Malacañang today assured the nation that the proposed Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) wound not allow permanent basing rights to the United States in the Philippines as feared by some sectors.

In an interview, Press Secretary and Acting Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the MLSA is basically a document that would spell out accounting procedures on all military equipment and facilities that the US would bring into the country during training exercises.

He said that without proper accounting procedure, which is required by the US government, the Americans would be forced to bring the equipment back to the US instead of donating them to the Philippine military.

According to Bunye, the MLSA is based on existing pacts, like the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

Bunye also said that incoming Foreign Secretary Blas F. Ople and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes would make a full briefing on the provisions of the MLSA at the Senate.

He also said that the MLSA is not a treaty but only an executive agreement and, therefore, is not subject to ratification by the Philippine Senate.

In a related issue, Bunye said President Gloria Macapgal-Arroyo has already instructed Secretary Reyes to conduct an investigation on the alleged involvement of an American soldier in the shooting of an Abu Sayyaf member in Basilan.

But Bunye lamented that some groups are quick to point out so-called abuses committed by the military and the American forces participating in the Balikatan exercises in Basilan but slow in reacting to atrocities committed by the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

"Bakit kapag yong Abu Sayyaf ang nakakapugot ng ulo, nakapatay ng tao, ay hindi sila ganoon kasigasig (Why is it that when the Abu Sayyaf beheads or kills innocent civilians or soldiers, they are not that aggressive," Bunye said.

Yesterday in Lubao, Pampanga, the President herself ordered the Department of Justice to immediately file criminal charges against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan for committing "rampant, very, very clear human right violations."

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said the government would uphold the constitutional rights of the people "with the full force of a strong Republic," as she lashed at critics who claimed "we are engaged in human rights violations."

The President made this promise as she received in Malacañang this morning victims of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) atrocities committed last year.

The President received six of the victims, namely Gliceria Ramirez, Lydia Ybañez, Hermie Revillas, Fernando Romeo, Ruel Abellon and Faizal Binasing.

The husbands of Ramirez and Ybañez were beheaded by the ASG.

The six are residents of Barangay Tairan, Lantawan and Barangay Balobo, Lamitan, all in Basilan province, the terrorist kidnap-for-ransom ASG separately raided in 2001.

She also promised swift justice for the ASG victims, as she said the government would continue its relentless fight against terrorists and criminals.

"One of the things we have had to undergo when we bear down strongly on terrorism and crime is the criticism, the allegation that we are engaged in human rights violations," the President stressed.

But she told her critics: "We will not validate your propaganda by engaging in human rights violations." She also noted that "many of you commit human rights violations yourselves."

She warned that the government "shall not relent in the fight against terrorists and criminals hiding behind the veil of human rights advocacies or other seemingly deceptively legitimate political advocacies."

The President asked her critics: "Why don’t you yourselves interview these victims of the Abu Sayyaf and see and listen for yourselves what it means to be a victim of the worst form of brutality and inhuman treatment?"

She recounted the ASG raid on the Golden Harvest farm in Barangay Tairan, Lantawan on June 11, 2001 when the ASG burned down 10 houses and the community chapel, abducted 15 men, beheaded two of their hostages and made the others slaves until the latter were rescued by the military in separate encounters from October to December that same year.

She also retold the story of 34 men, women and children the ASG, disguised as soldiers, took hostage from Sitio Baquinao, Barangay Balobo, Lamitan on August 2, 2001.

After forcing the victims to walk to neighboring Barangay Larbeco, the ASG beheaded nine of the 10 male hostages and shot and killed the last male hostage upon reaching Barangay Buhe Lange. Eleven of the hostages later escaped from their captors.

"We shall redeem your pain; we shall redeem your loss."

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today echoed this vow before victims of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) atrocities committed last year.

She also promised swift justice for the ASG victims, as she said the government would continue its relentless fight against terrorists and criminals.

The President received in Malacañang this morning six of the victims namely Gliceria Ramirez, Lydia Ybañez, Hermie Revillas, Fernando Romeo, Ruel Abellon and Faizal Binasing.

