PIA Dispatch - Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Gov't supports Bishops’ clamor to continue poll automation 

MANILA, July 1 - Malacañang today threw its full support to the clamor of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to “save the automation of the 2010 elections” because poll automation is a priority project of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. 

“We would not want it to fall into jeopardy despite the very well-managed bidding,” explained Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita during his regular Wednesday briefing at the New Executive Building. 

Ermita said poll automation is a matter for the Commission on Elections to look into. “Malacañang has not really interfered with the work of the Comelec,” he said. 

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio of the CBCP has reportedly called on the government to save the poll automation to which Ermita agreed with readily. “Definitely, Malacanang is one with the call of Archbishop Quitorio that we can really go on with automated election. Kaya nga sa palagay ko nababasa na rin ng mga Obispo ang kahalagahan ng automated election. But like I said it is a matter for the Comelec to handle. Ours is just a reminder to them as to how important automated election is,” Ermita said. 

“As far as I know, I happened to speak over the phone with Comelec Chairman Melo yesterday and he told me he has given a concession on the part of SmartMatic and TIM up to Friday to resolve their problems themselves. As a private person and as an official of Malacañang, we wish that the Comelec will try to ensure the automated election,” Ermita stressed. 

On the suggestion by some quarters for partial automation, Ermita said the “Palace will not interfere with election matters, which is rightfully under the Comelec.” 

Ermita said several quarters not necessarily aligned with the administration, are already making out their own scenarios that definitely are not true. 

He said there are many options “but what is important is that there will be honest, orderly and peaceful election and we must have election reforms to put to rest any suspicion that the anomalies and irregularities committed before could take place to benefit anybody.” 

Ermita said the President is confident that Chairman Jose Melo can handle the poll automation issue. “Being a lawyer and a former member of the Supreme Court, he would know how to handle the issues on the poll automation and if there is need to file cases against the members of the consortium.” 

Ermita said Melo has given the consortium until Friday to settle their differences. “He did not tell me anything about legal steps but I assume it behooves upon him to do what he thinks he must do because as a lawyer, he should know what to do next. It goes without saying that the Comelec has alternative plans to automate the election, and Chairman Melo spoke to me of alternative plans even before SmartMatic was considered.” 

Ermita made an appeal to the consortium to try its best to reach an agreement before Friday so the election automation will push through and to their satisfaction. “We (government) should not be held captive by the troubles and differences among the consortium members,” he said.

RP advances in 4 of 6 dimensions of World Bank report 

MANILA, July 1 - The Philippine government, under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has advanced in four of six critical dimensions taken up in the World Bank 2008 governance report. 

This was disclosed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Deputy Director General Rolando Tungpalan of the National Economic and Development Authority during the regular press briefing at the New Executive Building. 

“We are pleased to note that in the six dimensions, we have improved in four, namely: on rule of law we improved by 6 percentage points (from 34 to 40); regulatory quality or the ability of government to provide sound policies to promote and enable private sector investments we improved by 2 percentile points (from 50 to 52); we managed to grow by 4 percentile points (from 22 to 26 percent) on government effectiveness; we are up by 1 percentile point on political stability and on accountability we had a slight decline from 43 to 41 percentile,” Tungpalan explained. 

“Overall, we have had improvements in many sectors and we have been succeeding in our reform programs,” he added. 

Ermita, who heads the Task Force on Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), said these criteria are crucial for developed economies like the United States, the European Community and others in determining their financial assistance to countries like the Philippines. 

“The MCA has a lot of significance. At least you will better understand me when I tell you that we should watch the ratings given us by MCA, a program of the US government and for which the Philippine government can very well benefit from a new form of fund coming from the United States,” Ermita said. 

He noted that because the Philippines’ 2008 rating on controlling corruption fell by only .01 percent, “we have not been announced as beneficiary of a grant from the US government. 

This year, Tanzania got 700 million dollars grant from the United States along with another country, which Ermita failed to mention. 

