President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today announced the abolition of the National Anti-Crime Commission (NACC) as she gave incoming Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. the sole responsibility to go against criminal elements, particularly the kidnappers.

In her speech at the awarding ceremonies of the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards of Excellence for outstanding Chinese-Filipinos or Tsinoys held late Wednesday night at the Le Pavillon along Roxas Boulevard, the President also challenged Ebdane to eliminate kidnapping in the country within one year.

The President said that Ebdane was the choice of the Chinese-Filipino community for the top PNP post even during the start of her administration.

"Because I have given Jun Ebdane a challenge and I know you will support him, I will give him the full authority, and also the full accountability, for eliminating kidnapping," the President said.

According to the President, as soon as Ebdane takes command of the PNP, the NACC will cease to exist, "so you talk only to one person in fighting kidnapping."

Most of the victims in kidnapping for ransom incidents, especially in Metro Manila, have been wealthy Chinese-Filipinos.

The President said the Tsinoy community had been working closely with the government in solving kidnapping cases involving Chinese-Filipinos.

"I’m quite sure that it will work even more closely when General Ebdane becomes the PNP chief," the President said.

She said with the continued support of the Chinese-Filipino community, the administration will meet the problem of kidnapping with more focus and counterforce.

The President also called on young Chinese-Filipinos to join the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and consider making police work as a lifetime career.

She also asked young Tsinoys to join in the training sessions of the PNP and other law enforcement agencies so that they would gain expertise needed in detecting and stopping kidnappings.

The President recalled that in her first State of the Nation Address in July 2001, she said that she wanted the bulk of the members of the kidnapping syndicates behind bars.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today lauded the Chinese-Filipino community for their contribution not only in advancing the interest of their community but also in helping build the nation through their personal vocations.

In her speech at the awarding ceremonies of the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence held late Wednesday night at the Le Pavillon along Roxas Boulevard, the President said that the modern and enterprising Chinese-Filipinos (Tsinoys) have broken from the national stereotype that they are successful only in business and entrepreneurship.

The President said that more Tsinoys have now given significant contributions to such fields as art and culture, community service, education, journalism, management and finance, medicine, public service, science and technology and sports.

But no awards night for Chinese-Filipinos would be complete, the President said, without recognizing the lifetime achievements of the giant taipans of the Philippines.

She particularly cited successful Chinese-Filipino business leaders as Lucio Tan, Henry Sy, John Gokongwei, George Ty, Angelo King, Alfonso Yuchengco and Pao Shih Tien, who have all been recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards in last night’s awarding ceremonies.

The ten recipients of the Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence were Ricardo Lee, for art and culture; Jose Dy Tan, for community service; Julie Yap-Daza, for journalism; Johnlu G. Koa, for business and entrepreneurship; Queena Lee-Chua, for education; Dy Bun Yok, for medicine; Josiah Go, for management and finance, Perry S. Ong, for science and technology; Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo for public service; and Doreen Yu for journalism.

The President also congratulated the Manila Times and Kabayan for sponsoring the Awards as well as the co-sponsors, namely the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and industry, Kaisa, Philippine-Chinese Charitable Association, and the Chinese-Filipino Business Club.

According to the President, Dr. Jose P. Rizal is a classic example of the Chinese-Filipino whose life and work helped found the nation and brought Filipinos closer together.

The Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards for Excellence, named after the national hero, honor outstanding Chinese-Filipinos who have demonstrated excellence in their chosen fields and have contributed to the growth of the nation.

The President said she was proud to have worked closely with the leaders of the Chinese-Filipino community, adding that under her administration, the government and the Tsinoys "have built new bridges of friendship and understanding."

She then asked the Chinese-Filipinos to help her administration carry out and complete its program of change and reform.

The President said that she was sad that the public satisfaction of her administration has been much lower today than two months ago, apparently, according to her, because of public dismay over electricity rates.

She said that although the cost of electricity is not a problem of her making, she was doing the best "within her power" to alleviate the situation.

