President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday expressed admiration over the new 300-seater call center facility of the Ambergris Solutions Inc. at the Ortigas Center, visibly pleased with the skills of the customer information representatives in speaking several accents of the English language fluently.

The President, who attended Tuesday night the expansion ceremonies at the Ambergris office, particularly took interest on the skills of Sugar Castence, a new college graduate who took on the job of customer information representative and has become very good in articulating the different accents of American English.

"You have a very good Texan accent," the President told her after listening to a demonstration.

Ambergris Solutions chairman and chief executive officer John Suits, who led the President on a short tour of the facility, explained that the firm has made it a point that its customer service representatives are very skilled in English-speaking as their "clients feel more at ease when they hear familiar accents."

Suits noted that Ambergris has grown from 25 to 300 employees in its first year of operations.

A provider of offshore customer care solutions to United States-based clients in the utilities, information technology, travel and hospitality, telecommunications and financial service industries, Ambergris is expected to boost the Philippines’ drive to become the world’s premier call center location.

Call centers, most of whose clients are American and British companies, are becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing industries.

The Philippines’ abundant supply of American-accented English-speaking college graduates, who are among the world’s most highly-trained, articulate and customer-oriented, is attracting heads of overseas companies aiming to cut costs and improve service.

According to the company background distributed to the media, Ambergris has invested heavily on a reliable and flexible technology platform, featuring the latest in customer relationship management technology. It has partnered with marketing services giant Harte Hanks Inc. to offer a full range of customer care solutions.

"Through our expertise and our facilities, we want to provide the market with the high-tech backbone and full service focus needed to effectively complete on a global scale," Ambergris director Javier Infante said.

The Philippines ranks second, next to India, among Asian countries in making a bid for the global call center market. Despite the economic slowdown, the call center sector has proven to be a success in the country, generating thousands of jobs as well as foreign currency revenue.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines projects revenue from this sector to increase from $173 million in 2002 to a whopping $864 million in 2004.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Tony Tan Keng Yam of the Republic of Singapore today agreed that the Philippines and Singapore should widen and strengthen their intelligence cooperation to combat the terrorist menace strategically and globally.

"If we can move together, we can strengthen both our security and economic cooperation because the war against terrorism is another kind of war," the President told Tan during their 30-minute conversation held in Malacaņang’s Music Room this morning.

During the call, President informed Tan that the network of the international terrorists is now moving internationally and may be targeting Asia, particularly Singapore, as the next possible victim.

"The network is moving toward Southeast Asia so that’s why we need to work together to prevent their possible attack," the President told Tan.

In response, Tan informed the President that Singapore is extending its support to the regional agreement initiated by the Philippines for unified efforts with Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia in the fight against terrorism.

"We believe this is a long and difficult war. We believe that no country today is immune to the threat of terrorism," Tan said.

Tan pledged to the President that the Singaporean government would provide more information to the Philippines with regards to the Jemayah Islamiyah.

He also inform the President that Singapore has intensified measures to prevent a terrorist attack in the country because the Singapore government strongly believes that the September 11, 2001 terror attack in the United States "is an attack on the whole civilized world."

"It’s a serious and present danger to all of us. During my fruitful meeting with President Macapagal-Arroyo, we agreed to intensify our efforts in the area of information and intelligence," Tan said during an interview by members of the Foreign Correspondent Association of the Philippines and Malacaņang reporters after the meeting.

Tan met earlier with Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes on anti-terrorism and security cooperation and offered intelligence-gathering help, including information on terror suspects arrested in Singapore.

He also revealed that the Singaporean government had agreed to the proposal of Secretary Reyes that the defense departments of the Philippines and Singapore conduct defense studies, particularly in the National Safety College in the Philippines and the Defense School in Singapore.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said she will spend Christmas in Baguio City together with members of her family.

"Well, even before I was President, we used to spend a lot of time in Baguio. So I think we will do that again," the President told members of the Malacanang Press Corps during a luncheon meeting at the Palace’s State Dining Room.

She also said she will concentrate her efforts in the new year to providing housing and jobs to the people, particularly the poor.

The President recalled that when her three children were still babies, they used to go to Baguio and then go down to the beach. "So, probably, we’ll do the same," she added.

Last year, the President and her family also celebrated Christmas in the City of Pines.

According to the President, when her parents, former President Diosdado Macapagal and former First Lady Evangeline Macapagal, were alive, they spent the Christmas holidays in nearby places like Taiwan and Hong Kong.

However, since her parents died, "we have not done that anymore," she added.

The President also said that she is trying to work out some Christmas and New Year messages for the Filipino people.

"I don’t want them to think of next year as a year of sitting and waiting," she said.

The President said she wants to take the opportunity of spending her efforts and time in the year 2003 by providing housing and jobs to the Filipino people.

