President Aquino opens Global Development
Conference
President Benigno S. Aquino III was the Guest of
Honor and keynote speaker during the formal opening ceremony of the Global
Development Network’s (GDN) 14th Annual Global Development Conference held at
the Asian Development Bank Headquarters in Mandaluyong City on Wednesday.
The GDN is an international organization that
builds research capacity and supports researchers in developing and
transitioning countries to generate and share high quality applied social
science research to inform policymakers in advancing social and economic
development.
In his speech, the President said the
Philippines’ hosting, the first Southeast Asian country to do so, of ththel
oval Development Conference was being done at an “appropriate time” since it
coincided with the 152nd birth anniversary of the country’s national hero Jose
Rizal, whom the President said had taken a “hands-on” approach to development.
“We hold this Global Development Conference in
our country at an appropriate time. Today is the 152nd birth anniversary of our
national hero, Jose Rizal, who was largely responsible for steering our nation
down the path of equality and, subsequently, development,” the President said.
“Few people know that during his exile in
Dapitan, Rizal took a hands-on approach to development. He established a school
and started a medical practice, effectively taking the role of
community-builder in a far-flung area of the Philippines,” he added.
Aside from the three-day conference with its
theme “Inequality, Social Protection, and Inclusive Growth,” the GDN also
features an annual search for the Outstanding Research for Development which
was won for the Philippines in 2011 by University of Santo Tomas Professors
Alvin Ang and Jeremiah Opiniano in Bogota, Colombia.
The two professors won the 2011 contest with
their research proposal titled “Remittance Investment Climate Analysis for
Rural Hometowns (Ricart): Piloting a Tool to Determine where Overseas Filipinos
from Two Rural Hometowns can Best Invest their Money.”
The teachers said they wanted to test the tool,
Ricart, on how remittances by overseas Filipinos to two fourth-class rural
municipalities can be best directed for investment and development finance.
The President cited the GDN’s annual competition
which show that despite the continuance of human desire to empower, “the
problems that confront us have changed since Rizal’s era.”
“More than a century after Rizal’s death, people
all around the world continue to share that human desire to empower, as
evidenced by your presence here. May I note in particular how Alvin Ang and
Jeremiah Opiniano won the annual competition for outstanding research for
development in 2011. This is the first and only time the Philippines has won
this competition,” the President said.
“As your annual competition within this
conference shows, the problems that confront us have changed since Rizal’s era.
Countries the world over have found themselves beset by social unrest—unrest
that roots from a prevalent public perception that the people’s voice is not
being heard. This global flux has brought about significant social and economic
consequences for the entire world—and it pushes us to evolve the way we
think—from the way we approach development to the way we go about solving our
problems. And this is precisely why we find ourselves here today,” he added.
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Aquino says Global Development Conference
provide ‘specific, more effective, and more strategic’ solutions to global
problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, lack of education and corruption
President Benigno S. Aquino III said on
Wednesday that the holding of the Global Development Networks’ (GDN) Annual
Global Development Conference provides policymakers with “specific, more
effective, and more strategic” solutions to the global problems of poverty,
hunger, unemployment, lack of education and corruption.
Keynoting the GDN’s 14th Annual GDC held at the
Asian Development Bank main office in Mandaluyong City, the President said the
GDC “puts more solidity to the analysis of the problem,” and has helped
government provide interventions where it matters and do the most good.
“We have long heard that the first step in
solving a problem is acknowledging there is a problem. But perhaps we can build
on that idea: The first step to solving any problem should be identifying the
correct problem, otherwise any solution would be directionless, and therefore
ineffective,” the President said.
“This conference helps us do just that. It puts
more solidity to the analysis of the problem, which will hopefully redound to
more specific, more effective, and more strategic solutions,” he added.
He stressed that it was incumbent of governments
to ensure inclusive growth for its people in order to empower them to maximize
opportunities that come their way.
“For most of the developing world, the
overarching problems can be summed up in a few words: Poverty, hunger, unemployment,
lack of education, corruption. These are not unique to any one country or
people—each of us have seen or experienced them and their effects,” the
President said.
“All these problems combine to deprive people of
hope, initiative, and opportunities. And while no one can guarantee outcomes, I
believe it is incumbent upon government to provide meaningful opportunities to
individuals, and an environment conducive to empowering our fellow citizens to
seek out and maximize opportunities that come their way. We cannot have a
society where a few flourish, and the rest must make do-with crumbs. We must
have inclusive growth,” he said.
The President highlighted the Philippines’
efforts at achieving inclusive growth through its social and infrastructure programs
such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that provides financial
assistance to families that keep their children in school and consult with
healthcare personnel; and close the classroom gap that will allow more children
to attend school.
He pointed out that the next phase of “continued
interventions” include mass housing, job creation, tourism and agriculiture.
“The next three years will see continued
interventions on the poorest of the poor but also, a focus on the vulnerable
but emerging sectors of society, all made possible by prudent public finance
policies and honesty in public administration: by continuing efforts to build
mass housing on site and not in far-flung areas; by creating durable jobs in
industry, tourism and agriculture,” the President said.
