President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday Filipinos should expect their electricity bills to further decrease next month.

The President announced in her speech before the Second Mindanao Budget Summit at the EDSA Shangri-la in Mandaluyong City that she had ordered the National Power Corporation (Napocor) since May 8 to reduce their Purchased Power Cost Adjustment.

"When I told Napocor to bring it down to 40 centavos, this will now be reflected in the July billings," she said.

As result, the President said, the Philippines will come down from No. 2 to No. 6 of East Asia’s most expensive country in terms of electricity rate.

"We will jump over four other countries in terms of competitiveness," she said.

Energy Secretary Vicente Perez had announced earlier that the decrease would be as much as 20 percent in the billings of power consumers within the franchise area of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), which covers more than three-fourths of Luzon.

The latest decrease in power rates is on top of the mandated rate reduction of 30 centavos per kilowatt-hour for residential consumers implemented every month since July 2001.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has instructed all concerned government departments and agencies to realign their regional budgets based on development programs for each area or region.

The President announced these instructions during her keynote speech yesterday at the Second Mindanao Budget Summit at the Edsa Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

The President said departments and other concerned agencies should not make their own regional programs separate from area-based development plans.

She said she has observed that area-based development plans are not funded because departments are doing their own regional budget priorities.

"They would say ‘what are your proposed projects outside the development areas’ because they thought development areas would have their special budget from outside their departments, which was not so," she said.

"Let me make it clear. These area development plans must be the regional development plans of the national departments as well," she added.

The President stressed that the government is pursuing development projects and, at the same time, exercising fiscal discipline as a strategy for progress.

"The fiscal discipline that I exercised last year was the litmus test for the capital markets. That’s the reason why we graduated from negative to stable according to the international credit-rating agencies," she said.

The President said fiscal discipline has led to the present low rates in interest and inflation as well as the stable peso.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has cited the importance of modernizing key transport facilities in Mindanao.

In her speech before the Second Mindanao Budget Summit yesterday at the EDSA Shagri-la in Mandaluyong City, the President cited the establishment of the P2-billion Mindanao International Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental.

The terminal has been designed to meet the increasing demands for cargo movement to and from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities.

The President also recalled that she had supervised the formulation of the master plan for the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan growth corridor while she was still Trade and Industry Undersecretary.

A landmark project under the plan was the construction of the Laguindingan Airport. "I am dismayed that it is not yet on the ground," she said.

She instructed incoming Transportation and Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza "to give it the highest priority."

The President also said that work to upgrade the airports in Tawi-Tawi, Cotabato, Pagadian, Butuan and Dipolog should be given immediate consideration.

"The Asian Development Bank, exasperated by the five-year delay (in implementation), actually gave notice of project cancellation. But we have been able to save Dipolog and Butuan and we’re trying to save Pagadian and Cotabato," she said.

"We do need to have some technical competence to be able to bring development, not only verbose pronouncements and strong words of support and braggadocio," she stressed.

Meanwhile, the Mindanao Container Terminal Project (MCTP), Phase II Bulk and Food Terminal covers the extension of the existing 300- meter MCTP Phase I berth by 200 meters, the provision of a wharf bulk loader and unloader for easier cargo handling, and the expansion of support facilities and office.

The MCTP Phase II will be located on the shoreline of Macajalar Bay at Tagoloan, some 17 kilometers northeast by road from Cagayan de Oro City.

Its site is within the vicinity of the industries at PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate-Misamis Oriental (PIE-MO) adjacent to the MCTP Phase I.

Of the total cost of $40.9 million (P2.043 billion), around 60 percent will be funded under the Special Yen Loan Package (SYLP) while the remaining 40 percent will be shouldered by local counterpart funds.

The MCTP Phase II will cater to bulk cargos like fertilizer, animal feeds, grains, rice/palay and sugar.

The project is also expected to ease the already heavily congested Cagayan de Oro Base Port.

The MCTP Phase II has been designed to handle 2.3 million tons of dry and break bulk cargoes and accommodate the berthing of one 20,000 deadweight ton (DWT) vessel to two 150 DWT vessels.

Supporting facilities include terminal operation building, transit shed, maintenance shop, generator house and canteen and port workers room.

LUBAO, Pampanga – Lubao, the only town in the country to have produced two Philippine presidents, has been spruced up for the historic wedding tomorrow of another favorite son, presidential son and Pampanga Vice Governor Juan Miguel "Mikey" M. Arroyo to beauteous Maria Angela Montenegro.

For one, big streamers are now flying in many parts of the town welcoming and congratulating President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, her son Mikey and future daughter-in-law Maria Angelica.

The improvements are simple and the budget modest compared to the wedding of then-presidential daughter Irene R. Marcos and a scion of a prominent family, Greggy Araneta, also in a historic setting – the old Spanish church of Sarrat in Ilocos Norte, hometown of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

Lubao will be the main beneficiary of the big event. This is the reason why Lubao folk are awaiting the wedding with great anticipation.

Mrs. Anita Salalila Limson and Vivian Turla Queri, whose houses stand beside the Saint Augustine Church, said they were thankful President Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice Governor Mikey chose their hometown as the site for the wedding.

"We are on a vantage point during the wedding and important event in our town because our houses are adjacent to the church. We are looking forward to this event on Monday," they chorused.

