President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today vowed to devote her time and energy to attending to the issue of electricity rates in order to bring down the country’s power rates.

In her speech at the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) Third National Grand Breakfast held this morning at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City, the President said she will spend "the next weeks and months to find ways to further bring down power rates."

"Every centavo matters even after the 20 percent cut in our July billings," the President said.

The President said her more than 18-month-old administration is determined to make the country’s electricity rates more competitive.

"One of the reasons why I needed to reform the power sector is that I inherited the power sector whose electricity rates are also second highest in Asia, second only to Japan," she said.

The President pointed out that last May 8, she instructed the National Power Corporation to bring down its Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (PPCA), which is a component of the Power Purchase Adjustment (PPA) – to bring it down to 40 centavos.

She added that the cost adjustment will be reflected in the consumers’ July billings. This elicited a big round of applause from the Christian businessmen present during the affair.

"When this reduction is reflected in your July billings -- where hopefully, the bulk of the Meralco consumers will see it go down by 20 percent -- we will move from number two to number six (among countries with high electricity rates)," the President said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today called on the military to step up its hunt for the four remaining leaders of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) as she moved to call off the search for the body of Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aldam Tilao alias Abu Sabaya in Sibuco Bay, Zamboanga del Norte.

But the President stressed that the P50,000 reward to be given to anyone who could recover Sabaya’s body continued.

Being hunted by the government are ASG leaders Amir Khadafi Abubakar Janjalani, Jainal Antel Sali, Jr., Isnilon Toton Hapilon and Hamsitaji Marusi Sali.

Speaking before the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals Third National Grand Breakfast this morning at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City, the President said "the bulk of our forces (in Mindanao) should go not to finding the dead leader but the four remaining live leaders of the Abu Sayyaf."

She said the United States Navy Seals have offered to help the government look for Sabaya’s body.

"Let’s have a small unit of ours, so it’s not all being done by the Americans alone," she stressed.

The President pointed out that the government’s success against the ASG was "the result of our soldiers’ and policemen’s renewed focus on duty, integrity and honor aided by the advance technical expertise and sophisticated equipment of our international allies."

She said the operation the military, through the Navy’s Special Warfare Group and the Marines, undertook last June 21 against the Sabaya-led ASG band in Sibuco Bay was done with "perfect technology, perfect planning and perfect execution."

She narrated that a government asset, disguised as a pumpboat operator, involved in the operation were briefed by the soldiers before the firefight.

The asset was briefed and given a necklace which flashes when soldiers turn on their krypton flashlights in their night vision equipment, she said.

When the necklace flickered, the soldiers knew that bearer was "a friendly force and they are not supposed to fire at them," she added.

The President further said the assets were told that the moment the attack on the ASG began – they should jump into the water.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today stressed that her 18-month old administration remained committed to institutionalizing good governance that "can serve as a pathway to peace, justice and the conquest of poverty" in the country.

In a speech before the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals’ (BCBP) Third National Grand Breakfast meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City, the President said that since she assumed the presidency in January 2001, she launched a moral revolution from the top by exercising leadership by example.

"Then, as now, I insist that only moral strength can be the invincible foundation of good governance," she said.

But she added that graft and corruption remained a bureaucratic scourge and a serious challenge to her administration.

"I would be the first to admit that …. graft and corruption rob the people of resources that otherwise could be channeled to priority programs and projects. It erodes the confidence of citizens and entrepreneurs in the integrity of our institutions," the President said.

She added that graft and corruption have alienated the people from government.

In this connection, the President cited the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s top story on a Pulse Asia survey.

She quoted the story which said "19 percent of Filipinos agree with the statement that this country is hopeless, and if it were only possible, they would migrate to another country and live there."

"Of course, we have to see the other side of the news. A glass is half full or half empty depending on how you want to see it. Yes, the glass is 19 percent empty, but it is more than half full because 60 percent disagrees with the statement," the President said.

She, however, stressed that she was not discouraged by the news. But "we must recognize that graft and corruption are among the biggest hindrances to development."

While the country ranked behind Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand in good governance, the President said that "we, at least in this administration, are ranking ahead of them in economic growth and we can even grow more if we catch up with them."

She recalled that her late father President Diosdado Macapagal left her a motto for her public and private behavior which is: "Do what is right, do your best and God will take care of the rest."

In her speech, the President expressed elation over the BCBP’s dedication to good corporate governance, particularly in its drive to promote the honest payment of taxes.

"I thank you for that because that way, you help clean up the revenue agencies," she said.

She disclosed that the Bureau of Internal Revenue has established a one-stop-shop inter-agency credit and duty drawback center and that signatures for verification reports have been reduced from six to two.

She also announced that criminal complaints have been filed against 64 firms that fraudulently acquired tax certificates amounting to P5.3 billion.

Further, she signed last year Executive Order 25 forming the Governance Advisory Council, which is working on simplifying the rules and regulations of certain government agencies, and how to raise the country’s international rankings on transparency, business ethics and integrity of business and financial transactions.

"This council is also facilitating and expediting national and corporate governance reforms and soon it will conduct a study on how to strengthen the judicial system to deal with graft and corruption," she said.

The President said the council has pinpointed four critical elements in a good governance program: The rule of law taking into account the nuisances of our history and culture; a policy regime favoring competition reducing discretion and raising accountability; an effective enforcement mechanisms through professionalized public institutions such as the Philippine National Police; and a responsible citizenry nurturing a culture of compliance, ethics, social responsibility.

Fighting corruption means cutting red tape, she said, adding that over the past years, 12 departments and 19 agencies have pushed measures to reduce processing time for documents and transactions.

For example, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council has reduced the number of signatories and the processing time for permits from 88 days to 45 days.

The Department of Labor and Employment has reduced by half the processing time for the Overseas Filipino Workers’ documentation from six hours to three hours for land-based workers, and from 12 hours to six hours for sea-based workers.

The President said the government’s computerization and automation program have also deterred acts of graft.

"The E-procurement systems have been adopted by several agencies for equipment acquisition," she said, adding that this has reduced corruption and has resulted in savings for these agencies.

The President noted that she would like the Securities and Exchange Commission and other government agencies in the Capital Market Development Council "to work closely" with the business sector like the BCBP to ensure that the Code of Corporate Governance is strongly enforced.

"I have instructed them to actively implement the three-year program of corporate governance reforms that they adopted this year," she said.

She added that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued a circular requiring all the directors in the corporate boards of banks to take an orientation course on corporate governance.

For her part, the President has required all appointed directors in corporate boards of government-owned and -controlled corporations and government financial institutions to also take an orientation course on corporate governance.

Malacanang said today that it will not interfere in the decision of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) to relieve four regional police directors and three other senior police officers for their alleged failure to stop illegal gambling, particularly the numbers game jueteng, in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

In a telephone interview with Malacaņang reporters, Acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable, Jr. said the Napolcom has the mandate under the law to supervise the operations of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

In a resolution, the Napolcom, chaired by Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina, Jr. relieved Chief Superintendents Edgar Aglipay of the National Capital Region, Reynaldo Berroya of Central Luzon (Region III), Domingo Reyes of the Southern Tagalog Region (Region IV), and Avelino Razon of Central Visayas (Region VII).

The issue here, according to Afable, is the authority and the legitimacy of the actions taken by the Napolcom since the latter has the mandate to supervise the PNP.

"He (Lina) had made an action and I’m sure he can justify and substantiate the reasons behind his action," Afable said.

Lina told a news conference earlier today that the relief order is contained in a memorandum circular that he and four other Napolcom commissioners had signed.