“This is what our government has chosen to do.
The difficulty is that while the problems may be universal, the solutions are
not.
Each region, each country, each city and town
has its own reality—and the solutions we come up with must be tailored fit to
local conditions. This means that our solutions may not be the best for your
own communities, and we must study their effects and how to maximize positive
interventions in a specific and thorough manner,” he concluded. PND (rck)
President Aquino declares June 21 as special
non-working day in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur in celebration of 44th
Charter Day
President Benigno S. Aquino III has declared
June 21, which falls on a Friday, as a special (non-working day) in Pagadian
City in the province of Zamboanga del Sur in celebration of its 44th Charter
Day.
The Chief Executive issued the declaration
through Proclamation No. 603 signed by Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr.
on June 14, to give the people of Pagadian City the full opportunity to
celebrate and participate in the occasion with appropriate ceremonies.
Pagadian became a chartered city through
Republic Act 5478. The city is currently the capital of the province of
Zamboanga del Sur. PND (js)
Aquino administration orders local government
units to prevent relocated informal settlers from returning to danger zones
The Aquino administration directed the local government
units (LGUs) to prevent relocated informal settlers living in the waterways
from returning to danger zones or face sanctions, Public Works and Highways
Secretary Rogelio Singson said on Wednesday.
Singson said in a press briefing in Malacanang on
Wednesday that local government officials are mandated by law to ensure that no
settlers will live in the waterways and other dangers zones.
The DPWH and other concerned government agencies
reiterated their commitment to President Benigno S. Aquino III to clear eight
major waterways in Metro Manila of some 19,440 informal settlers within this
year.
The eight priority waterways are San Juan River,
Pasig River, Tullahan River, Maricaban Creek, Manggahan Floodway, Estero Tripa
de Gallina, Estero de Maypajo and Estero de Sunog Apog.
"Ang sistema kasi dito, inuuna mo iyong
nasa bukana ng Manila Bay at saka ng Pasig River, para maganda iyong daloy.
Kasi kung maguumpisa ka sa upstream hindi din makakalabas sa main bodies of
water. So inuna naming ang San Juan River, Maricaban, Tullahan River, at iyong
nabanggit ko kanina Estero Sunog Apog, Estero Maypajo ang mga palabas na ng
Manila Bay at Pasig River. These have to be cleared immediately. Tapos paakyat
kami upstream," Singson said.
"We will work on the first 20,000 families,
in fact, we have started. May mga voluntary resettlements na. There are ongoing
programs and we have to follow and give notices to these communities. That
responsibility is being undertaken by Interior and Local Government Secretary
Manuel Roxas and merong team na kasama ang Department of Social Welfare and
Development at ang National Housing Authority," Singson said.
The government is adopting a near-site or even
on-site relocation policy for informal settlers residing along the waterways of
Metro Manila.
Presidential Communications Development and
Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ramon Carandang, for his part, said
concerned government agencies are ensuring safe and permanent housing sites and
livelihood programs for families living in the so-called “danger zones.”
"Out of that 100,000, there is about 60,000
families living in waterways in and around Metro Manila. Of the 60,000, about
20,000 live in what they call priority waterways. Iyon ang pinakaimportante na
kailangan ma-clear. It’s actually 19,440 families," Carandang said.
"So you have to talk to them, you have to
get them to buy into the idea, iyong tinatawag na “social acceptability”.
Admittedly, that takes some time. Kapag pumayag na sila, we have to build the
houses. We don’t want a situation where you build a house, lilipat sila doon
tapos after a few months babalik sila. So you have to think about what are they
going to do for livelihood that will make them stay there," Carandang
noted.
The government is already developing a prototype
project for this near or on-site relocation program.
"In 2012, despite the constraints that
Secretary Singson mentioned, the NHA built 18,000 houses for families living
near esteros. They plan to build almost double that this year," Carandang
said. PND (js)
Government says it has three-pronged approach to
address flooding
The government said it is already working on a
master plan containing a three-pronged approach to solve the annual flooding
and traffic congestion problems particularly in Metro Manila in the long term.
In a press conference in Malacanang on
Wednesday, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson said the master
plan will cover a total area of over 4,000 square kilometers and involve about
17 million people.
Among the areas covered will be Metro Manila,
parts of Bulacan, Rizal, Quezon, and the whole catchment basin of Laguna Lake,
Singson said.
For the first time after years of neglect, the
Aquino administration adopted a master plan for flood control which is already
embedded in the NEDA program, he said.
The plan will involve the removal of 20,000
informal settlers living along waterways, drainage system improvement and
upgrading of pumping stations especially in Metro Manila, the official said.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority
(MMDA), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and
National Housing Authority (NHA) have already identified eight major waterways
that need to be cleared and fund is now available to carry out the project.
