Philippines better off today with ongoing
reforms, says President Aquino
(BOSTON, Massachusetts) The Philippines has
changed a lot and has created more opportunities for its people because of the
reform measures undertaken by the government, President Benigno S. Aquino III
said Sunday in a speech before students of Boston College and the
Filipino-American community here.
Among the major changes that have taken place in
the Philippines are the country's big strides in the economic front, the peace
in Mindanao, and government initiatives to fight corruption, he said.
The President recalled that from 2006 to 2009,
average growth was at 4.3 percent, saying this was largely consumer-driven,
fueled by the remittances of overseas workers who had lost hope in the
motherland.
Since taking office in 2010, President Aquino
said, his administration has worked to foster sustainability by rebalancing the
economy towards investments.
"Since 2010, our economy has been growing
at an average of 6.3 percent, and last year, we posted an economic growth of
7.2 percent, making us one of the fastest growing economies in our part of the
world," he told his audience.
The World Economic Forum Competitiveness Report
showed that the Philippines jumped from 85th place in 2010 to 52nd in 2014, the
biggest improvement by any country in that particular time frame.
The three major credit ratings agencies, namely
Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, also upgraded the country for the
first time to investment grade in 2013, he said, adding that these upgrades
reduced the cost of borrowing and reinforced confidence among investors to put
their money in the Philippines.
On its anti-corruption drive, the President said
the former chief Justice of the Supreme Court was impeached and is facing
charges in regular courts.
A former president and three incumbent senators
are also in detention, all of them facing charges of plunder, he added.
Focusing on social protection, he said, is also
a major thrust of the government.
The President said that 4.1 million poor
Filipino families have committed to vaccinating their children, keeping them in
school, and sending pregnant mothers for regular check-ups under the expanded
Conditional Cash Transfer program.
Job generation initiatives by the government
have also started to bear fruit, the Chief Executive said.
He said that 1.65 million more Filipinos hold
jobs in April 2014, compared to April 2013. From the first semester of 2012 to
the same period in 2013, 2.5 million Filipinos have risen above the poverty
line.
"And we are not satisfied; the government
continues to work to ensure that citizens not only surpass the poverty line and
find gainful employment, but also are shielded from once again falling below it
again," the President said.
After several decades, permanent peace is
already evident in Mindanao, he told the Boston College community.
The Executive Branch of the government, he said,
has submitted the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to Congress, after the
Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro was signed in March this year.
"Our achievements thus far are merely the
beginning of a new era of transformation," he said, noting that the
country is at the threshold of sustained and positive change.
Current reforms have shifted the Filipino
mindset, from indifference and despair to having feelings of hope for Filipinos
to dream again, he said. PND (as)
President Aquino thanks donors from Boston for
helping typhoon-devastated Visayan region
(BOSTON, Massachusetts) President Benigno S.
Aquino III has expressed his gratitude to Boston College and Filipino-Americans
who had extended assistance to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda.
"Without the help of our friends in the
international community, the path to recovery and rehabilitation would not have
been traversed as early and as efficiently," the President said in his
speech at Boston College here Sunday.
The President attended a convocation and a
reception hosted by the Filipino-American community here, and met with the
recipients of the Benigno and Corazon Aquino scholarship.
"To all my countrymen here today and to the
organizations you belong to and represent, I know that many of you here,
including our host Boston College, raised funds and sent material help to the
Yolanda survivors," he told his audience. "I would like to thank you
for your generosity and kindness."
The compassion expressed by donors from Boston
is similar to core Filipino values that remain to be a shining example of the
best that humanity has to offer, he said.
"It is the same sense of community that
welcomed us and allowed my family some warmth and light so many years ago, when
the darkness of the dictatorship threatened to overwhelm us," he added.
Prior to his meeting with the Filipino-American
community and Boston College officials and students, the President attended a
mass celebrated at St. Ignatius Church at the Boston College campus.
The President, who arrived here Saturday night,
was accompanied by some members of his Cabinet and Philippine Ambassador to the
United States Jose Cuisia, Jr. PND (as)
President Aquino recalls hardships during
Martial Law years
(BOSTON, Massachusetts) As the country marked
the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, President Aquino on
Sunday recalled his family’s sufferings under the dictatorship of former
president Ferdinand Marcos.