"If you remember, I said that my number one priority for the next six months is small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and then the second one is that I want to attend to is housing," she said.

The President also said that she was gratified that about 500,000 housing units will be built over the next year and a half.

On the administration’s job generation efforts, the President said SMEs are very labor intensive and they are very useful users of capital.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today announced a government internship program for the youth so that they can inculcate from their own experience, such things as family values, rule of law, peace, moral standards and governance.

The Chief Executive made this announcement during a luncheon meeting with members of the Malacaņang Press Corps this afternoon at Malacaņang’s State Dining Room.

"Since I am going to speak before the business sector on Friday (December 13), we will ask the business community if they could help to create jobs through internship," she said.

The President said the internship program may be held for a minimum of three months and will start in the Office of the President.

She said that in 2001 she also announced an internship program for the youth but added that she wants "to make it bigger this time."

The President said she is allocating P5 million for this year’s internship program for the youth under the Office of the President alone. "That should be OP. But it is a program where I am encouraging other departments as well to have," she said.

According to the President, an executive order will be issued soon to make the program operational.

The President stressed that the EO is simple and it will be called the Youth’s Program. It will be composed of the internship program (government wide) to start in the Office of the President and other programs for the youth as maybe recommended by the National Youth Commission or the Office of the President.

The Youth’s Program will have Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Head Silvestre Afable, Jr. as adviser.

The President said there is going to be a secretariat within the PMS that will implement the internship program, adding that the PMS will draft the implementing rules.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today presented awards to six towns and six cities for being child-friendly, protecting the children’s right to survival, development, protection and participation.

Alicia town in Isabela, which won for the third consecutive year this year, was also presented the Hall of Fame award during ceremonies held at Malacanang this afternoon for the Fourth Search for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities in the country.

The President presented a presidential citation and trophy to Alicia Mayor Napoleon S. Dy for being a Hall of Fame awardee and national winner for the First to Third-Class Municipalities category.

The President was assisted by Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose D. Lina, Jr. and Executive Director Lina B. Laigo of the Council for the Welfare of Children in presenting the trophies, plaques of recognition and cash awards to the winners.

In the Highly-Urbanized Cities category, the national winner was Olongapo City. The first runner-up award went to Butuan City and the second runner-up winner was Baguio City.

Tuguegarao City was cited as national winner in the Component Cities category while Surigao City and Naga City were adjudged as first and second runners-up.

For the First to Third-Class Municipalities category, the national winner was Alicia. First runner-up was to Jordan in Guimaras and the second runner-up was Balagtas, Bulacan.

The national winner in the Fourth to Sixth-Class Municipalities category was Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur while the first runner-up was Calape, Bohol and the second runner-up Anao, Tarlac.

The child-friendly movement is a growing worldwide effort to operationalize the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It involves children themselves, families, communities, church groups and the government.

Launched in November 1998, the general objective of the search is to institutionalize a child-friendly environment in the promotion of the right of children to survival, development, protection and participation.

Specifically, it aims to:

• Give national recognition to municipalities and cities that are considered child-friendly;

• Encourage local government units (LGUs) to prioritize and address issues/concerns affecting the full realization of the rights of children;

• Heighten the awareness of LGUs on the rights of children; and,

Malacaņang today said the ruling by the Supreme Court calling for a cooling-off period of 30 days between the government and the Philippine International Air Terminals Co., Inc. (PIATCO) for them to resolve the PIATCO contracts was not a rebuff on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as projected by some sectors.

In a press briefing in Malacaņang, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz said that all that the high court asked was for both parties to submit their respective legal positions within 30 days.

Cruz said that in response to a query from the lawyers of PIATCO, the Supreme Court said that within this 30-day period, the parties could talk to each other. "Like in all cases, while the case is being tried or heard by the court, the parties are free to talk to each other," he said.

According to Cruz, the high court will definitely decide on the merits of the case after the opposing parties file their respective memoranda within 30 days.

Cruz, however, insisted that the government has already taken the position that the five contracts on the construction of Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) involving PIATCO are null and void.

This was the position taken by the Office of the Solicitor General during the hearing at the Supreme Court last Tuesday, Cruz said.

Although the final say on the matter would still come from the Supreme Court, the executive branch is not going to implement the "illegal contracts" with PIATCO, Cruz said.

Cruz also brushed aside reports that it was the intervention of business tycoon Lucio Tan that prompted the government to declare the contracts with PIATCO as null and void, saying that Tan has no claim to the terminal project anymore.

He explained that the Asia’s Emerging Dragons Corp. (AEDC), with Tan as a major incorporator, has already withdrawn its petition in court. "That means the claim of the AEDC is already foreclosed," Cruz said.