“In case we pass that (MCA ratings) based on the World Bank ratings that Undersecretary Tungpalan just said we can very well pass the threshold and before the end of the year we might qualify for such grant from the US government, which is usually anywhere from 300 dollars to 500 million dollars,” Ermita said. 

This (amount), he said, can go a long way in boosting our economic status. “And that’s why we should be able to tell the world, the United Nations and the US that we are handling our human rights cases very well , our cases against corruption and extra judicial killings.” 


Duque orders DOH to bolster mitigation efforts against A (H1N1) 

Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III today reported that the Department of Health (DOH) is further bolstering its mitigation efforts against Influenza A(H1N1) in light of the anticipated rise of cases in the country.

On June 30, Duque convened another DOH Command Conference attended by members of the A (H1N1) Task Force, the DOH regional health directors, the chiefs of hospitals of all the 72 DOH-retained hospitals in the country, and some representatives from the private sector.

“As we anticipate more cases in the coming months, we must institute effective mitigation measures to save lives and prevent deaths and to reduce the impact of the pandemic to our nation and the economy,” Duque said.

With the shift toward the mitigation strategy, the DOH is ensuring that all government hospitals, both at the national and local government levels have the capacity to administer care to high-risk patients where the severe manifestations of the A (H1N1) virus are frequently seen. This is in accordance with the directives of President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo last week to prepare well-equipped isolation wards in all state-run hospitals throughout the country.

High risk patients include patients with preexisting medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, immunosuppression, HIV/AIDs, TB, pregnant women and the very young and the elderly.

Duque also called for a meeting with the member agencies of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to engage them, particularly the DILG, in strengthening the involvement of local government units in the A (H1N1) response. This is to make sure that local governments have surveillance, monitoring and response systems in place and that hospitals and primary health care facilities under their jurisdiction are able to identify, treat and manage A (H1N1) cases.

“We have also requested the NDCC member agencies, especially DepEd, CHED and TESDA and PIA to help us in our nationwide campaign against A (H1N1). This is to make sure that our information and education activities reach all schools, barangays and provinces in the country,” Duque added.

Come next week, DOH is also set to meet with the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and hospital groups like the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) and the Philippine Hospital Infection Control Society (PHICS) to engage all hospitals and healthcare providers in the appropriate treatment and management of A (H1N1) patients according to the set interim guidelines of the DOH.

Meanwhile, Duque announced that 1,709 confirmed A (H1N1) cases have been reported to the DOH from the 1st week of May up to June 27, 2009. Eighty-six percent (86%) or 1,485 of these cases have already recovered, while the remaining 224 (14%) are still under treatment at present, most of them under home management.

“All cases exhibited mild symptoms with the most common as fever (86%), cough (81%), and nasal congestion (49%),” Duque said, noting however, that there was one reported death.  

“The ages of cases range from 5 months to 79 years old, with 18 years old as median age. Most of them belonged to the 10-19 years age group (831 or 49%). Majority of the cases were male (894 or 52%),” Duque described.

Duque disclosed that of the 1,709 reported cases, 1,568 (92%) were Filipinos; the rest were American (with 17), Japanese (8), Chine (4), Korean (3), German (2), and one each from Australia, Canada, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey.

“Two hundred and eighty-five cases (17%) had history of travel to a country which has reported A (H1N1) cases. Most came from the USA, China, Japan and Singapore,” Duque noted.

Duque said that as far as the geographic profile of the 1,709 cases is concerned the National Capital Region has the most number of patients: comprising 72% (1,225). Cases from NCR mostly came from Quezon City, Manila, Parañaque, Pasig and Makati.

The three other regions that reported the most number of cases were: Regions IV-A, III and VIII.

As far as the global report is concerned, the World Health Organization, as of June 29, has recorded 70,893 cases with 311 deaths from 109 reporting countries.


PGMA’s global engagements yield more benefits in terms of investments, jobs

MANILA, July 01 – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s global engagements have yielded more benefits that would help shield the Philippines from the full brunt of the present global economic crisis. 