For one, the nation will be focused once again on the town, they said. Still, some infrastructures in the town like bridges, roads and drainage canals leading to the Saint Augustine Church were improved in time for the wedding.

The 491-year-old Saint Augustine Church is the biggest beneficiary of the event. The church where Mikey’s grandfather, President Diosdado Macapagal, was baptized on October 12, 1910, underwent a major facelift, especially its interiors.

To make everybody comfortable during the wedding ceremony which will start at 10 a.m., heavy-duty Carrier and Koppel air-conditioning units have been installed inside the church. Some 600 to 700 people could be accommodated inside during the wedding ceremonies.

The church’s front yard, which is about half a hectare, was also given a facelift.

About a dozen split-type air conditioners were also installed at a newly-built fully enclosed white canvas tent with wooden flooring at the church courtyard dwarfed and dotted by centuries old trees, a centuries-old brick house for the priests and several buildings of the church-run Holy Rosary Academy.

To ensure that there will be no power disruption during the wedding and reception, a mobile power generator was installed at the back of the church.

Bishop Paciano Aniceto of the Archdiocese of Pampanga will officiate the wedding. He will be assisted by Fr. Rodolfo de Guzman, parish priest of Saint Augustine Church, and Fr. Pat Lim, parish priest of La Vista Church in Quezon City where the First Family resides.

The colorful wedding ceremonies will highlight the creations of couturier Pitoy Moreno (barong), Joe Salazar (wedding gowns), Ronnie Ong (cake), Tony Parsons of 517 (floral arrangement) and the Ateneo Glee Club Choir and String Minstrels (music).

Key participants in the ceremonies will be the parents of the bride and groom – President Gloria and First Gentleman Mike for Mikey and Rosario "Charito" Arroyo and German Montenegro for the bride.

Main sponsors are former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, Sen. Loren Legarda Leviste, Georgina de Venecia, wife of Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr.; Enrique Aboitiz, Salvacion Villaraza, presidential brother Diosdado Macapagal Jr., Manila Bulletin Chairman Dr. Emilio Yap, Mario Cruel and Norma Chan.

Mikey’s brother, Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo, will be the best man; Emily Montenegro Yupangco, matron of honor; Rose Montenegro and Evangelina "Luli" Arroyo, maid of honor. The secondary sponsors are Alex Macapagal and Joanne Dawns, Greg Montenegro (candle) and Marinella Montenegro (veil) and Rafael Mondragon and Cetrin Datok (cord).

Presidential social secretary Betina Aboitiz will be the overall supervisor of the ceremonies.

After the Church wedding, the newlyweds and entourage and guests will proceed to the church courtyard for the celebration and reception which will approximate a barrio fiesta.

Food for the churchyard reception -- consisting of an all-Filipino fare like lechon, halo-halo, crispy crablets, pancit luglog, tibok-tibok and avariety of seafoods -- will be prepared by the Plaza and Cabalen. Caterer for the evening reception at Malacaņang Palace will be the Manila Hotel and Graito Forest.

Only a week before their wedding, Mikey Arroyo and Angela Montenegro were visibly happy and "a bit nervous," said Claire Morales True, herself a native of Lubao, the vice governor’s media consultant. The bride and bridegroom were at the Saint Augustine Church last June 18 for the final practice for their wedding ceremonies together with other principal participants of the wedding. "Happy because we have found our perfect partner but a bit nervous because, understandably, we are undergoing this process only once in a lifetime," the couple said.

Economic Planning Secretary Dante Canlas has remained confident that the country would attain the full year forecast of 4 to 4.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth and the 4.5 to 5 percent gross national product (GNP) growth.

In a memorandum for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Acting Executive Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr. cited a report from Canlas that said the country posted a higher GDP growth compared to four other countries in the Asian region.

These are Malaysia which posted a 1.1 GDP growth; Indonesia, 2.2 percent; Singapore, -1.7 percent; and Taiwan, 0.9 percent.

Only China, which posted a 7.6-percent GDP growth, and South Korea, which had a 5.7-percent GDP growth, registered higher rates than the Philippines.

Canlas has reported that while agriculture grew by 4.4 percent due to the rising production of crops, fishery and forestry, a slowdown is expected because of the occurrence of the El Niņo weather phenomenon in the last quarter of the year.

But he said the continued strength in services and a pick-up in industrial growth would offset the slower annual growth of agriculture.

Highlight of the Canlas report showed that:

• The GNP, adjusted for inflation, grew by 4.9 percent, exceeding the government forecast of 4.3 to 4.8 percent. The GNP was buoyed by income from abroad that rose by 22.5 percent and the GDP which grew by 3.8 percent.

• Growth in personal consumption, especially in telecom-munications, reached 3.4 percent. Fixed capital investments increased by 2.8 percent but total investments fell 1.3 percent due to the drawdown of inventories to meet domestic demand.

• Net exports improved 19.1 percent as the decline in exports slowed to 2.9 percent.

• On the production side, services led with a 4.8-percent growth followed by agriculture at 4.4 percent. Industry strengthened at a rate of 1.9 percent due to mining and quarrying that rose 35.8 percent. Construction grew 1.5 percent; food manufacturing, 9.1 percent; and electrical machinery, 13.4 percent. However, the utilities sector dipped by 8.8 percent.