PIA Dispatch (31 May 2010)

PGMA is guest at DFA's 112th Anniversary

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will grace tomorrow the 112th founding anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs at the new DFA-Office of Consular Affairs [OCA] building inside the Aseana Business Park along Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in Parañaque City.

Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo will lead DFA officials and employees in welcoming the Chief Executive.

Romulo will open the anniversary program with a welcome remarks and overview of DFA history and accomplishments. He will also present to the President the results of retrospective seminar on key accomplishments in foreign affairs including investments.

The President will confer presidential awards and commendations to DFA officials and receive DFA books on “Protecting Overseas Filipinos and Promoting their Welfare, the Highest Priority; Peace through Interfaith Dialogue—Philippine Diplomacy and the Promotion of Mutual Understanding, Respect and Tolerance and Pasaporte: A Journey of 100 Years.”

The six-chapter book on overseas Filipinos contain captivating photos and texts that illustrate efforts of President Arroyo in protecting the rights of OFWs abroad. The President is a known “hands-on” when it comes to saving the lives of OFWs in foreign death rows and other penal institutions.

The book also provides accounts on the enormous task of protecting the country’s modern-day heroes undertaken by the Arroyo administration through the active assistance of Vice President Noli de Castro, Secretary Romulo and Labor Secretary Marianito Roque.

Another book, “Peace Through Interfaith Dialogue: Philippine Diplomacy and the Promotion of Mutual Understanding, Respect and Tolerance” pays tribute to the outstanding work DFA men and women in bringing interfaith dialogues into the mainstream of international relations and peace advocacies.


Palace official thanks prelates for citing PGMA gains, but disagrees with other comments

Presidential Deputy Spokesman Gary Olivar today expressed gratitude to members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for recognizing and endorsing in their recent survey the achievements of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in infrastructure development, economic growth and stability and her administration‘s pro-life policy.

But Olivar said Malacanang remains puzzled by the “failing marks” the CBCP members supposedly gave the President in other key national concerns, when surveys and figures he said, showed indicative gains by the Arroyo administration.

In a press briefing in Malacañang today, Olivar said the government is thankful for the CBCP’s “support and recognition of the President’s principled stand against aggressive population management.”

“We wish to thank the bishops of the CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) for their recent endorsement of the President’s achievements in infrastructure and economic growth and stability,” Olivar said.

“We also thank them for their support and recognition of the President’s principled stand against aggressive population management which, in turn, is consistent with economic theory about the demographic dividend and the advantages of having a large domestic market of your own—advantages which we saw in practice during the recent global recession when our country was able to maintain positive economic growth throughout,” he added.

Text of Olivar’s statement read during the Malacanang press briefing:

“We wish to thank the bishops of the CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) for their recent endorsement of the President’s achievements in infrastructure and economic growth and stability.

We also thank them for their support and recognition of the President’s principled stand against aggressive population management which, in turn, is consistent with economic theory about the demographic dividend and the advantages of having a large domestic market of your own—advantages which we saw in practice during the recent global recession when our country was able to maintain positive economic growth throughout.

We accept the bishops’ criticisms that much remains to be done in education even though the President has already built more classrooms, distributed more textbooks and scholarships, and trained more teachers than any president before her.

Educational outcomes were still mixed as of few years ago which is why the President formed the Presidential Task Force on Education to overhaul the entire educational strategy and also the reason why education reforms is at the very top of her legislative agenda as a neophyte congresswoman in the 15th Congress starting July.

But we are puzzled at the bishops’ failing marks for the President on poverty considering the improvement over the years in poverty statistics with self-rated poverty of 43 percent last quarter at its lowest since the Marcos years as well as the wide array of anti-poverty programs that cushioned our poorest countrymen through the depths of the recent global recession.

I am reminded of all those candidates in the recent campaign who said they couldn’t believe they were behind in the surveys because of all the large crowds they were seeing at their rallies.

Likewise, the daily images we see of hunger and poverty around us can be compelling but they cannot controvert the numbers which tell a different story—one of slow but sure improvement in the lot of the poor.

We are likewise puzzled at the failing marks given by the bishops on environment for our President who sets aside half a day every week on environmental issues, who is building one materials recovery facility (MRF) in each and every one of our barangays, and who has received international acclaim for a strategy of sustainable development in the original advocacy against climate change.

Perhaps it is a case of the bishops being opposed to any kind of exploitation of nature’s resurges such as true large mining projects, no matter how equitable or ecologically-sensitive these projects might be.

If so, if this is in fact the point of view of the bishops who are critical, they should remember that nature exists for the use of man and that denying this truth regarding nature as some kind of earth-mother or Gaia, veers too close to the heresy of pantheism.