In her most recent working visit to Japan and state visit to Brazil, the President brought home more trade and investments, increased development assistance and more job opportunities that would make more resilient the country’s economy in times of financial uncertainties. 

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Anthony Golez said with the global financial crisis continuing to create challenges for all our economies, there is no better time than now to strengthen the country's relationships with other countries. 

“Right now, the economy of the world is based on relationships and ties,” Golez said, noting this is what President Macapagal-Arroyo is doing —to build long-term relationships with her counterparts. 

He said the Chief Executive is trying to open relationships with new trading partners as a way to mitigate the impact of the global financial meltdown. 

"Before, our trading partners are only United States and Japan, but through the efforts of the President, more doors for new trading partners have opened. These (trading partners) helped us in sustaining our economy,” he said. 

Golez stressed that the investments gained with the President’s foreign travels are more than enough as against the expenses being questioned by some government critics. 

He particularly cited the foreign direct investments (FDIs) which significantly increased as a result of the President’s global engagements. 

He said in the first quarter of 2008, the country’s FDIs rose to $ 20 billion as against $ 17.9 billion in the same period of 2007. 

In second quarter of 2008, the FDIs registered $ 73.8 billion compared to $ 59.8 billion in the same period of 2007. 

“We saw the pattern and one of the reasons is the advertisement of the President,” he said, adding that, “the number one salesman of our country is the Chief Executive.” 

In her recent visits to Japan and Brazil, the President brought home some three billion U.S. dollars in trade and investments. 

In Japan alone, the gains and benefits of the Philippines include the Y1,013,000,000.00-Grant Agreement between the Philippine Government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Flood Disaster Mitigation Project in Camiguin Island and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was inked by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) President Hiroshi Watanabe for JBIC to guarantee up to US $ 1 billion yen-dominated foreign (Samurai) bonds with the Department of Finance is going to float in the Japanese capital market in the next two years. 

Marubeni Corporation, one of Japan’s largest trading companies, has committed $ 500 million for the expansion of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2; and $ 100 million for the Air Traffic Control Project Package 1 that will provide new communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management systems to Philippine airports. 

The proposed construction of the $ 1.5-billion MRT 7, which will be funded by the JBIC buyer’s credit. 

Toyota Tsusho Corporation has also committed to develop five jathropa plantations of 20,000 hectares each to produce 300,000 tons of biodiesel fuel every year and generate some 12,000 new jobs and estimated annual sales of about $ 200 million. The corporation also committed 40 windmill units for Burgos, Ilocos Sur. 

Aruze Corporation, the world leader in the manufacturing of gaming machines, has committed $ 4 billion to $ 6 billion for the construction of a hotel resort and convention complex in the Philippines. 

Some Japanese companies also made firm commitments to invest and/or increase their investments in the Philippines. These included Toshiba, Marubeni and Tokyo Electric, Toyota, Sumitomo, and Mitsubishi UFJ. 

Other commitments secured include the supply of high performance construction and machinery for large-scale infrastructure development and mining operations; supply of agricultural machinery for increased agricultural productivity and improvement of food self-sufficiency. 

In the four-day trip to Brazil, the Philippine government netted five signed agreements and a joint statement between the Department of Agriculture and the Brazilian Association of Girlondo Breeders. 

Two of the accords focus on agricultural and commercial cooperation. The others are on Bioenergy Cooperation between the Department of Energy and the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Brazil; employment remuneration for dependents of diplomatic administrative and technical personnel; and biofuel development between the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry. 

Likewise, Compania Vale da Rio Dose, a Brazilian mining firm, has committed some P600 million for the exploration of gold and other mineral deposits in Masbate. 

The President has also inaugurated the expanded container yard of the Suape Container Terminal (SCT), a seaport facility in northeastern Brazil operated by Tecon Suape, S.A. (TSSA), a subsidiary of Philippine-based International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI). 

The expanded terminal area was part of ICTSI’s US$ 120-million phased investment program that would cement SCT’s position as a key Brazilian port serving trans-Atlantic trade. 

“These are some of the numerous benefits that the President gained in her foreign trips,” he added.