Sa ngalan ng ating Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, ng Unang Pamilya, ako po ay bumabati sa inyong lahat sa Araw ng Namayapa.

Ang pagbisita natin sa himlayan ng ating mga mahal na yumao ay isang tradisyon at kaugaliang nagpapakilala ng ating paggalang hindi lamang sa mga namayapa kundi sa mga adhikaing kanilang ipinanamana sa atin.

Ilan sa mga adhikaing dapat nating patuloy na ipaglaban ay ang pagkakaisa, kapayapaan, kaunlaran at kaligtasan mula sa mapanindak ng elementong walang puwang sa isang sibilisadong kaayusan. Nawa sa pagtugay ng ating Panginoon, ang Panahon ng Undas ay maging isang ginituang pagkakataon din upang ating patatagin at palakasin ang ating pagkakaisa bilang pamilya.

Ang matatag na pamilya ay isa sa mga sandigan ng isang malakas na Republika.

The American ICT giants assured the President that they will not only expand their present operations in the Philippines but would also put new investments, especially in call center operations, Bunye said.

In fact, the President said, the Bush administration was largely instrumental in the passage at the US House of Representatives of a $65- million outlay for health benefits and burial assistance to Filipino veterans.

Two of the world’s leading credit rating, research and risk analysis firms – Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service – are maintaining their ratings and stable outlook on the Philippines.

Malacaņang welcomed the decision of the two agencies even as investment bank JP Morgan expressed surprise over the downgrading by Standard and Poor’s (S&P), another ratings services firm, of its long-term outlook for the Philippines.

Brian Coulton, a senior director at Fitch, said the agency is maintaining its ratings on the Philipipnes long-term foreign currency debt at BB+ and its long-term local currency borrowings at BBB-.

Credit ratings are used by investors as indications of the likelihood of getting their money back in accordance with the terms on which they invested.

"The ratings remain the same," Coulton said, "and the outlook does remain stable as well."

Moody’s also said it was keeping its stable credit outlook on the Philippines, saying the country’s strong balance of payments outlook was a balancing factor to a growing budget deficit.

Moody’s lead analyst for Asia, Thomas Byrne, said: "Back in August, we issued a statement and we looked primarily at the fiscal factors. But at that time, we didn't see anything that would make us change our stable outlook. And the recent information that was released hasn't led us to change our conclusion that we made back then."

Moody's revised in February its credit outlook on the Philippines to stable from negative, an outlook that had been in place since October 2000.

"Exports have recovered, the official foreign exchange reserves are still high and workers inflows continue; in fact they are pretty good this year," Byrne said.

"These factors suggest that there is no direct link, at least not yet, and probably not foreseeable, with the budget problems and the balance of payments position," he added.

JP Morgan, meanwhile, said in a statement it was surprised by S&P’s revision of its outlook for the Philippines from stable to negative.

It said S&P should have deferred the action to revise the outlook until early next year "to assess the trends, especially after the critical April tax month."

"Clearly, S&P has given little weight to the Arroyo government's arguments about a deficit frontloading and emerging signs of tax collection improvements," JP Morgan said.

In San Francisco yesterday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed confidence that the Philippines will regain its stable rating from Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services.

"We have a high regard for Standard and Poor’s," Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye quoted the President as saying. "But Standard and Poor’s may have taken into account only one macroeconomic indicator and probably did not take into account our significant gains like highest growth rate in Southeast Asia and third largest growth rate in Asia, our low inflation rate regime and fiscal discipline."

SAN FRANCISCO, California—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today assured the public that they can visit the graves of their loved ones or relax at the malls and other places without fear of terrorist attacks.

"Gusto ko lang ipaalam na sinisigurado natin ang kaligtasan ng ating mamamayan, kaya mayroon tayong mga Marines na nagbabantay ngayon sa mga malls para lalong ligtas ang ating mga mamamayan (I would like to assure the safety of our countrymen, that is why we have Marines guarding the malls)," the President told the Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) in an interview here.

The President said that she had declared October 31 and November 2 as special non-working days to allow the people not only to go to the cemeteries during All Saints’ Day but also to relax and enjoy during the long weekend.

She said that her mission in going to Mexico for the leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and to Silicon Valley in California is two-fold.

One, the President said, is to participate in widening the global alliance in the fight against international terrorism, and second, to work for more employment opportunities for our people through additional foreign investments.

"Kasi, kahit anong pinag-uusapan natin, sa katapusan yun din ang ating talagang hangarin: na bumuti ang buhay ng ating mga mamamayang Pilipino (Whatever we discuss, in the end, our final objective is to improve the lives of our countrymen), the President said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said the new kind of enemy in the 21^st century, which is terrorism, requires a transnational collaboration among nations.

"There is a new kind of war in the 21^st century, which is terrorism. This is a transnational war and therefore, there must be transnational collaboration not only with the United States but also with other neighbors in the region and other members of the United Nations," the President in an interview with CNN while on a brief visit in the United States from the APEC Leaders’ Meeting in Mexico .

The President noted the several and recent strikes of terrorists in many parts of the world.

‘They’re trying to get into the Philippines. They’re trying to get into Europe. They’re trying to get into America, so it’s an international threat and it must be answered also, transnationally," she said.

The Philippines has a trilateral agreement with Malaysia and Indonesia on intelligence sharing and border patrols against transnational crime, including terrorism.

Meanwhile, the President said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is ready and capable of dealing with transnational crimes as it is responsible for reducing the number of Abu Sayyaf from thousands to just a couple of hundreds.

"The Abu Sayyaf was numbering thousands. Now, they are numbering a couple of a few hundreds and they are holed up, by and large, now where they started," the President said. "In other words, we are making tremendous gains in our fight against the Abu Sayyaf."

The President stressed, however, that the government is holding peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and that there is an ongoing cease-fire between the MILF and government troops.

She said the government is taking advantage of the peace talks to bring about development in the area where the MILF can get their sympathizers.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today noted the confidence manifested by executives of the information technology enterprises in Silicon Valley on the ICT sector in the country.

"If the business community feels that way, especially the community in the growth sector of the future for the Philippines, which is ICT, then I think this message has to be brought back to the Philippines so that they’ll know that there is confidence on the most important growth sector for the future in our country,’ the President said in an interview with Cable News Network (CNN) while in the United States.

In her brief visit to San Jose, California, the President was able to convince business leaders and executives in the world’s information technology capital to put their business and pour in more investments in the Philippines.

One of the chief executive officers of Silicon Valley, Richard Swanson, president of Sunpower Corporation, promised to establish a $200-million solar cell manufacturing company in the country, which would be fully operational by 2004.

It is expected to generate at least 1, 400 jobs in four years.

Aside from Sunpower Corporation, Cypress Semiconductor Corp. also informed the President of its plans to put up a silicon wafer fabrication plant in the Philippines.

Cypress, a company that specializes in high-volume manufacturing of silicon cells at very low cost, is a major partner of Sunpower, a premier manufacturer of ultra high-efficiency silicon solar cells.

The list, which was adopted after written consultations among the 15 member-states of the EU, has been published by the EU’s Official Journal.