Secondly, according to Cruz, Tan, being the owner of the Philippine Airlines, cannot run an airport terminal because there will be a conflict of interest.

In a related development, Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao today confirmed that Secretary Gloria Tan-Climaco, who headed a task force that reviewed the contracts with PIATCO, has asked to be relieved of her full-time job as presidential adviser, which is a Cabinet post.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said the issue on the call for the house arrest of former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada should be left to the courts because "that’s the rule of law."

"Well, I leave it up to the courts," the Chief Executive said in response to a question raised by a journalist during her regular luncheon meeting with the members of the Malacaņang Press Corps at the Palace’s State Dining room.

The President said that since the plunder cases of Estrada are now with the Sandiganbayan, it is this court that should decide on whether to grant house arrest to Estrada.

She also defended Chairman Michael Defensor of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) on his recent visit to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where Estrada and his son, former San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada, are in detention.

"I don’t think you can attribute ill motives to Mike. Because if you remember, Mike is the very, very first congressman to move for (Estrada’s) impeachment," the President said.

The President recalled that when the "Spice Boys" were having lunch with her while she was still vice president, Defensor was already raising the impeachment issue against the former president.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today Congress’ action on proposals to amend the Constitution should be allowed to take its course, reiterating her position that she is not against any debate on the issue.

She stressed, however, that the issue of charter change should not be tied with the issue of postponing the elections in 2004.

"I respect the sense of Congress," she told members of the Malacanang Press Corps during their regular luncheon meeting.

She recalled that during a meeting with various political parties recently, she made known her position that as far as constitutional change is concerned, "I am not against any discussion, I am not against a debate."

She said she even gave her contributions to the debate.

She said that for the parliamentary system to succeed, "we will need a law to strengthen political parties, we will need a law to strengthen mass movements."

On the other hand, she also said, for a federal system of government to succeed, there are prerequisites that must be in place. "A federal form of government is made up of entities that are economically and politically autonomous," she said.

She then said the worthiness of the various sides of the debate on proposals to amend the charter should not be distracted by tying it up with the 2004 elections.

In a press briefing later, Secretary Rigoberto Tiglao, Presidential Spokesman and Chief of Staff of the Office of the President, said: "There will be an election therefore in 2004. No force, no move, no action on anyone’s part, legal or illegal, can stop the election in 2004."

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said she had signed an Executive Order creating the Anti-Smuggling Investigation and Intelligence Center which is going to be headed by former Dangerous Drugs Board Executive Director Miguel Coronel.

The Chief Executive made the announcement during her regular luncheon meeting with the members of the Malacaņang Press Corps at Malacaņang’s State Dining Room.

The President said that the Executive Order "will specially take care of the smuggling that goes on outside the Customs area because the Bureau of Customs jurisdiction is within the Customs area."

On vegetable smuggling, the President told the Malacanang reporters that Presidential Security Group Commander Brigadier General Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. will personally head the task force to address the smuggling of vegetables.

"Wherever they are coming from, that’s part of his (Esperon’s) job as task force head to trace," she stressed.

The President also said that she had already directed Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo to stop the Bureau of Plant Industry from issuing permits to import vegetables to protect the Benguet farmers.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said she has directed Philippine Ambassador to the United States Albert del Rosario to make sure that the 100 Filipinos expected to be deported to the Philippines within the next few days for illegally staying in the US "are treated humanely."

In her regular luncheon meeting with some members of the Malacaņang Press Corp, the President said that the treatment after 63 Filipinos underwent when they were deported in June this year should not be repeated. On their trip back home those deported Filipinos were handcuffed.

"Precisely I protested against that treatment that time. So it will be much much more humane this time," the President said.

The new deportees, arrested in different parts of the US would be flown out of San Diego, California to Clark Field in Pampanga or the Subic Freeport in Zambales in the next eight days.

According to the Ambassador del Rosario, the deportees, four of them women, will be treated humanely and in a manner consistent with the dignity of each individual without compromising the security of the passengers and the aircraft.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today assured that there will be no disruption in the supply of water in Metro Manila.

In her regular luncheon meeting with members of the Malacaņang Press Corps, the President stated: "The most important thing that I would like to convey is that the water service will continue uninterrupted."

The President said the government is trying to work out something with the concessionaires on what could be done to ensure that the water service will be uninterrupted and that prices will remain as stable as possible.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Simeon Datumanong, who is chairman of Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS), said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, after meeting with the President there, that there is still the possibility that the kinks in the contract between Maynilad Water Services Inc. and the MWSS could be resolved within a 90-day period.

Datumanong said the MWSS has 30 days to respond to the notice of early termination filed by Maynilad.

He said that if there will be no compromise settlement with Maynilad, water distribution will revert back to the MWSS.