The husbands of Ramirez and Ybañez were beheaded by the ASG.

The six are residents of Barangay Tairan, Lantawan and Barangay Balobo, Lamitan, all in Basilan province, the terrorist kidnap-for-ransom ASG separately raided in 2001.

The President recounted the ASG raid on the Golden Harvest farm in Barangay Tairan, Lantawan on June 11, 2001 when the ASG burned down 10 houses and the community chapel, abducted 15 men, beheaded two of their hostages and made the others slaves until the latter were rescued by the military in separate encounters from October to December that same year.

She also retold the story of 34 men, women and children the ASG, disguised as soldiers, took hostage from Sitio Baquinao, Barangay Balobo, Lamitan on August 2, 2001.

After forcing the victims to walk to neighboring Barangay Larbeco, the ASG beheaded nine of the 10 male hostages and shot and killed the last male hostage upon reaching Barangay Buhe Lange. Eleven of the hostages later escaped from their captors.

On August 5, 2001, the ASG released the remaining hostages, unable to get any ransom from the latter’s poor families and after feeling the pressure of a military pursuit, search and rescue operation, but not after raping some of the women hostages.

The President lauded Presidential Security Group head Brig. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who headed the Lamitan rescue operation. Esperon was then the brigade commander in Basilan.

"This senseless massacre of Balobo and Tairan residents is only two of the so many ruthless and barbaric acts of terrorism perpetrated by the ASG showing total disregard for the human rights of the victims and abuses on women’s chastity, honor and dignity," she said.

"This is a war (against terrorism and criminality) we will wage in behalf and with the rage of all the victims – those whose businesses were ruined by extortion, those held down in poverty by fear, those whose lives were snuffed out by addiction, and those taken hostage and killed," she added.

She said she had asked Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Ernesto Carolina to bring to Malacañang those who suffered the Abu Sayyaf’s brutality and inhuman treatment "so I could see them personally, empathize with them and help them."

She stressed that since she delivered her State of the Nation Address a week ago, she had been presenting criminals and felons caught in a renewed war against crime and terrorism. "But I think we must also take time to think about the victims in this war," she stressed.

Before the ASG victims, the President declared: "We shall not be deterred in the fight to the finish against the Abu Sayyaf."

She said the rights of the victims were of paramount importance, as she assigned more prosecutors to pursue the cases against captured ASG members and those who were still at-large.

Among those assigned were Fiscals Ricardo Cabaron and Peter Medalla and State Prosecutor Leo Dacera.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today announced a joint program agreed upon by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to implement a pricing incentive that would reduce by about 25 percent the power rates for large industrial customers in the country.

In a meeting with various stakeholders in Malacañang, the President presented the program dubbed as Special Program to Enhance Electricity Demand (SPEED), a pricing incentive aimed at stimulating electricity demand and optimizing utilization of the existing power plants by offering discounts on the incremental consumption of power above the current base load (CBL).

With SPEED, the President said this will cut the price of electricity to P2.30 per kilowatt (kWh) from the present P3.10 for Napocor industrial customers and P2.80 per kWh from the present P3.72 per kWh for Meralco industrial customers.

"This administration is committed to reduce in the cost of doing business so that our industries can become competitive," the President said.

She stressed that her administration wants to build a strong Republic by making a bureaucracy that is very strong and that can help in solving the country’s problem.

The adoption of SPEED is in response to the President’s directive in her second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 22 "to work together to give price incentives to large users so that excess power can be utilized, economic activity can be encouraged, and jobs can be created."

The pricing program will have to be approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

In the same meeting, the President said a special task force will be created to implement the pricing incentive as well as to intensify its marketing.

The President noted that only one week ago, she asked Napocor and Meralco to get together to look for ways to give price incentives to the large users of electricity so that the latter can increase their demand and thus spur economic activity and generate employment.

Citing her pronouncement during her SONA, the President said her administration did not invent the Power Purchase Adjustment (PPA).

"We inherited this power problem. But as you can see, we don’t use our time pinning blame. We use our energy looking for solutions," the President said.