"Every aspect of life was controlled by the
dictator, and unless you belonged to the favored few, you had very limited
rights," the President said in a speech delivered before students and
officials of Boston College as well as Filipino-Americans here.
After then president Marcos put the entire nation
under military rule on September 21, 1972, President Aquino’s family had to
live in exile for three years in Boston. When his father, former senator
Benigno Aquino, Jr. returned to the Philippines on August 21, 1983, he was
assassinated.
"A curfew limited the time you could be
outside your home; travel abroad required official permission; and there was no
such thing as free speech, or freedom of assembly," President Aquino said.
Marcos and his cronies plundered the public
treasury, destroyed the checks and balances in government, and governed with
total impunity to kill, abduct and torture critics, according to the President.
Out of fear, or an unwillingness to take any
risk, many people stopped talking to the Aquino family, he recounted.
He noted that his father’s assassination however
became a turning point, as the Filipinos sympathized with the Aquinos, leading
to the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that also put his mother, former
president Corazon Aquino at the helm of government.
President Aquino further said that just like
during the martial law years, the country experienced about a decade of abuse
and neglect during the previous administration.
This however changed when the Filipinos gave him
the mandate to carry out reforms in government, he said.
He told his audience that present achievements
are merely the beginning of a new era of national transformation.
"We are at the threshold of sustained,
positive change in society; we have corrected the inefficiencies in government,
stopped the wrong practices, and engendered a shift in the Filipino mindset,
from one of indifference and despair, to one where we can dream again, and are
increasingly being given the wherewithal to fulfill our dreams," he said.
The nation, he said, will be building on what it
has already achieved, starting from a higher plane, towards a situation that
could harness the full potential of the Filipino people.
"And I know that if we hold fast, and keep
on the straight path, then the transformation in Philippine society can become
an enduring mainstream of justice, inclusiveness, and empowerment,"
President Aquino said. PND (as)
President Aquino pays homage to Boston, walks
down memory lane
(BOSTON, Massachusetts) President Benigno S.
Aquino III on Sunday paid homage to Boston in a 37-minute speech, replete with
anecdotes and bittersweet memories, as he looked back at his life in the early
1980s while growing up in this area.
It was a homecoming 31 years in the making.
President Aquino acknowledged it took that long for him to come back as he had
to make sure his emotions were in check before embarking on this nostalgic
trip.
“It has been 31 years since I left Boston, and
coming here for the first time since then brings back quite a lot of memories. It
was here in Boston that I experienced my first snowfall,” the President told a
Filipino-American convocation at the Robsham Theater in Boston College.
“To those of you who remember me back then as
the dog-handler, carpenter, plumber, baggage-carrier, mechanic, driver, etc.,
as that young man who found it difficult to weather your cold winters, you must
be thinking ‘how things have changed,' Boston played a significant role in
this,” he said.
President Aquino said he owed to Boston and
their friends here the “sense of normalcy” granted to his family as they tried
to comprehend the suffering they had to deal with under then president
Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship.
“It was here in Boston that I learned the value
of introspection… I consider my time here as amongst my formative years,
fortifying me for the continuation of the struggle, and arming me with relevant
experiences… It was in Boston, thanks to all our friends, that my family was
given a haven from the persecution of the dictatorship,” he said.
President Aquino lived in Boston with his family
from 1980 to 1983. He was in his early 20s then and had just graduated from
Ateneo de Manila University.
He remembered the deep conversations he had with
his father, the late Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., during those years and how
these conversations guide him whenever he has to make tough decisions.
“My father was quoting from the Bible when he
said, ‘If the time is not right, a thousand prophets will not make a
difference. But if the time is right, not even a single prophet will be
needed.’ He was proven right. Dad's death started a new movement for change,”
he said.
The elder Aquino’s assassination on August 21,
1983 ignited a people power revolution in the Philippines, catapulting his
wife, Corazon Aquino, to the presidency. President Aquino eventually followed
his parents’ footsteps after responding to public clamor for him to run for
president in 2010.
