PGMA wants to accomplish more
A long record of infrastructure accomplishment it seems is not enough for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as she ordered her frontline agencies to improve their goals and objectives.
In a media briefing, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President still wants to do more within the remainder of her term.
“That is how driven and focused this President is,” Remonde said during his first media briefing for the year.
He said the President gave a new marching order to the Cabinet, especially the frontline departments, “to increase their objective setting or to make up for certain lost accomplishments.”
The Cabinet members, he said, were told to monitor projects to ensure their timely completion.
Cerge Remonde: ‘Light of reason’ will show charges vs. PGMA false
All the charges against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are without factual basis.
In the introduction to his media briefing this morning, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the allegations of wrongdoing against the current administration will be seen as false “once the light of reason is shone on them.”
He characterized the charges as “phantoms in the night that disappear in the first light of day.”
What will remain for all time, the Press secretary added, is the record of accomplishments this administration will leave behind six months from now.
Under the President’s watch, Remonde pointed out, the nation has experienced an unprecedented 36 quarters of economic growth.
The Press secretary also said that President Arroyo has succeeded admirably well in her job creation program. The business process outsourcing (BPO), for instance, has grown from a mere 400 agents to close to 500,000 workers, all getting above-average salaries and benefits.
But call center agents are mostly college graduates, or at the very least college students.
President Arroyo thus established a program that has given jobs and livelihood opportunities at least to a million people in the cities and in the countryside.
Be that as it may, Remonde said, “this administration will be defined more for its ambitious infrastructure program, undertaken to spur and sustain economic growth.”
According to Remonde, the President has constructed more roads and bridges than all her three immediate predecessors combined. Trotting out statistics, he said the current administration, from 2001 to the present, has laid out 47,773 kilometers of roads and 289,955 meters of bridges.
In comparison, the three previous presidents, Corazon C. Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, and Joseph E Estrada could only manage to build 34,327 kilometers of roads and 274,742 meters of bridges.
The Press secretary noted that no statue has been erected in honor of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who built
“However, on a wall within the cathedral is an inscription in Latin that reads Lector, si monumentum requires, circumspice,” Remonde said. “Roughly translated in English, it says, ‘Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you.’
“In the same manner, anybody who travels the length and breadth of this beautiful archipelago, long after the President will have served her full term, can see the unmistakable imprint of her presidency. All he or she has to do is look around.”
RP had lowest debt to GDP ratio under Arroyo
Malacañang today said the country had, on record, the lowest debt-to- GDP (gross domestic product) ratio under the Arroyo administration. And the debts, moreover, were incurred and restructured by previous administrations for the most part.
In his first media briefing for the year, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde belied the criticism of former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno that the Arroyo administration has incurred the highest debt record.
“First, we have inherited the great bulk of this debt from previous administrations, which have only been restructured so this is not necessarily new borrowings, Remonde said.
“Secondly, this administration holds the record of having the lowest debt to GDP ratio. Better than just looking at absolute figures, the best indicator is the debt to GDP ratio,” he clarified.
Remonde stood by an earlier pronouncement of Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Gary Olivar that President Arroyo built the most number of roads and bridges in her entire nine year term than her three predecessors combined. “And this is not bragging because it is true,” Remonde said.
On Diokno’s claim that the performance record of the administration is inaccurate since it is based on a nine-year accumulated figure instead of annual computation, Remonde said Diokno is just trying to justify the shortcomings of the Estrada administration.
“It is not our fault that his administration was short-lived,” Remonde said.
“We stand by our record of having the best performance in terms of infrastructure,” Remonde said citing this as President Arroyo’s greatest legacy to the Filipino people.
Bomb scare prompts QCPD squad to cordon off MTRCB offices in
MANILA, Jan. 8 – The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Bomb Squad at Friday noon cordoned off a high-rise building which serves as main office of the Movie and Television Review Classification Board (MTRCB) in Diliman,
QCPD Bomb Squad personnel are checking on the box as traffic at the corner of
QCPD Tactical Operation Center (TOC) duty officer PO1 Joey Belgica said in a telephone interview that traffic was heavy in the main thoroughfare which is a few meters away from two television stations and a police station.
Belgica, who is also QCPD information officer, said QCPD operatives also prevented people from entering the building for safety and security reasons.
RITM procurement of flu-testing machines aboveboard – Duque
The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday announced that the investigation done on the alleged anomalous transaction of flu testing machines last year, by one of its leading hospitals, found the procurement to be in order.
Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III disclosed that the DOH purchased the said equipment after the World Health Organization’s declaration of level 6 A(H1N1) pandemic alert last June 2009.
“The DOH Integrity Development Committee (DOH-IDC), headed by Assistant Secretary Paulyn Ubial, reported to me that the procurement of the 6 units of Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) is in order and is in accordance with the provisions of RA 9184 (Procurement Reforms Law),” Health Secretary Duque said.
The health chief said that the DOH-IDC report disclosed that the procurement is not overpriced and was, as a matter of fact, the lowest among all the bidders, including that of complainant MACARE Medicals, Inc.
The complainant also protested that the winning bidder, Roche, is not a 99% Filipino owned-company and, therefore, should not be allowed to transact business with the government.
With the DOH-IDC report on hand, Secretary Duque explained that under RA 9184, foreign companies are allowed to enter into government transactions especially if said companies are registered with the Department of Budget and Management’s registry of suppliers.
“We also have a reciprocity agreement with
The RITM officials who transacted the said business explained that it was a highly technical transaction and there are only very few establishments that can meet its requirements, so it was procured through limited source bidding.
On June 25, 2009, the DOH issued guidelines for the procurement of Real-Time PCR machines for the A(H1N1). On June 26, a Resolution to procure, through limited source bidding, 6 PCR machines for sub-national and regional laboratories was issued. On June 29 and 30, the RITM held its pre-bidding conferences where 15 bidders attended.
The health chief said that the 6 Real-Time PCR machines, which are intended to be used by RITM, San Lazaro Hospital,
“We are always transparent with all our procurements and transactions here at the DOH and is even constantly reaping recognitions from private and other government offices that look after corruption, that is why when the news broke out on this alleged anomaly I immediately ordered our DOH-IDC to investigate the matter,” Secretary Duque said.
