President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has said that despite the negative impact of September 11 terrorist attacks on the United states last year and the series of kidnappings perpetrated by criminal groups, the country’s tourism industry in still growing.

Speaking before the ceremonial opening of the 7^th International Surfing Cup and the 1^st Human Body Boarding Challenge held Thursday at Cloud Nine Beach Resort at Siargao Island, the President said that despite the negative growth in some countries in the world brought by September 11, tourism in the Philippines is still a thriving industry.

"Tourism is one of the primary sectors in the world where there has been negative growth rate after September 11 but tourism in the Philippines is still growing at double digit," the President said.

In her impromptu speech, the President also congratulated Surigao del Norte Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers, his brother, Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, and the provincial and local officials of Surigao as well as the Department of Tourism for hosting the surfing and body boarding competition at Cloud 9 Beach Resort in Siargao Island.

The President wished the participants of the four-day surfing competition all the luck. The surfing event started Thursday and will end Sunday while the human body boarding challenge is set for October 1 to 13.

The President also said that in order to help accommodate local and foreign surfers, she has launched the "One Town, One Product, One Million Pesos" loan program for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the island.

She issued a P1 million check as loan to one of the beach resorts of the island. The President handed the check to Gov. Barbers after her speech.

Siargao island, which is composed of nine municipalities, has the best surfing terminals in Region 13. General Luna town alone has 14 beach resorts and during the tournament there was an overflow of patrons resulting in the lack of rooms for visitors.

The holding of an international surfing competition in Mindanao negates notions that the region is beset by peace and order problems.

This was stressed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Thursday in a speech before officials, competitors and guests at the 7^th International Surfing Cup and the 1^st Human Body Boarding Challenge at the Cloud Nine Beach Resort in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte.

"The world thinks of Mindanao as a place that is not secure. Siargao makes that claim false," the President said.

She also took note of the very stable peace and order condition in Surigao del Norte.

The President said the international gauge for good peace and order is pegged at eight crimes per 100,000 population, adding that Surigao del Norte has a crime rate of only two per 100,000 population.

According to the President, many areas in Mindanao have also achieved great gains, thanks to stepped-up drive by local officials and the people against criminal and terrorist elements.

She recalled that during her most recent visit to General Santos City, she was informed that the local police have killed the area’s number one drug pusher.

In an earlier visit to the same city, she said she was greeted by the news that the head of the Abu Sofia, a kidnap-for-ransom group linked to the terrorist Abu Sayyaf, was also killed.

She said she came back to Mindanao with every piece of good news about government achievements in its peace and order campaign.

MALAMPAYA PLATFORM, Palawan—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today inspected the offshore platform of the Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power Project to stress the importance that her administration is giving to projects aimed at making the country self-sufficient in its energy requirements.

The President arrived here this morning from El Nido by Heli-Canadian Air, the Malampaya chopper.

Among those who accompanied the President in her brief inspection of the platform were Energy Secretary Vicente Perez, Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II, and former AFP chief, retired Gen Roy Cimatu, now chairman of the Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT).

Cimatu’s inclusion in the inspection visit was part of the preparations for his visit, starting tomorrow, to the nine Middle East countries where he will draw up a comprehensive contingency plan for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in case war erupts in the region.

Before proceeding to El Nido on board the presidential yacht, Ang Pangulo, the President on Thursday opened the international surfing competition in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte and keynoted the 2^nd Mindanao Shippers Conference in Iligan City.

The President and her party stayed for only about 30 minutes at the platform, after which they returned to El Nido where she briefed the media about the importance of the Malampaya project.

During the briefing, the President cited the importance of the Malampaya project, especially with the threat of war in the Middle East where the Philippines gets the bulk of its oil requirements.

The President also said that the Malampaya project is well secured.

She also said that her "One town, One Project, One Mission Pesos" program will be implemented in Palawan where small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can apply for loans for their livelihood projects.