On cross subsidies as in the case of the Visayas which is being subsidized by Luzon, the President saw the need to make the electricity system in that area more efficient so that they can reduce their cost before the removal can be implemented.

"What we are doing there is precisely the reform of the electric cooperatives which is our big, big source of the very high power rates in the Visayas," she said.

On the other hand, Energy Secretary Vicente Perez said the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) hope to replicate and expand the coverage of the program to other industries nationwide by talking to other distribution utilities such as the Davao Light and Power Co. (DALIGHT).

Perez said SPEED will be implemented in phases. The first phase will allow some 219 large industrial customers with a minimum of 1,000 Kwh monthly demand and above to avail themselves of the program starting September.

The second phase, he added, will allow another 437 industrial customers with a minimum of 500 kWh monthly demand to be included by October this year.

He said Meralco and Napocor will give fixed discount of 92-centavos and 80-centavos per kwh respectively for a minimum period of one month or a maximum of 24 months.

For his part, DTI Secretary Manuel Roxas II said the implementation of the pricing incentives is "another milestone in the administration’s resolve to lower the cost of power."

The country’s balance of payments (BOP) from January to April yielded a surplus of $1.891 billion, a reversal from the $755-million deficit recorded in the same period last year.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Rafael B. Buenaventura said the BOP surplus was brought about by the continued surplus in the current account and the strengthening of the capital and financial account.

Buenaventura said the current account surplus widened by 79.7 percent to $2.484 billion from the level registered in the period under review. This was attributed to the higher net inflow in income account, reduced net outflow in the services account and sustained surplus in the goods account.

In the goods account, exports rebounded in April, after more than a year of continued decline, with a year-on-year growth of 23.2 percent. This brought total exports for the first four months of 2002 to $10.577 billion or an increase of 0.6 percent compared to last year’s level.

Contributing to the turnaround was the robust growth in exports of machinery and transport equipment, processed food and beverages, and sugar and products, exports of which continued to surpass their performance last year.

More importantly, exports of electronics turned in an impressive year-on-year growth of 29.9 percent in April after fourteen consecutive months of contractions, bringing down the cumulative decline in electronics exports to 2.4 percent.

The stronger export performance reflected the increased demand from Asian markets particularly Taiwan, China, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Demand from these markets helped offset lower exports to the U.S. and Japan, the country’s traditional export destinations.

Meanwhile, imports of goods grew three months in a row beginning February after seven successive months of slump, climbing to a high of 18.8 percent in April. Imports for January to April reached $9.890 billion, up 3.0 percent from the level a year ago.

Imports of capital goods and raw materials and intermediate goods, particularly materials and accessories for the manufacture of electrical equipment, expanded by 8.8 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, following inventory build-up by producers and manufacturers in anticipation of greater production demand ahead.

Higher remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continued to be the main factor behind the more than twofold increase in the income account to $1.962 billion in January to April.

Remittances from OFWs, which comprised about 90 percent of gross income receipts, expanded by 45.3 percent to $2.827 billion during the review period. The growth in remittances reflected in part the 4.4-percent increase in the number of newly deployed OFWs during the first four months.

The trade-in-services for the first four months of 2002 registered a net outflow of $315 million, 47.5 percent lower than the net outflow recorded in the comparable period in 2001.

The narrowing of the deficit was traced mainly to lower net payment of transportation services and of miscellaneous business, professional and technical services that contracted by 39.2 percent and 65.0 percent, respectively, from the comparable levels last year.

Higher net receipts from travel services, which accelerated by 8.0 percent to $325 million also contributed to bring down the net service outflow during the period in review.

Prospects for the country’s tourism industry remained positive following the on-going promotion efforts of the government to attract tourists and the relatively improving peace and order situation in the South.

The net outflow of the capital and financial account for the period in review was down to only $506 million from $2.311 billion in January to April 2001.

This developed following higher net direct investments inflows and the reversal of the portfolio investment account to a net inflow from a net outflow last year.