“For me, the time my family spent in Boston will
always be linked to the revolution that reclaimed democracy and our national
dignity. The solidarity we felt from Boston College and the community here was
a precursor of the solidarity displayed by the millions of Filipinos who massed
in EDSA. It is, indeed, an understatement to say that Boston is close to my
family’s heart,” he said.
President Aquino thanked the entire Boston
College community as well as the Jesuit priests whom he considered as among those
responsible for his scholastic upbringing.
"If I amounted to anything, I think the
Jesuits should be credited with, at the very least, half of what I know
today," President Aquino earlier said to Fr. William Leahy, who celebrated
the mass he attended at the St. Ignatius Church prior to the convocation.
Concluding his speech, the President left this
particular vignette about his mother to his audience: “During her visit to
Boston in the springtime of Filipino democracy in 1986, Mom said to the communities
here, ‘I wish you many splendid autumn memories this winter.’ I echo this
today, in saying: May the memories you build here be warmed by the affections
of Filipinos who, like me, found in Boston home, kindness, and kinship.” PND
(hdc)
Malacañang announces new appointments in various
agencies
Malacañang on Monday announced that President
Benigno S. Aquino III has appointed 12 new officials in various government
agencies.
In a press briefing, Deputy Presidential
Spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters that President Aquino signed the
appointment of Victor Jose Luciano as member of the Civil Aeronautics Board
under the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC).
Also appointed under the DOTC were Emigdio
Tanjuatco III as president/chief executive officer and member of the board of
directors of the Clark International Airport Corporation; and Alipio Fernandez,
Jr. and Ramil Guiao as members of the corporation’s board of directors.
Under the Department of Health, Valeriano Lopez
was appointed as Director IV; and Celia Carlos and Ruby Constantino as Acting
Directors III.
The President also appointed Lea Delfinado as
Director III under the Department of Public Works and Highways; Danilo Enriquez
as Director IV of the Bureau of Philippine Standards under the Department of
Trade and Industry; Briccio Santos as chairperson of the Film Development
Council of the Philippines; Gregorio Ramon Tingson as member representing the
youth sector under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council; and,
Reginald Villasanta as undersecterary under the Office of the President. PND
(ag)
Gov’t allots P14.8-M for President Aquino’s
visit to US
The government has earmarked P14.8 million for
President Benigno S. Aquino III’s visit to the US, where he will address a
global summit on climate change organized by the United Nations and sit down
with business leaders to discuss the investment and tourism potential of the
Philippines, Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. said on Monday.
President Aquino departed Berlin, Germany, the
last stop in his eight-day working visit to Europe, on Saturday evening for
Boston for a four-day visit beginning September 20. He will be in New York on
September 22.
President Aquino will be joined in the US by
members of his official family, namely, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del
Rosario, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory
Domingo, Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Presidential
Assistant on Climate Change Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering, Cabinet
Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Press Secretary Herminio Coloma, Presidential
Management Staff Chief Julia Andrea Abad, Presidential Protocol Chief Celia
Anna Feria, Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III and Undersecretary Rochelle
Ahorro.
The amount covers expenses for transportation,
accommodation, food, equipment and other requirements of the Chief Executive
and his delegation.
“President Aquino will underscore the experience
and successes of our country in implementing reforms and in dealing with the
problem of corruption in government to political and business leaders in the
US,” Ochoa noted.
“He sees this visit to the US as an opportunity
to push our agenda on trade, tourism, peace and security as well as further
strengthen ties between our country and the US.”
In New York, President Aquino is scheduled to
meet with the chief executive officer (CEO) of the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) and will have the opportunity to ring the NYSE bell. A breakfast
roundtable with CEOs will also be held at the NYSE.
Later in the day, the President will sit down
with CEOs of the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-ASEAN Business Council for a
business roundtable.
One of the highlights of the President’s visit
in the US is a speech before world leaders at the UN Climate Change Summit
Plenary 2014 organized by the United Nations.
“President Aquino will emphasize the need for
world leaders to stand together to address climate change and its adverse
effects on people and economies. The President is well aware of the impacts of
climate change especially to vulnerable developing counties like the
Philippines,” Ochoa said.
President Aquino is expected to be back in the
country on Thursday (September 25).
President Aquino thanks Boston College for
renaming scholarships after his parents
(BOSTON, Massachusetts) President Benigno S.