The President said she has instructed the National Power Corporation (Napocor) to reduce its purchased power cost adjustment (PPCA) to P0.40.

"Because of this, from being the second most expensive cost of electricity in the region, we will go down to number six after your PPCA reduction takes effect in your July billing," the President said.

A curriculum focused on Islamic values and the Arabic language with a mix of English, Filipino, Science, Mathematics and Makabayan (Civic Studies) is very acceptable in the madrasah (Arabic school) system.

This was the common reaction of some 500 ulamas (Muslim religious leaders) who attended a seminar-workshop on the proposed Unified Madrasah Curriculum in Cotabato City from June 17 to 19.

The ulamas are proprietors, officials and faculty members of private madaris (plural for madrasah) operating in the provinces of Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and in Marawi City, all in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Presidential Assistant for Education Mona Dumlao Valisno said the ulamas appreciated the commitment of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to make Mindanao a centerpiece of the national agenda for social and economic development.

Valisno said the adoption of the Unified Madrasah Curriculum would be a very significant breakthrough in the Philippine educational system.

"It is a dream realized after more than 30 years of hoping and pushing by all the stakeholders" from the government and private sectors, she said.

She reechoed the President’s optimism that the "mainstreaming" of madrasah education into the national education "is the only lasting persuasive and integrative strategy towards achieving peace and improving the human resource capabilities of the Mindanaons."

"Through education, any resistance and conflict in beliefs, cultural practices, religion and perceptions of development can easily be mended, harmonized and unified," Valisno said.

She said the unified curriculum would soon be implemented in five elementary and secondary schools in each of the five provinces and one city of the ARMM.

In her speech during the opening of the seminar-workshop, Valisno cited the madaris as a channel for promoting peace and development in Mindanao.

Through these Arabic schools, many Muslim families could be reached and be brought into the mainstream society to participate in nation building, she said.

Power-intensive industries led by the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI) have expressed satisfaction on recent legislative moves to speed up the implementation of the open access scheme in the electricity sector.

In a report in today’s Cabinet meeting, the Department of Energy (DoE) cited the SEIPI for saying that the pending congressional bills would positively help strengthen the competitiveness of industries suffering from very high power costs.

"The industry supports such move of the legislators as this would be a big relief in terms of our efforts in reducing the cost of doing business here in the Philippines," SEIPI executive director Ernie B. Santiago said.

The open access scheme would allow SEIPI members to opt for the cheapest and most efficient power supply that would meet their requirements, the SEIPI said.

This would also break the monopoly of power utilities as the exclusive distributor of electricity in their respective areas, it added.

Under the open access scheme, power consumers using at least one megawatt (1MW) monthly and located within the franchise area of a distribution utility may source power directly from generating plants as early as June next year by using the power lines of the distribution companies.

"If we can buy cheap electricity from other sources and at the same time this company can specifically address the quality of electricity we need, then we should only be allowed to do so under a deregulated power industry. If the accelerated open access will make this happen faster, we will support such move," Santiago said.

He noted that a major concern of the semi-conductor industry is the high costs of power, adding that electricity costs account for 10 to 20 percent of electronics manufacturing costs.

The average monthly consumption of a medium-sized semi-electronics industry usually ranges from P5 million to P10 million.

SEIPI also welcomed the decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to reduce the cost of power of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

The President last May 8 ordered Napocor to peg at a uniform rate of 40-centavos per kilowatthour (kWh) its power purchased cost adjustment (PPCA) starting this month.

This would result in the reduction of between P0.10 to P1.13 per kWh depending on the grid. Napocor’s average PPCA is about P1.25 per kWh, to be reflected in the monthly billings of consumers by July.

Santiago said that in the last six years, the power use of the electronics manufacturing sector has gone up to meet the growth in the demand of the product but the cost of power has also doubled, bloating the companies’ operating costs.

He said this made it difficult for them to compete with other countries.

"Any move by the government in making the industry’s production set-up more cost effective and efficient would bring a lot of competitive edges the Philippines has to offer," he said.

