PGMA sees stronger economy in 2010
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said the country’s economic growth will accelerate this year even as she completes all the major projects started during her nine-year term.
“I will leave the nation in better shape. I am confident of the future,” she told the business community and members of the diplomatic corps who attended this morning’s annual Philippine economic briefing at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati organized by the Investor Relations Office (IRO), which handles the concerns of different stakeholders of the country’s economic team.
Government sources, particularly the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also made the same observations that the economy, which grew by 0.9 percent last year, is expected to grow faster at between 2.6 percent and 3.6 percent while inflation is expected to range between 3.5 percent and 5.5 percent.
The President said that when she assumed the presidency nine years ago, inflation stood at 7.5 percent; the balance of payments (BOP) was at $2.02 billion; the ratio of external debt to gross domestic product (GDP) or how much of the country’s total goods and services annually go into servicing the debt, 72 percent; and unemployment at 20 percent.
Today, inflation is stable at 2.9 percent; the BOP stands at $5 billion; external debt to GDP ratio is down to 34 percent; and unemployment is single-digit at seven percent.
The President also noted the foreign exchange rate was strengthened by 19 percent during her administration. In contrast, the peso started out in 1970 at P3.94 to the dollar under the Marcos administration and slid further to P22.05 in 1986. This was also true for the Aquino administration, which saw the peso’s value drop by 14 percent; the Ramos administration, 14 percent, and the Estrada administration, 39 percent.
Because it was economically sound, the President said the country was one of only four countries in Asia which escaped recession brought about by the 2008 global financial crisis.
“We had to make tough and unpopular decisions to keep the economy ahead,” the President said, including the passage of the 12 percent expanded value added tax, which generated P80 billion in its first full year of implementation in 2007 and passage of so-called sin taxes for cigarettes and liquor.
The President also deferred plans toward balancing the budget this year as she saw the need for government to pump-prime the economy last year with P330 billion to create jobs and sustain economic and business activity in the face of the global economic crisis.
As a result, the government posted a budget deficit of P298.5 billion last year, or the equivalent of 3.9 percent of GDP.
In her speech, the President congratulated Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Bureau of Internal Revenue commissioner Joel Tan-Torres for exceeding target collections since Tan-Torres was appointed in December 2009.
The President also thanked former Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap for his efforts in generating 1.8 million jobs, which is higher, she said, than the targeted one million jobs. (OPS)
Mendoza named Executive Secretary
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza to replace Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who has tendered his resignation in deference to the recent Supreme Court ruling declaring as resigned appointive officials running for elective posts.
Also named by the President were the replacements of five other Cabinet members who are running in the May elections.
Appointed were Office of the Government Corporate Counsel head Alberto Agra as Justice Secretary vice Agnes Devanadera; former Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla vice Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap; former Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) Administrator Elena Bautista to replace Presidential Management Staff (PMS) director general Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr.; TESDA deputy director general for fields operation Rogelio Pejuan vice TESDA director general Secretary Augusto Syjuco; and deputy executive secretary Jake Lagunera to replace Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr.
Ermita said the President will shortly announce the names of other officials who would replace the newly appointed cabinet members in their former posts.
Ermita, who is vying for the congressional seat in Batangas, made the announcement during a press briefing presided by Press Secretary Crispulo Icban Jr. at the New Executive Building of Malacanang this afternoon.
“It is a privilege to request outgoing Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to make the announcement on the new cabinet appointments to replace those who have resigned because of the SC ruling,” Icban said.
The former Executive Secretary said cabinet officials concerned immediately vacated their posts after the SC ruled that appointed government officials running for public office are deemed resigned upon the filing of their certificates of candidacy.
Ermita, who has served the executive department for five and a half years, is seeking a congressional seat in Batangas while Andaya in Camarines Sur.
Esperon, former armed forces chief and PMS head is seeking a congressional post in Pangasinan. Syjuco in Iloilo; Yap in Bohol; and Devanadera in Quezon. (OPS)
7 towns, 1 city receive farm equipments in Agusan del Sur
PATIN-AY, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur (March 4) – The new city of Bayugan and seven towns in this landlocked province of Agusan del Sur received farming equipments from the provincial government.
Agusan del Sur province is considered as rice granary in Northeastern Mindanao (Caraga region).
Agusan del Sur Gov. Maria Valentina G. Plaza turned over the farm equipments with hope that more farm production will benefit thousands farmers in the province.
