically at the Novaliches Barangay Hall, to underscore the need to complete government infrastructure projects on schedule. During the meeting, Public Works and Highways Secretary Victor Domingo briefed the President and her Cabinet on the status of the ongoing construction of the underpass, located at the intersection of Mindanao Avenue and Quirino Highway in Barangay Talipapa in Sauyo, Novaliches. The underpass forms part of a larger project. It connects to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Valenzuela City to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City, to Circumferential Road 5, and eventually to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) in Bicutan, Taguig City. The NLEX-Mindanao Avenue linkup embodies the NLEX Phase II project currently implemented by the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC). It is designed to provide wide access to the 84-kilometer tollway spanning Balintawak in Caloocan City and Sta. Ines in Mabalacat, Pampanga. Once completed, the NLEX-Mindanao Avenue-C-5-SLEX interconnection will provide motorists hassle-free travel to South Luzon and North Luzon since they will be spared the perennial traffic jams in several Metro Manila chokepoints. All this is part of the current administration’s flagship project, the Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB), which is meant to make the country a major logistics and services hub in Asia-Pacific. The region accounts for $1 trillion of the estimated global logistics value of $3.5 trillion. Other key components of the ULB project are the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), which provides seamless travel from Sto. Tomas town in Batangas to Batangas City. STAR will be made to link up with SLEX, NLEX, and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), a 93.7-kilometer modern tollway connecting Subic Freeport Zone in Olongapo City, the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, and the Central Techno Park in Tarlac City. The road networks facilitate travel between and among the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Metro Manila, and other international seaports in Subic Bay and Batangas City.

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PGMA doubles education budget to P180B a year

CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Investment in education has doubled under the current administration. In a speech delivered this morning at the Real Elementary School in Calamba City, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo noted that in 2001, when she assumed office, the budget for state colleges, the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) was only P90 billion. The budget for education this year is P180 billion. The President was in the school to underscore the thrust of her administration to improve the educational system and to attain zero drop-out rate in the primary grades. According to the President, the government, since 2001, has built 100,000 school buildings, hired 60,000 teachers, and increased their monthly salary from P9, 000 to P14,000 a month. It has also allocated P1.5 billion for teacher’s training in English proficiency. Largely because of this improvement in the educational system, the President said, test scores went up in the last four years from 44 percent to 65 percent in elementary schools and 36 percent to 47 percent in secondary schools. Still, she pointed out, the quality of education has to improve further. And at no other stage is this needed than in early childhood. It is for this reason that the President signed Executive Order 685 in 2008 in compliance with RA 8980, which mandates state-sponsored childhood care for five-year-olds up to pre-schoolers. She said research has it “that pre-school is a determinant factor in the performance of Grade I pupils in the formal education system.” In her State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last year, the President said that as a teacher herself, she is biased in favor of the teaching profession. That’s why she has since then allocated more and more funds for education and skills training. The President admitted that universal education is one of the most difficult objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), saying that almost no country has attained it. “But we are doing our best,” she stressed, adding that of the total number of classrooms built during her term, 1,000 of them went to remote barangays. “We also removed miscellaneous fees in the primary school, and made the wearing of student uniforms optional in public schools,” President Arroyo said. The President has directed DepEd to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to implement the Early Childhood Care and Development program. To ensure that even children of the poor stay in school, the President initiated the food-for-school program, which so far benefited 95,440 children. She also established the 4Ps or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, with at least a million poor families getting cash assistance for health and education. “The youth are our hope and inspiration,” the President said. “The government thus works hard to give them a bright future.” The government has also provided scholarship to 600,000 students taking under- graduate and post-graduate courses in private colleges and universities. It has also spend P36 billion in technical education and skills training. “I will continue to be a hands-on President until the day I leave office,” she said. “I will work to promote education, improve the economy, and protect the environment.”

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Gibo is his own man, says PGMA

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants administration party standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. to be “his own man” when he campaigns for his presidential bid in the May 10 elections. In a press briefing following today’s cabinet meeting at Barangay Talipapa in Quezon City, Press Secretary Crispulo Icban Jr. said the President “deliberately decided that Gibo stands on his own.” Icban quoted the President as saying that Teodoro can stand on his own. “Gibo is campaigning on his own capabilities and he hardly mentions the President in his campaign sorties,” he said. “Let’s respect that.” Icban said the former Defense Secretary could carry the banner of Lakas-Kampi-CMD well in the campaign period that started today. The President, he said, is very busy in her tour of the super regions, particularly in her legacy communications campaign around the country. Today, the President inspected the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX)-C5-South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) link in barangay Talipapa, Quezon City where she also held a cabinet meeting that tackled the developments in the 14 road projects in the Urban Luzon Beltway. These projects are aimed at spurring economic development in the area and transforming it into a competitive logistics and services hub in the Asia-Pacific region.

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P1.54T 2010 budget now in effect

The P1.54 trillion 2010 General Appropriations Act is now in effect. Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, Jr., in a press briefing after the Cabinet meeting held at Barangay Talipapa Hall in Quezon City, said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had signed the national budget into law Monday night. “As usual, there are certain items vetoed, but the veto does not pertain to any amount but only to certain provisions, one of them the debt cap proposal,” Andaya explained. In the ratification of the budget, the lawmakers cut the allocation for debt service by P64.6 billion, bringing it down to P276.212 billion. The amount cut was allocated for other projects. “The President, however, restored the amount because debt service payment is an automatic appropriation,” he said. By department, Education received the highest allocation at P185.48 billion; followed by Public Works, P126.93 billion; Health, P30.40 billion; Agrarian Reform, P20.77 billion; and Transportation and Communications, P16.61 billion.

