In an austere ceremony held in Malacaņang in the presence of Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo and National Treasurer Sergio Edeza, the 52-year-old Board of Liquidators (BOL), an attached agency under the Office of the President, today remitted P150 million to the National Treasury.

The P150-million remittance, which forms part of the partial net proceeds of liquidating abolished government agencies and corporations, came from the defunct accounts of the Reparations Commission, the National Abaca Fibers Corporation administered by the BOL, and the return of unused Earthquake Rehabilitation Fund.

According to the BOL Board of Directors composed of Chairman Eleuterio Coronel and Board Members Rene Puno and Edwin Arcilla, the remittance was made in support of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s thrust to build a strong Republic.

The BOL said the remittance was also its contribution to administration efforts in pulling together enough resources to downsize the current budget deficit.

The last remittance to the National Treasury made by the Board amounting to P20 million, was during the previous administration.

Under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the BOL hopes to be assigned more government assets from abolished agencies and corporations to be disposed of and liquidated, a function that it has been mandated to perform since 1950.

The BOL also submitted a partial list containing 36 school sites under its disposition. The awarding of the school sites, located mostly in the three Davao provinces, would benefit thousands of pupils and students in the Davao provinces.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda today discussed border security concerns, including arms smuggling and the expansion of the Philippine-Indonesia-Malaysia tripartite agreement to fight terrorism to include all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

During a courtesy call on the President at Malacaņang, Wirajuda informed the President that other Asean member-countries, particularly Singapore, have relayed their intention to join what initially started as a tripartite agreement among the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to fight terrorism.

The President remarked that with the inclusion of Singapore and the other Asean member-countries, the region’s fight against terrorism would be complete. Aside from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, the other members of Asean are Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Myanmar.

It was President Macapagal-Arroyo herself who initiated the move to unify Asean behind a regional campaign to fight global terrorism, leading to the tripartite agreement. Cambodia later joined the tripartite agreement in July this year, followed by Thailand last November during the Asean Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The President said the fight against terrorism would be most effective if intelligence sharing among Asean members and other countries in the region would be complete. She said it is also important that the money trail from supporters of terrorist groups be cut off.

Wirajuda relayed to the President Indonesia’s continuing support for the Philippines in the fight against terrorism.

In response, the President thanked the Indonesian government, led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, not only for Indonesia’s support in the fight against terrorism but for the economic cooperation between Manila and Jakarta.

Both the President and Wirajuda also expressed concern over arms smuggling and agreed to focus on border security to curb the transnational activity.

Wirajuda is in the country to attend the two-day third Philippine-Indonesia Joint Commission on Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) to be held at the Westin Philippine Plaza starting today. The Philippines is hosting the event.

According to Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, Philippine and Indonesian officials are set to settle long-standing maritime and border issues even as they will explore other avenues of cooperation in tourism, labor and education.

Secretary Ople will lead the Philippine delegation during the JCBC while Wirajuda will lead a 13-man delegation from various agencies of the Indonesian government.

TRECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today convened the first plenary session of the Philippine Reintegration Program, the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s program and thrust designed to address the needs of returning overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and their families.

The President, who arrived here amid cheers of OFWs and their families numbering about 2,000, said she has ordered the Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to recruit 25 family welfare officers who shall serve as the link between OFWs families and the government service providers.

These officers will be designated in OFW-rich provinces and cities, namely Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Pampanga, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Cavite, National Capital Region, Iloilo, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro City and Davao City. By organizing OFW families, a mechanism for the systematic delivery of services and assistance to the OFWs can be established.

The President also noted that families and dependents organized as cooperatives or rural workers associations can be the proper vehicles for delivering social services required by them. They could form a mutual support group that could facilitate access to services and assistance.

According to the President, under the reintegration program, the government, through the OWWA, would assist the OFWs and their families in coping with their situation and provide social counseling services.

She noted that some parish churches under the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant People offer psychological services to returning OFWs and their dependents.

The government, the President said, would establish a systematic re-entry debriefing and encourage forward planning among OFWs.

She added that the government could incorporate in the pre-departure orientation a discussion of reintegration program, enhance on-site briefings and institute on-return debriefings.

The Philippine Reintegration Program seeks to inculcate in the minds of OFW families and dependents the need for forward planning to prepare for the permanent return of their OFWs and the value of savings and investments to maximize the gains from their remittances.

The program also aims to reduce the propensity for consumer durables and the need to be organized on the part of the OFW families so that they could have access to existing services and support from both government organizations and non-government organization sectors.

"Gusto nating maglunsad ng mga programa upang makapundar sa kinabukasan ninyo at mga minamahal ninyong nagtratrabaho sa ibayong dagat habang pinagaganda nila ang buhay ninyong mga pamilya nila sa Pilipinas (We would like to launch livelihood programs for you and your family members who work abroad to make your lives here in the Philippines better)," the President said.

The President cited the new government program for OFWs abroad, called Kabayanihan, which seeks to install an integrated delivery of basic services to OFWs at worksites abroad and at home in the Philippines.

Under Kabayanihan, the OFWs will be able to avail themselves of the following services: OWWA’s on-site welfare services that would include expanded/voluntary membership, DOLE/OWWA/Philippine Overseas Employment Administration electronic identification card (E-Card) services, and health maintenance services through the OWWA Medicare program wherein the OFWs and members of their families will be entitled to benefits over and above those granted by PhilHealth.

Under the Pag-IBIG Fund's housing services, the DOLE and the Pag-IBIG fund have already signed a memorandum of agreement for the joint implementation of the Pag-IBIG overseas housing program (POP). The POP aims to expand Pag-IBIG membership among OFWs and provide them the opportunity to acquire their own homes at affordable means.

Also under the Kabanihan, the Social Security System will also step up the SSS Provident Fund (Flexi-Fund) services, solely for OFWs, to enable workers to save hard-earned money while working abroad. By investing in the Flexi-Fund at a very affordable cost, workers are guaranteed continued earnings after retirement.

Filipinos are happy with the present Christmas, are thankful for good health, and are hopeful about the year to come, according to the fourth quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted nationwide from November 15 to December 2, 2002.

The fourth quarter 2002 SWS survey, covering a national sample of 1,200 statistically representative adult respondents, showed that four out of five (82%) Filipinos say that Christmas this year will be happy. Only 3% say it will be sad and the remaining 15% say it will neither be happy nor sad.

Their present assessment of last year’s Christmas are similar – 83% say 2001 was happy, 5% say it was sad and 11% say it was neither happy nor sad.

Feelings of Filipinos about this Christmas being happy, and their memories of the 2001 Christmas being happy, are widespread in all locations and socio-economic classes.

In response to an open-ended question as to what they are most thankful for in life, as Christmas and the end of the year approach, the most popular answers are good health (48%), surviving in life (31%), and good family relations (11%).

These results are similar to those obtained in SWS surveys in 2000 and 2001.