The source in the purchase of the farm equipments came from the Prepayment of Pre and Post Harvest Facilities (PPPHF), in line with the provincial government’s food production and food security program.
Beneficiaries of the farm equipments are the city of Bayugan and the municipalities of Esperanza, Talacogon, Prosperidad, San Francisco, Bunawan, Trento and Sta. Josefa.
Components of the equipment include hundreds rice drum seeders and a hundreds of knapsack sprayers to the different recipients as per rice cluster municipalities.
The recipients also acquired the actual demo and lecture on the direct-seeding technology, operation, care and maintenance of rice drum seeders thru the effort of the AED staff and Philrice.
The farmer-beneficiaries are thankful for the resources provided by the government which could greatly help in their livelihood.
According to the Provincial Agriculture Engineering Services (PAES), guidelines in the identification of recipients of farm equipments includes farmers who are willing to and/or already adopting direct-seeding method of planting, prioritizing graduates of Farm's Field School. Others qualified include farmer's organization/cooperative or those farmers willing to avail and amortize 50 percent of the total amount of the equipments in one year term or two cropping seasons.
After the turn over ceremony, a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was also signed between the provincial government and municipal local government units and the recipients for massive farm production. (PNA)
El Niño Dispatch
Gov’t gives 10.9-M worth of aid to El Niño-hit farmers
The Arroyo government has so far distributed P10.9 million-worth of assistance and provided emergency employment to North Luzon farmers battered by the latest onslaught of El Niño.
At the same time, President Arroyo also instructed the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to impose a moratorium on the payment by farmers of 150 kilos of palay per hectare as irrigation fees, Secretary Bernie Fondevilla of the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.
Fondevilla said the President also ordered the restructuring of loans and interest payments incurred by El Niño-hit farmers as well as moratorium on penalties from government financial institutions such as the Land Bank of the Philippines.
President Arroyo recently named Fondevilla as successor to Secretary Arthur Yap, who is running unopposed in this year’s polls for a seat in the House of Representatives for the 3rd district of Bohol. Fondevilla was formerly DA undersecretary and Yap’s chief of staff.
The P10.9 million-worth of aid, Fondevilla said, were in the form of certificates of allocation for 426 irrigation pumps to be distributed to farmers in the El-Niño hit province of Cagayan.
President Arroyo personally presented the certificates to Cagayan Gov. Alvaro Antonio and other municipal mayors of the province during a recent tour of the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle (NLAQ) Super Region.
NLAQ, whose development champion was former Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, covers the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Regions I (Ilocos), II (Cagayan Valley), and portions of Region III (Central Luzon), particularly the northern parts of the four (4) provinces of Aurora (north of Baler), Tarlac (north of Tarlac City), Nueva Ecija (north of Cabanatuan City), and Zambales (north of Subic).
Fondevilla said the 426 irrigation pumps are part of the 1,363 units worth P35.6 million being distributed by the DA as part of its El Niño mitigation package for farmers.
He said the President had announced that farmers whose crops were damaged by the dry spell will be employed in desilting rivers and other water tributaries and in repairing irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads (FMRs).
President Arroyo further said that the moratorium on the payment of irrigation fees will last till the El Niño problem exists, he said.
Farmers will also be updated on the use of science and technology to support agribusiness and mitigate the impact of harsh weather conditions like El Niño, he said.
Prior to his new Cabinet posting, Fondevilla already chaired the Presidential task force dealing with the latest El Niño onslaught, and this panel has earmarked an initial P882.18 million for the accelerated implementation of mitigation measures for farmers and fisherfolk in 14 provinces in Luzon and the Visayas.
The slew of mitigation measures range from cloud seeding to the provision of shallow tube wells (STWs) and open source pump irrigation systems to close monitoring of a possible drought-triggered outbreak of pests and diseases.
The DA’s regional field units (RFUs) in the El Niño-hit regions have drawn up with local government units (LGUs) their respective master lists of affected farmers eligible for food aid under the Emergency Food Assistance Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Separate master lists have also been prepared by RFUs and LGUs for farmer-victims qualified to enroll in skills training programs of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) or for possible emergency employment for the construction or repair of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) and irrigation facilities.
The 14 affected provinces are Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino in Northern Luzon; Bulacan and Nueva Ecija in Central Luzon; Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon in the MIMAROPA area or Region 4-B; Masbate in Bicol; and Antique, Guimaras and Negros Occidental in Western Visayas and some areas in Mindanao. (DA Press Office)