Lastly, we will simply have to agree to disagree with the bishops about issues that long-preceded and will long survive the Arroyo presidency such as our political culture of patronage or issues about her personal likeability and popularity.

This is the stuff of transient surveys only and not the impartial judgment of history which even now is already unfolding and will look only at how all the numbers posted under this President brought about a permanent upliftment in the lives of our people.”


PGMA reopens Barangay "Botika" in health visit to Cam Sur

SAGNAY, Camarines Sur – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, during a visit here today, ordered government assistance to re-open a failed Botika ng Barangay (small drugstore) project operated in this town by the local parish.
The barangay drugstore operated by the St. Andrews Social Development Center here started in 2006 but closed shop two years later due to funding deficiency and absence of a Department of Health license.

Recently, the parish signified its intention to resume operation by submitting to the DOH a Letter of Intent. Except for the required pharmacist, all other requisites have been complied with. To hasten the reopening the President told the DOH to immediately commit the services of a government pharmacist.

In her brief message before local officials, parishioners, and residents here, the Chief Executive underscored the importance of the Botika ng Barangay in their locality and in all other barangays nationwide, to enable the poor residents to buy cheap medicines.

“Importante na kung mayroon tayong economic activity gaya ng turismo, kailangan din naman mayroong mga serbisyo para sa mga pinakamahihirap. At itong serbisyo na ginawa n gating pamahalaan ay iyong para sa kalusugan – iyong murang gamut, (It is important that other economic activities such as tourism be complemented by basic health and affordable medical services.)” the President said.

After her speech, the President proceeded to the Dr.Manuel T. Fuentebella Memorial Hospital to personally inspect its facilities.

The hospital, which the President herself inaugurated in October 1994 when she was then a senator, houses equipment for a variety of surgical, dental and ophthalmology services. Through the initiative of Camarines Sur 4th District Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, medical missions benefiting the residents of the 11 municipalities in the Partido area, have been conducted in the hospital since 1994.


PGMA opens new Bicol road linking Albay, C Sur

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo opened today (Monday, May 31) the 24-kilometre Sagnay-Tiwi road that connects the province of Camarines Sur to Albay, underscoring the project’s importance in linking two Bicol provinces with big tourism potentials.

Albay and Camarines Sur lie in the Central Philippines Tourism Corridor which has been the beneficiary of massive tourism-related investments under the President’s super-region development concept.

The President led the ribbon cutting of the of the P320 million road project, Sagnay-Tiwi road that serves as the shortest route connecting the 3rd district of Camarines Sur to the first district of Albay.

She said infrastructure stands as a source of increasing investors confidence in the tourism as well as the driver economic progress in the regions whioch she said will soon feel the impact of the phenomenal 7.3 percent growth rate posted by the national economy for the first quarter of 2010.

The President then talked to Salvador Gacer and Leonin Barasona who both benefited from the road project.

Leonin, who before earns 100 pesos a day from fishing, has doubled his daily earnings as a laborer in President Arroyo’s road project.

Meanwhile Barasona whose family lives marginally through farming and fishing said that before the road was built, his crops were easily damaged in storage and due to the lack of roads to transport his goods.

President Arroyo addressed Barsona that because of the road project his post-harvest losses will now be reduced.

The President said she hopes the next administration will continue her infrastructure strategy because of the progress it brings to the country.


PGMA condoles with families, units of ambushed Bicol army men

PILI CITY, Camarines Sur --President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today visited Camp Elias Angeles here to condole with the 9th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and the families of the four slain members of the Army unit that was ambushed by suspected Communist New People’s Army rebels last May 29 in Presentacion town.

President Arroyo comforted the family of Army Private First Class Edwin Britannico Jr., one of those killed, and gave Britannico’s posthumous Military Merit Medal to the father. The President also gave P250,000 in cash assistance to direct dependents of each fallen soldier.

“I am very thankful that our beloved President has not forgotten the plight of her soldier’s family members. I may be in deep sorrow but her presence has made me smile for this moment,” said Edwin sr.

On May 29, a Saturday, a squad of soldiers in combat patrol in a remote village in Presentacion town ran into an ambush by NPA elements who were positioned in the forested area. The ambush left four soldiers dead and five others injured.

Also killed, aside from Britannico, were First Lieutenant Miguel Logornio Jr., Corporal Arturo Hernandez and Pfc. Albert Jamera.

The President also went to the 9th ID infirmary to check the condition of the soldiers wounded in the ambush. She also awarded MMM and wounded personnel medals to Pfc Jerry Magdasoc, Pfc Carlos Coderis, Private Jose Quiapo and and Pfc Ronnie Villame. Each received P50,000 from the President.