From a net outflow of $884 million in January to April 2001, portfolio investments for the first four months of 2002 reversed to a net inflow of $1.691 billion due to increased non-residents’ investments in resident-issued foreign denominated debt securities, particularly government-issued medium-term bonds.

Meanwhile, non-residents’ investments in equity securities were highest in April 2002 at $175 million, bringing the cumulative portfolio investments in equity securities to $297 million.

This level was more than twice that posted last year, reflecting renewed investor confidence in the local equities market.

Meanwhile, net inflows of direct investments nearly doubled to $1.504 billion compared to $808 million posted in the comparable period last year.

Behind this was the remarkable increase in non-residents’ investments in equity capital and higher intercompany loans extended by parent companies to their local subsidiaries.

Non-residents’ direct equity investments expanded by almost six times to $672 million during the first four months of 2002.

The bulk of the investments represented the $557 million worth of shares in a local brewery company purchased by a Japanese firm in March 2002.

The rest were directed to other manufacturing companies, services industries, and financial institutions.

Further, intercompany loans to local subsidiaries by their parent companies rose by 26.5 percent to $711 million.

The net outflow in the other investment account went up by 65.4 percent to $3.696 billion in the first four months of 2002 due mainly to the higher net deposits abroad by resident banks’ to cover their clients’ import payments and to diversify their portfolio.

As of end-April 2002, the BSP’s Gross International Reserves reached $17.1 billion, up by 9.2 percent from the level in end-December 2001.

At this level, reserves were adequate to cover 5.5 months worth of imports of goods and payment of services and income.

The country's growing call center industry is expected to generate some 24,000 jobs for skilled workers in the next two years, a report of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) showed.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said the TESDA report indicated that the training of more skilled workers in the government-supported power and telecommunications grid would ensure the industry's expansion in the Philippines.

Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson, citing the TESDA's Labor Market Intelligence Report (LMIR), said the availability of highly-skilled Filipino workers fluent in English had continued boosting the country's bid to become the global "call center capital" and a major international e-services hub.

Earlier, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stressed the country’s vital role as a center of quality, world-class information and communications technology (ICT) services.

The President pointed to ICT as the "strategic tool that would propel the Philippines to its proper niche in the global village in the 21st century."

TESDA Director General Dante Liban earlier vowed to step up the agency’s efforts in strengthening the country's human resource, especially in "priority" industries.

He said the TESDA "should now take a bigger leap" in ensuring workers' employability.

Released by the TESDA's Planning Office, the LMIR described the call center business as the country's "latest sunshine industry."

It noted the "vast growth potential and bright job prospects" in the field, as the Philippines has so far filled up only 10,000 "seats."

The TESDA said round-the-clock call center operations are handled by "seats" composed of two or three personnel - or customer service representatives - who manage telephone lines in work shifts.

"Customer services" handle client queries and complaints and provide solutions through telemarketing, computer product help desks, financial services, and assistance in transport and freight, insurance, hotels, and information technology.

Government experts have predicted that the country, with its English-speaking workforce and capacity to provide premium, multilingual, and multimedia services in wide-ranging ICT applications, could clinch the "call center capital of the world" status in this decade.

Citing Department of Trade and Industry projections, the LMIR also expected local call center revenues to increase from US$173 million to US$864 million in 2004, following the industry's growth by more than 200 percent from 2000 to 2001.

Efforts to push the industry and its employment opportunities, the LMIR added, were being fast-tracked, especially with the creation of an ICT corridor linking Metro Manila with the rest of the country.

There are 16 industry players comprising the Call Center Association of the Philippines, the LMIR said.

It specified that this year alone, at least four foreign call center companies have announced plans to establish offshore operations in the Philippines, which would generate some 2,000 jobs.

The giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company has also announced a $5.5-million investment in a 500-seat venture with Parlance Systems, Inc. and in other industry agreements.

The Reese Brothers in the US also bared plans to invest in a call center project at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, which would open an additional 2,000 jobs.

The LMIR, however, cautioned that the country must continue to improve its infrastructure and labor competencies to attract more call center and other ICT investments.

To ensure quality, the TESDA has developed call center competency standards in linkage with the Contact Federation Philippines.