"Let us make sure that we can capitalize on those and work on the biggest export sector of the country, accounting for more than 70 percent or $22 billion of the total Philippine exports of merchandise goods," he urged.

Santigao explained that the opening of the China market might result in excess capacity in the electronics sector, which could lead to the reduction in the price of the product.

He said the only way to counter this scenario is to "improve the cost of manufacturing, particularly the electricity rate in the country, to put us in the same playing field as China."

"The reduction in the power rate shows that the government is sincere in its well intended plan to work with the industry in facing the global challenges and changes ahead," he added.

The DoE said that utilities and large firms sourcing their electricity supply from Napocor will enjoy the impact of a power cost reduction of about P1.13 per kWh in the Luzon area and some P0.67 per kWh in the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.

But some large industries may not benefit from the reduction as some distribution utilities like the Manila Electric Co. source a large portion of their supply from other independent power producers, the DoE said.

Napocor, however, assured that the full benefit of the reduction will be enjoyed by end-consumers of distribution utilities that source 100 percent of their power from the government-run power firm.

Energy Secretary Vicente Perez today said that electricity costs will go down by as much as 20 percent in the July billings of power consumers within the franchise area of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), which covers more than three-fourths of Luzon.

In his report to the Cabinet meeting held this morning in Malacanang, Perez said this was a result of the order last May 8 of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the National Power Corporation (Napocor) to reduce its purchased power cost adjustment (PPCA) passed on to consumers by an average of P0.85 per kilowatt-hour.

Perez said that this is on top of the mandated rate reduction of P0.30 per kilowatt-hour for residential consumers implemented every month since July 2001.

He said that the review of contracts of independent power producers (IPPs) will be completed by the end of June; and if companies are found to have cheated the people, they would have to face the law.

Perez said the results of the review would be submitted immediately to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The government would make sure the results are made public, Perez said, adding that "we will not spare companies that cheated the people" as "no one is above the law."

But while the energy department would exhaust all measures to provide immediate relief to power consumers, Perez said the people should understand that "we need a sustainable solution" to the problem caused by the controversial PPCA.

Perez said everyone has to bear with the challenges of building a competitive market mechanism for power.

This would start with the privatization of the transmission and generation assets of the Napocor, he said, adding that there is also the need to come up with an imaginative refinancing plan for the state-run power firm.

He cited two important things. First is that there is no one-shot solution to the problem that has caused people untold hardships. Second, the affected consumers must share their part, through sacrifice and enlightenment, in solving the problem.

Perez assured that government would continue to implement reforms in the power sector.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has stepped up its campaign against illegal recruiters nationwide, even as the agency has given overseas Filipino workers (OFW) better services and assistance.

In a Presidential Management Staff (PMS) report showing the agency’s achievements vis-à-vis commitments set in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s July 2001 State of the Nation Address, the DOLE said it gave legal help in 906 cases of illegal recruitment involving 2,783 victims.

The PMS report, which covered the period following the SONA up to June 19, 2002, cited the DOLE for also handling and prosecuting 125 court cases involving 353 complainants.

To date, 12 illegal recruiters have been convicted. Four of them were sentenced to life imprisonment, the report said.

The DOLE conducted regular surveillance operations leading to the arrest of 26 suspected illegal recruiters and the closure of 40 establishments engaged in illegal recruitment.

Meanwhile, the agency has reduced the processing time and signatories for the documentation of OFWs with the implementation of its electronic link (E-Link) services.

By the end of June, the DOLE would have reduced OFW documentation time by 50 percent.

Land-based OFW documentation would go down to three hours from six hours while sea-based OFW documentation would take only six hours from 12 hours.

The agency has further installed a computerized system that would simplify and reduce the processing time for the Alien Registration System (ARS), the Private Recruitment and Placement System (PRPS) and the Special Program for Employment System (SPES).

The ARS processing time went down to eight hours from two days; the PRPS, to five minutes from one day; and the SPES, to eight hours from two days.

The DOLE has set up a 24-hour OFW hotline in the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration offices for document follow-ups and other queries.