Aquino III on Sunday thanked the Boston College community for honoring his
parents, the late senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. and the late president Corazon
Aquino, by renaming the Asian American Scholarships after them.
“In this home away from home, I must also
express my deepest appreciation to Boston College for renaming the Asian
American Scholarships after my parents in 2010,” the President told a
convocation of Filipino-Americans at Boston College’s Robsham Theater.
The Benigno and Corazon Aquino Scholarships are
bestowed annually upon smart, dedicated, and courageous Asian and
Asian-American students who are entering their senior year at Boston College.
“Mom and Dad placed a very high premium on
education. They believed that a person can be famous one day, and a nobody the
next; he can be rich today, and penniless tomorrow. But education is a
permanent resource; once you have it, you can never lose it,” President Aquino
told students of the college.
“All of you who are students here bear the hopes
and dreams of your families and communities. You face the challenge of
balancing your academics with the Ignatian challenge of being a man or a woman
for others, of going beyond yourselves and truly being God's light in the
world,” he added.
Out of all the many great Asian and
Asian-Americans that embody the ideals the scholarship program stand for,
naming it after President Aquino’s parents was the perfect fit, said Professor
Min Hyoung Song, Boston College Chair of the Aquino Scholarship and Director of
the Asian American Studies Program.
“What I personally love about the name—Benigno
and Corazon Aquino—is that it tells us something about this problem for
justice. It says that one might never see the fulfillment of one’s aspirations
for justice. But that one, nevertheless, strives and finds courage to attain
it,” Song explained
“And if one fails, someone else will pick up
that struggle. That one will have inspired someone else and that it continues
on and on, that the struggle for justice never ends, and I think that’s what
this scholarship ultimately distills for our students,” he added.
President Aquino also met some of the Asian and
Asian-American recipients of the scholarship program, including Matt
Alonsozana, who spoke in behalf of his fellow scholars to deliver a message of
gratitude for the visiting Philippine head of state.
“Mr. President, the scholarship named in honor
of your parents is not so much an occasion to which we here at Boston College
celebrate past deeds. Instead, the bestowal of this award is an acknowledgment
by our community that the principles and ideals of your parents illustrate that
which we are called here to do at Boston College: to give and not to count the
cost, to fight and not to heave the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to seek reward, to be men and women for others now and
forevermore,” Alonsozana said.
The connection between Boston College and the
Aquino family dates back to the early 1980s, when the latter occupied the house
at 175 Commonwealth Avenue, which is a short distance away from the school.
President Aquino’s younger sister, Viel
Aquino-Dee, in fact completed her college education here. The Chief Executive
also said he spent a lot of time in its St. Ignatius Church back in the day.
“Each year, we award the Benigno and Corazon
Aquino scholarship in recognition of their commitment to justice, democracy,
and service of others. So today’s events, our presence here, reaffirm the links
between Boston College and the Philippines,” said Fr. William Leahy, president
of the Boston College. PND (hdc)
Flood control projects to be completed by August
2015, says Palace
In the aftermath of Typhoon Mario that left
parts of Metro Manila submerged in floodwaters, the government is optimistic
that it can complete its flood control projects by August next year, a Palace
official said on Monday.
In a press briefing, Deputy Presidential
Spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters that the Department of Public Works
and Highways (DPWH) will look for other sources of funds to complete the
projects.
“Sabi ni (DPWH) Secretary (Rogelio) Singson,
while there were infrastructure projects na flood-related affected by the DAP
decision, hahanapan nila ng ibang funding source ito,” said Valte.
She noted that the DPWH has identified the three
main causes of flooding in Metro Manila -- the clogged waterways, small and old
drainage, and garbage that find their way into the sewage system.
Meanwhile, Valte said President Benigno S.
Aquino III has directed his Cabinet to give the typhoon victims assistance,
restore power supply, and make passable all flooded roads for relief efforts.
“Siguraduhin na kahit umaaraw na ay patuloy pa
rin ang pagtulong ng pambansang pamahalaan,” she said, referring to the
President’s instruction.
According to Valte, power has been restored in
Apayao, Laguna, Batangas, Quezon and Rizal. PND (ag)
