More than a hundred families in Rev. Aglipay Street, Barangay Old Zaniga, Mandaluyong City are no longer squatters in their own country as of today.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on the first day of the long Filipino Christmas season, distributed 131 certificates of occupancy to three five-story walk-up buildings to former squatters in the area.

"Dating mga squatters, ngayon hindi na squatter sa sariling bayan," (You are now no longer squatters in your own country,)" the President told the awardees of the certificates of occupancy, led by Ms. Cely Cabrera, president of the local Community Association.

A few hours before bringing early Christmas cheers to the residents of Mandaluyong, the President joined the faithful for the first of nine "Simbang Gabi" at the San Miguel Church near Malacañang and then immediately motored to the Malacañang Park for the annual distribution of Christmas goodies to residents of some 20 barangays around Malacañang.

"Salamat sa Pangulo mayroon na kaming sariling bahay (Thanks to the President we now have our own home)," one of the beneficiaries of the Medium-Rise Housing Project in Mandaluyong said.

Housing, jobs and the provision of livelihood assistance for small and medium enterprises make up three of the eight-point priority programs of the President for the next six months.

The Chief Executive said that when she was not yet the president and visited urban poor communities, she would ask the residents what they wanted most out of life, and they would answer "pabahay," a house of their own.

That is why when she became President, she said, she decided to jumpstart housing, a sector considered to effect the biggest multiplier.

The building of Medium-Rise Housing was adopted in Mandaluyong City, which is a high-density urban area where the cost of land is too high and beyond the affordability of the targeted clientele.

The Mandaluyong housing project site was formerly utilized as motorpool of the Universal Motors.

In March 1996, a deed of transfer of ownership was executed by and between the Mandaluyong City government and Royal Enterprises Inc., with the condition that the city government undertakes the construction of low-cost housing units in the 3,000-square meter property, with qualified occupants of the adjoining property as priority beneficiaries.

Last Saturday, the President also played Santa Claus to poor families in Parañaque when she distributed some 400 lot certificates to urban poor beneficiaries at the Baclaran Central Elementary School.

The land covered parcels of land situated in Parañaque City which were owned and administered by the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA). The site, composed of Sitios Maligaya, San Juan, Sta. Rita and Puyat Compound, has a total land area of 3.78 hectares.

In her Parañaque speech, the President said many of the beneficiaries have been waiting to own the lot they have been occupying for the past 35 years.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has nothing to do with the contract entered into by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the Argentinian firm, Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona SA (IMPSA), Malacanang said today.

In a morning interview with Radyo ng Bayan, Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye said that contrary to what the political opposition has been saying, the President never signed or approved any document related to the IMPSA deal.

Bunye said that as shown by documents made available to the media, the IMPSA contract was a "done deal" during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada.

"The thing will speak for itself, nandoon yong pirma ni dating Pangulong Estrada. Hindi nga siya pumirma bilang principal, but he signed as a witness (Estrada’s signature was there, not as a principal but as witness)," Bunye said.

In another document, Estrada authorized the National Power Corp. officials to sign the mother agreement.

He cannot truthfully deny that he had a hand in the IMPSA deal, Bunye said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Russia Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov today agreed to strengthen all aspects of Philippine-Russian bilateral partnership, particularly in economic cooperation and in efforts against international terrorism.

The President and the foreign minister also agreed to put up a panel that would take up joint efforts on how to fight international terrorism.

The President also agreed to sponsor a Russia-led global dialogue of Muslim and Christians that would be held in the near future.

Ivanov, on a one-day visit in the Philippines, paid the President a courtesy call in Malacanang this afternoon.

Ivanov told the President that Russia believes in forging "solidarity" with concerned countries in the struggle against global terrorism.

He noted President Macapagal-Arroyo’s expression of "sincerity and support" to the Russian government and people at the height of the terrorist attacks in Moscow.

For her part, the President conveyed to Ivanov the government’s invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the Philippines.

She said now is a very opportune time to put emphasis on the two countries’ bilateral relations.

The President praised the efforts of Russia to lead a global dialogue on religious tolerance, saying the two countries have similar backgrounds on religious multiplicity.

She noted that as the two countries are host to many religions, initiatives to bring religious tolerance and understanding deserve support.

The President further noted the need to expand trade between the two countries.

Ivanov assured that Russia is very interested in broadening commerce with the Philippines.

He assured the President that Russia is interested to further improve bilateral relations with the Philippines. "It is our strategic policy to have a long-term interest in the Philippines," he said.

Earlier, Ivanov held talks with Foreign Secretary Blas Ople at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Ivanov is due to fly to Japan tomorrow and then to the United States.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today ordered an intensified national drive against professional squatters and squatting syndicates in the country.

In Executive Order No. 153, the President directed the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take the lead in the campaign against these criminal elements that prey on people who need most the protection of the law.

The HUDCC will take the lead in identifying and monitoring professional squatters and squatting syndicates, and launch operations, through the proper agency or body, to curtail their activities.

The DOJ, in conjunction with the HUDCC, will take the lead in the prosecution of these professional squatters and syndicate members.

The National Police Task Force (NPTF) to Apprehend Squatting Syndicates and Professional Squatters, created under EO 178 dated November 23, 1999, was also strengthened to serve as the operational arm of the HUDCC in the anti-squatting campaign.

Under the EO, the President also abolished the National Committee Against Squatting Syndicates and Professional Squatters established under EO 129 dated October 1993 and transferred all of its functions to the HUDCC.

The President also authorized the HUDCC and DOJ to call on the following government agencies to extend their full support, assistance and cooperation in the course of the implementation of the EO:

1. Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP)
2. Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)
3. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
4. Philippine National Police (PNP)
5. National Urban Poor Sectoral Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NUPSC-NAPC)
6. National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
7. Land Registration Authority (LRA); and
8. Office of the Solicitor General

The Philippine National Police was likewise directed to designate full-time staff and personnel for the NPTF. The PCUP was also directed to provide secretariat assistance to the HUDCC, DOJ and the NPTF.

To prove that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is really serious in its war against professional squatters and squatting syndicates, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) hunted down and arrested two members of an alleged organized squatting syndicate operating in Metro Manila.

HUDCC Chairman Michael Defensor, in a press briefing for Malacañang reporters, also announced today that four other well-organized squatter syndicates are being tracked down by the agency in coordination with the PNP.

"The President has instructed us to go all-out in running after these squatting syndicates because it is wholesale swindle of our poor," Defensor said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, through Executive Order No. 153 dated December 10, 2002, ordered the HUDCC, the PNP and the Department of Justice to intensify a national drive against professional squatters and squatter syndicates.

Arrested by the HUDCC and PNP barely three days after the President signed Executive Order No. 153 were Ramon Oraya and Tess Lariosa, both members of the Rodriguez Group headed by spouses Henry and Certeza Rodriguez.

The Rodriguez couple, who claimed to own the entire Luzon area, however, managed to escape when the police operatives raided the alleged syndicate’s office in Guadalupe, Makati last Friday.

Defensor said Oraya and Lariosa are now in the custody of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG).

The arrest was made by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Assistant Prosecutor Garcia of the Metropolitan Trial Court of Parañaque City.