“‘Pinag-usapan ito kahapon with President
Aquino, at may timetable na, may schedule na sila Secretary Manuel Roxas to
implement dahil ang funding is already there. So the funding is not an issue.
We just need time to be able to implement all of these major projects that we
are undertaking,” he said.
Singson said there must be an aggressive clean
up drive for Metro Manila’s waterways because they were so blocked that waters
coming from Sierra Madre can’t go down with ease to Manila Bay and Pasig River.
The MMDA said it started cleaning esteros and
waterways last May but hasn’t penetrated 55 percent of blocked areas due to the
presence of informal settlers.
To upgrade the drainage systems based on the
master plan, construction works are ongoing in Metro Manila, the MMDA said.
There are 26 drainage systems being upgraded in
the City of Manila, 13 in Quezon City, and two in EDSA. Constructions are also
ongoing in Pasay City and Paranaque City, he noted.
According to Singson, the biggest project of the
DPWH is the construction of the Blumentritt box culvert or water tunnel to
address metro flooding. The Blumentritt culvert will run from Dapitan to Tondo
in Manila with a span of 2.6 kilometers.
The box culvert has a width of 3.6 meters and
height of 2.7 meter, Singson said. But since the drainage system will be 2.6
kilometers long, he appealed to the public to be patient before everyone could
feel its effect. It will take the DPWH 12 months to construct, he said.
The improvement of pumping stations will be
managed by the MMDA and it already has the money to upgrade 12 major pumping
stations in Metro Manila, Singson said.
Singson further said that there is also
non-infrastructure or non-structural measures to be implemented to address
flooding, he said. Among these include Project NOAH that involve resettlement,
flood drills, and an enhanced information system.
Because Project NOAH was already able to do a
flood modeling system, it could predict flooding in Pasig and Marikina Rivers,
the official said. PND (as)
Palace says it won’t tolerate sexual abuses on
Mid-East OFWs
Malacanang said it would not tolerate the
alleged “sex-for-repatriation” scam in the Middle East especially if the
practice is proven to be true.
Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential
Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) said the
Palace is leaving it to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to handle
the issue.
He said Secretary del Rosario was meeting
Wednesday afternoon with Rep. Walden Bello who made the accusation on abuses
committed by Philippine Embassy staffs. Based on that discussion, Malacanang
will take appropriate action, Carandang said.
“Let’s let DFA establish the facts first and if
these reports are true, then, certainly, we will not tolerate that,” Carandang
said.
Malacanang called on overseas Filipino workers
who have been victims of an alleged scam in the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait to
come forward to file appropriate complaints to hold the perpetrators
accountable.
On Tuesday, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson
Abigail Valte said the Department of Foreign Affairs has stepped in and has
already instructed the Head of the Embassy in Kuwait and act on this
Reports of the alleged sex-for-repatriation
practice of officials and personnel in the Philippine Embassy in Kuwait
surfaced this week when an unidentified female OFW, who was part of a group of
46 housemaids deported from the Kuwaiti Deportation Center, complained about
sexual demands of an “embassy official” in exchange for her repatriation. PND
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Aquino government pays tribute to Rizal in
commemoration of 152nd birth anniversary
The Aquino government is paying tribute to Dr.
Jose Rizal, through the social media, in commemoration of the 152nd birth
anniversary of the country's national hero .
"June 19, 2013 is the 152nd birth
anniversary of Dr. Jose P. Rizal. Today, the Presidential Communications
Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) pays tribute to his life,
works, and achievements through an online commemoration in the Presidential
Museum and Library website, and its attached social media accounts in Facebook
and Tumblr," PCDSPO Secretary Ramon Carandang said in a statement during
the regular briefing in Malacanang on Wednesday.
"We encourage all to participate in this
observance by using the hashtag: #Rizal152. This page features the continuation
of PCDSPO’s digital colorization project, with three new archival photographs
digitally rendered in color," Carandang said.
"Also featured is Rizal’s celebrated toast
to the painters Juan Luna and Felix Resurrección Hidalgo, published in the
original Spanish and in the English translation, with a recording by Audie
Gemora," he said.
Born on June 19, 1861, José Protacio Rizal
Mercado y Alonso Realonda became the most prominent Filipino nationalist for
advocating reforms through peaceful means rather than by violent revolution in
the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era.
Rizal was the seventh of eleven children and
belonged to a wealthy family in the town of Calamba, Laguna. He attended the
Ateneo Municipal de Manila and graduated Bachelor of Arts. He took up medicine
and Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas.
Rizal traveled alone to Madrid, Spain, where he
continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid and earned the
degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He also enrolled at the University of Paris
and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg.
Aside from being conversant in at least 10
languages, Rizal was a poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist.
His most famous works were his two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El
Filibusterismo.
As a prominent political figure, Rizal was the founder
of La Liga Filipina in 1892, a civic organization that subsequently led to the
organization of the Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng
Bayan led by Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo.
Rizal’s execution on December 30, 1896 made him
a martyr of the Philippine Revolution. PND (js)