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PGMA to inaugurate Northville 8 Livelihood Productivity and Training Center in Bulacan

MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will inaugurate the Northville 8 Livelihood Productivity and Training Center during her visit to this province tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 10). The President will lead the ribbon cutting and marker unveiling ceremonies formally opening the center’s base of operations located in Barangay Bangkal here. The President will also witness the formal turnover of the Deed of Transfer and Acceptance of the two-storey Northville 8 Livelihood Productivity and Training Center from the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) to the city government of Malolos. Built at a cost of P5 million, the Northville 8 Livelihood Productivity and Training Center is the fulfillment of the Memorandum of Agreement signed by the National Housing Authority (NHA), the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the People’s Organization to provide skills and livelihood training for the families affected by the Northrail Project. Joining the President for the occasion are Bulacan Vice Governor Willy Alvarado, Bulacan Mayor Danilo Domingo, HUDCC general manager Federico Laxa, and Presidential Assistant for Region III Lorelei Fajardo.

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PGMA: ‘No regrets’ for taking bold economic steps

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo maintains that she does not regret being unpopular, stressing that it is the price to pay for the bold steps she has taken to turn the economy around after assuming the presidency in 2001. “We never shied away from taking on tough issues. Most notably, my unpopularity dipped when I went against the grain and championed the passage of the expanded value added tax (E-vat),” the President said in a speech at the University of Batangas in Batangas City on Monday. “We knew that E-vat would be unpopular, but someone had to get the nation’s fiscal house in order and bring in fresh revenues to invest in the people,” the Chief Executive said. “It was the right thing to do. It has served the people well. We have no regrets,” she stressed. President Arroyo indicated that the fiscal initiatives “formed the building blocks of change that delivered 36 quarters of continuing economic growth, created nine million jobs, expanded healthcare to cover 52 million more Filipinos, and bring about financial stability in the country.” She also dared the cynics and political critics to look at the skyline of Metro Manila, Clark in Pampanga, or Sta. Rosa, Laguna to see the progress that she was talking about. “It is a skyline with new, modern buildings, construction cranes, better roads, hotels, shopping malls, and small businesses. This is part of the Philippines we have helped nurture and create,” the President pointed out. President Arroyo’s visit to the state-run university was the second leg of her Super Regions tour which started last week with sorties in the Cyber Corridor, the growth region for information and communication technology (ICT) and business process outsourcing (BPO). This week’s swing will cover the Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB), which will be transformed into a globally competitive logistics and services hub in the Asia-Pacific Region. These areas principally cover the CALABARZON region composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces; Marinduque and Mindoro provinces; Metro Manila and southern Central Luzon. To attain this objective, the Arroyo administration embarked on massive infrastructure development program to provide efficient support services to investors in the ULB areas. This involved the implementation of ambitious road-building projects, seaport and airport facilities, creation of qualified workforce, modernized mass transport systems, and sustainable power supply. The ULB is one of five growth areas called “Super Regions” mapped out under an aggressive development program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as laid out in Executive EO 561 issued in 2006. ULB is referred to as the base of the national industries, manufacturing, and trade and commerce and accounts for 55.86 percent of the Philippine economy. The goal is to transform the ULB into a globally-competitive industrial and services logistics hub, at par with Singapore and Hong Kong, and tap the potentials of the $3.5 trillion global logistics market of which Asia-Pacific accounts for about $ 1 trillion. The major infrastructure investments and initiatives in ULB are: • Upgrade and development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark with enhanced capabilities. Since 2003, passenger traffic of 7,880 in 44 international flights have increased to 589,507 in 550 international and 560 local flights. • The P792-million improvement of the NAIA Terminal 3 Expansion Project with a potential of 13 million passenger capacity and now serving 170 domestic and international flights and 16,500 passengers daily. The project eased congestion at NAIA Terminal 1. • The P8.04-billion Subic Bay Port rehabilitation and expansion, completed in February 2008, which expanded the ports’ capability to accommodate an additional 600,000 twenty foot-equivalent units (TEUs) and boosted its competitive advantage against other Asia-Pacific international ports. • The P6-billion Batangas Port Project, completed in December 2007, which now accommodates Panamax and post Panamax-size vessels and boosted the port’s capability to 400,000 TEUs and its capacity to service ships passing through the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. • Two Ro-Ro (roll on-roll off) ports were developed: the P63.37-million Lucena Port completed in November 2007 and the P32.8-million Cawit Port in Boac Marinduque completed in Sept. 2007 to provide access to and from the capital town of Boac. • The P20.9-billion Subic-Tarlac Expressway Project completed in April 2008, to include the Floridablanca and Porac Interchanges, which greatly shortened travel time to Subic, Tarlac and Metro Manila and gave greater access to movements of people and logistics. • The ongoing NLEX-Pres. C.P. Garcia (C-5)-SLEX Link Project to promote seamless travel between northern and southern Metro Manila. • The SLEX Toll Roads 1 and 2, which widened the expressway from South Manila to Calamba and Toll Road 3 or the Hidden Link which will connect SLEX Calamba to the Sto. Tomas portion of the STAR tollway in Batangas. Toll Road 3 will connect five expressways spanning Subic, Clark, Metro Manila and the CALABAR industrial zones and the two main seaports of Batangas and Subic. • The southbound lane of the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) completed in April 2008, which eased traffic between Lipa and other Batangas cities • The P1.57-billion Tarlac-Nueva Ecija-Aurora-Dingalan Port Road completed in December 2009, which connects SCTEX to Dingalan, Aurora to boost economic activities there. • The P2.32-billion Marikina-Infanta Road slated for completion in March 2010 to provide economic access to the potentials of Rizal, Quezon and Laguna provinces. • The P199.5-million EDSA rehabilitation project completed in May 2009, which improved travel time and safety conditions along EDSA.

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