Inaasahang mauusungan ng Pilipinas ang kanyang mga katabing bansa sa Asya ngayong taon, ito ay batay sa tinatayang 3.3 percent growth rate ng ekonomiya nito sa kabila ng patuloy na pagbagal ng paglago ng ekonomiya ng ibang mga bansa.
Ito ang naging pahayag ng respetadong Moody’s Financial Rating matapos ilabas ang resulta ng naging pag-aaral ng IMF.
Inamin ng IMF na sumadlak na ang mga pinakamayayamang ekonomiya ng daigdig sa isang financial depression.
Ayon pa sa Moody’s, ilan sa mga bansa sa Asya na makakaranas ng epekto ng depresyon ay ang mga bansang Singapore at Malaysia.
Gobyerno ng America, nagbigay ng $73-Million para sa programang pang enerhiya at pangkalikasan ng Pilipinas
Pormal nang inaprobahan ng gobyerno ng America ang $73-Million na pondo para suportahan ang mga programang pang enerhiya at pang kalikasan ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas.
Ito ay bahagi ng bilateral agreement na pinirmahan ng dalawang bansa. Layunin ng kasunduan na:
• pangalagaan ang biodiversity ng Philippine ecosystem,
• ipatupad ang sustainable management scheme para sa mga likas na yaman ng Pilipinas,
• isulong ang pag-gamit ng renewable energy,
• humanap ng makukuhanan ng malinis na tubig,
• at isulong ang mga programang makakatulong upang maibsan ang epekto ng nararanasang pagbabago ng klima ng daigdig.
Sa pahayag ni US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, sinabi niya na ipinagmamalaki ng America ang matagal nang pakikipag-ugnayan nito sa bansang Pilipinas, at patuloy nitong susuportahan ang mga programa ng Pilipinas para sa kalikasan at enerhiya.
Beneficiaries hail Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program as "pantawid buhay"
For Alma Pamplona, Cresteta Siocson and Analliza Begas, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is pangtawid buhay indeed.
Pamplona informed the President that she has three children, a first year high school student and two elementary pupils. Helping her out, she said, is her husband, a street sweeper under the government’s Out-of-School Youth Serving Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER) program.
“Madam President, nagpapasalamat po kami bilang beneficiary ng 4Ps program. Malaking tulong po ito bilang tugon sa aming pangkalusugan, edukasyon at pang-araw araw naming pangangailangan,” Pamplona said.
Siocson, a single parent of three, told the President that she uses her cash grant to buy and sell candies. She buys the candies in Divisoria and sell them in her neighborhood.
Begas, on the other hand, told the President that the cash grant would certainly help as she earns very little from doing the laundry of her neighbors.
A mother of five, Begas is four months away from giving birth to her sixth offspring. She is attending pre-natal care sessions at the Pasay General Hospital -- one of the “must” requirements for beneficiaries of the 4Ps.
The Pamplona, Siocson and Begas households were among about 200 poor families in Pasay City who expressed today their gratitude to the President for spearheading the P10-billion Pantawid 4Ps of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The President motored to Pasay City this noon to award cash grants to the poorest residents in the area.
A total of 699,000 poor households all over the country are covered by the program, including nearly two million children, aged 0-14, who will benefit from the President’s pro-poor project through subsidized health and educational services.
The President was warmly welcomed by the recipients and local officials when she arrived at the ground floor of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) building along Roxas Blvd. in Pasay City.
Among her welcomers were Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral, LandBank president Gilda Pico, PEZA Director-General Atty. Lilia de Lima, Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad, Vice Mayor Antonino Calixto and Pasay City Lone District Rep. Jose Antonio Roxas.
“This has become a partnership of the national and local government. Iyong Pantawid Pamilya program galing sa national government, iyong services na nakukuha ninyo galing sa local,” the President said.
After awarding the cash grants, the President watched as three beneficiaries withdrew their cash grants from a LandBank automated teller machine (ATM) using a cash card issued under the program.
Cabral said that in Pasay City alone, more than 1,500 4Ps have already benefited from the program.
She said the President has doubled the budget for the program from P5 billion to P10 billion to increase the number of beneficiaries to 699,000 poor households nationwide.
The pro-poor assistance program provides cash grants of P6,000 per year for health and nutrition expenses of the identified household, plus P3,000 a year each for the educational expenses of up to a maximum of three children per household.
A household with three qualified children is eligible to receive a maximum allowable subsidy of P15,000 a year as long as the family complies with certain conditions, such as attendance at responsible parenthood sessions, pre-and-post-natal care, preventive health checkups and vaccinations.
At age five, a child must attend daycare or pre-school classes, while those 6 to 14 years old must enroll in elementary or high school and attend at least 85 percent of the class calendar.
In 2008, some 337,416 poor households from Pasay, Caloocan and the country’s poorest provinces benefited from the program.
PGMA asks for more prayers, support from Kabalens
ANGELES CITY, Pampanga – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo called on her Kabalens today for more prayers that the country may be able weather the stinging effects of the financial crisis sweeping across the globe.
“So is the rest of the world,” she explained.
“I ask for support and more prayers that we may be able to overcome this crisis,” she said in Kapangpangan.
The President also thanked her Kabalens for their continuing support for her and her administration.
Monsignor Eugenio Mercado, parish priest of the Our Lady of Lourdes parish, said that in response to the request of the President they would pray for the country and her administration with “fervent resolve.”
"Because we are experiencing a global financial crisis, we need to redouble our prayers to overcome this crisis. Everyone needs prayers, including the President," Mercado said.
"We pray for our country, we pray for our President, we pray for our government officials and we pray for everybody so that we can overcome this crisis with the help of God," he added.
The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on Feb. 11, 1858. Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old peasant girl from Lourdes, France told her mother she saw a "lady" in the cave of Massabielle, about a mile from the town, while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II instituted that the World Day of the Sick and Elderly falls on the same day as the Lourdes Festival as Our Lady of Lourdes is also known as the patron saint of the sick.
