President Aquino to meet different sectors this
week
President Benigno S. Aquino III will meet
various sectors this week to work with them find ways in speeding up national
development, the Palace said Monday.
In a statement, Presidential spokesman Edwin
Lacierda said the President has always emphasized the role of local government
units in the development of the country that’s why he is meeting with them this
week.
The President will administer the oath of office
for the oathtaking of the Leagues of Local Government Units and Elective
Officials, and speak at the general assembly of the League of Municipalities of
the Philippines (LMP).
President Aquino will also lead the conferment
ceremonies of the 16th Philippine Quality Awards recognizing exemplary
performance of entities in the public and private sectors that have contributed
to the competitiveness and productivity of the country, Lacierda said.
The Palace official said the President will also
attend the Original Filipino Music Summit to meet different stakeholders in the
industry and push its development, he said. PND (as)
Palace spells out benefits of increased
rotational presence of US forces in PHL
Sealing an agreement for an increased rotational
presence of American forces in the Philippines will bring in wide-ranging
benefits for the country, a Palace official said.
The agreement, which will be buoyed on existing
agreements with the US such as the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Mutual
Defense Treaty, will certainly help the Philippines in terms of technology
transfer and disaster response, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a
press briefing in Malacanang on Monday.
“The reason why it helps is because there’s some
technology transfer, there’s knowledge sharing between the American forces and
the Philippine forces when they do conduct military exercises,” Lacierda told
reporters.
“It improves the quality of the Philippines’s
defense in terms of preparedness. And let me also emphasize that a part of this
rotational presence is now focusing on disaster preparedness and disaster reduction,”
he added.
The Philippine government sees a big improvement
when it comes to increased rotational presence particularly when the American
military sent its assets to the Central Visayas in the aftermath of Typhoon
Yolanda.
The US sent ships, planes, helicopters and
military vehicles to assist in transporting relief goods, supplies and
equipment in the affected Visayas region.
A new agreement does not need ratification of
the Philippine Senate because an increased rotational presence pact with the US
will be built on previous agreements already ratified by the Senate.
“It is an agreement that builds upon... or to be
implemented based on the provisions of the Mutual Defense Treaty, as well as
the Visiting Forces Agreement. Both agreements have been ratified by the
Senate,” Lacierda said.
“So in the view of the Executive branch, these
are mainly provisions which implement both treaties that have already been
previously ratified by the Senate.” PND (as)
Palace backs Immigration Bureau's offloading of
travelers; says it’s a move to curb human trafficking
The Palace defends the Bureau of Immigration’s
move of offloading passengers leaving abroad with dubious intentions saying the
intetion is to protect the public from human trafficking syndicates.
“The idea behind the guidelines here is not to
prevent a traveler—somebody who wants to travel with all the completed
documents to be prevented from traveling,” Presidential spokesman Edwin
Lacierda said in a press briefing in Malacanang on Monday.
“These guidelines were meant to protect our
citizen’s from human trafficking, and also to let the criminal syndicates know
that we know what they do. This is primarily to protect our citizens from human
trafficking,” he added.
Human trafficking syndicates know how to exploit
the system, he said, and the government must act to counter those illegal acts.
To bring people outside the country, syndicates let undocumented Filipinos hide
in plain sight by acting as tourists.
“The guidelines were set up precisely to look
into some benchmarks or some points where an Immigration officer will be able
to, at the very least, detect tell-tale signs of human trafficking,” he noted.
The Bureau of Immigration clarified that
Filipino travelers are not required to prove financial capacity to travel as
tourists or overseas workers, and their right to travel remains enshrined in
the Constitution.
Offloading individuals leaving overseas is not a
policy, but a consequence of the implementation of government guidelines,
explained Immigration chief Siegfred Mison.
People with complete travel documents,
particularly those holding authentic passports and other documents issued by a
foreign country such as a tourist or working visa, are allowed to leave, Mison
said.
Offloading is not a power of the immigration
bureau to bar anyone from leaving the country and it is not an official
government policy, according to Mison.
Mison said the guidelines were established by
the bureau and the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking and approved by the
Department of Justice. PND (as)
Coloma underscores truthful, complete
information for effective communication
(TAGAYTAY CITY) Presidential Communications
Operations Office Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr. on Monday emphasized
the importance of a complete, truthful and unified communications that would
help the public in making responsible decisions.
Secretary Coloma talked about the Aquino
administration’s communication directions during the 2014 Department of Labor
and Employment (DOLE) Communications Planning Workshop held here in Tagaytay
City.
“Naniniwala ang Pangulo na ang mahalaga sa lahat
ay bigyan ng tama at sapat na impormasyon ang mga mamamayan,” the secretary
told the participants of the Labor communications planning workshop.
“Kapag natanggap na nila ito, sila na mismo ang
magpapasya; sila na ang magkukusang-loob na kumilos para baguhin ‘yung kanilang
buhay, baguhin ang buhay ng kanilang komunidad at magbagong-tatag ng isang mas
matibay na bansa,” he added.
Secretary Coloma said the government’s
philosophy of an effective communication is “truth-telling, awareness-creation,
and consciousness-raising.” He said the administration does not promote
propaganda and censorship.
The secretary also said that the government
focuses on the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the administration’s
development framework that seeks to address poverty, as well as achieve inclusive
and sustainable socio-economic growth.
In communicating with the public, Coloma said
that the government and its agencies should communicate a unified message. He
said the media should be given timely and complete information, and they should
be treated with respect and encourage professionalism.
He also cited that President Aquino speaks in
the Filipino language in his speeches as he wants to reach all Filipinos not
only the audience of the event venue. “Naniniwala ang Pangulo, tuwing siya ay nagsasalita,
ang audience niya ay buong bansa,” he said.
The Department of Labor and Employment held a
two-day communications planning workshop in Tagaytay City, which was attended
by employees from the Labor Communications Office, as well as various regional
offices and attached agencies. PND (co)