The Malampaya project, whose operation will span decades, is an example of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s long-term view of the country’s prospects and capabilities.

Earlier, the President said that because of the project, the country’s need for foreign oil and gas and petroleum products would be lessened, adding that the Philippines would have more protection, especially with the impending new round of increase in the price of crude oil brought about by the threat of war in the Middle East.

The $5-billion Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power project, which the President inaugurated on Oct. 16, 2001, is the largest and most important investment of its kind in the history of the Philippines.

During the inauguration of the facility in Tabangao, Batangas City, the President said the project marks the beginning of a whole new industry that will provide clean and environment-friendly fuel to Philippine industries.

The President said that with an expected $700 million in yearly savings as a result of the natural gas project, the country is expected to earn at least $13 million in royalties within its 20-year period of operation.

The year-round production of oil and gas from the Malampaya project in Palawan is one of the factors that would help sustain the country’s economic growth in 2002, according to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In her yearend report to the nation, the President said that with gas production in Malampaya that started in the middle of October, 2001 and oil production that kicked off in December of the same year, the Philippines is now 52 percent self-sufficient in its energy requirements.

The inauguration of the project, held three and a half years after the declaration of the commercial quantity of gas in Malampaya in May 1998, marked the birth of the Philippines' natural gas industry.

Prior to the launching of the Malampaya project, the country was consuming up to $3 billion worth of imported fuel every year.

The President said that the impact of the natural gas project would be long and widely felt far beyond the power and energy sector itself in the daily lives of millions of Filipinos.

"Many of those Filipinos may have never heard of Malampaya and maybe never will, because they are far in the hinterlands. But they will be reached and touched by the benefits of natural gas," she said.

The President said that in order to achieve the goal of enhancing natural gas utilization, it shall be the policy of her administration to promote activities in the downstream sector by offering access for all land-based gas pipeline networks to ensure the inflow of investments in this area.

By the year 2004, shippers and stakeholders in the cargo industry would benefit from the faster handling and transport of goods between Mindanao and other top domestic ports.

But most importantly, they would gain from more reasonable cargo handling and transport costs.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in a speech before a gathering of shippers and cargo operators in Iligan City Thursday, said container port modernization would finally be implemented in Mindanao.

She said she looked forward to the completion by 2004 of the P2-billion Mindanao Container Port Terminal (MCPT) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

The President hinted that the construction of the huge terminal would generate jobs by itself. When it operates, more employment opportunities would be generated, she said.

The completion of the terminal would go side by side with the construction of the nearby Laguindingan airport.

The two support infrastructure projects are in line with the President’s commitment, as expounded in her second State of the Nation Address (SONA), to improve services that would rev up Mindanao’s economy.

The Interagency Investment Coordination Committee (ICC) of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had approved last May the implementation of the second stage of the MCPT.

The NEDA-ICC, in approving the project, noted that the MCPT would meet the increasing demand for cargo movement to and from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City.

The MCTP Phase II bulk and food terminal coveres the extension of an existing 300-meter 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.

The site of the MCTP Phase II is within the vicinity of industries at the the 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 Japan’s Special Yen Loan Package (SYLP) while the remaining 40 percent will be shouldered by local counterpart funds.

The SLYP carries an interest rate of one percent, with a 40-year repayment period, inclusive of a 10-year grace period.

The NEDA-ICC said port access would be through the national coastal highway, without using or passing through congested city roads.

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

The project is also expected to ease conditions at the already heavily congested Cagayan De Oro City port.

The MCTP Phase II has been designed to handle 2.3 million tons of dry and breakbulk cargoes and accommodate the berthing of one 20,000-DWT vessel to two 150-DWT vessels in a 200-meter berth length.

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

Malacanang today announced the arrest of a swindler who claimed before Misamis Occidental Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos that he facilitated the release of the province’s Local Government Service Equalization Funds (LGSEF).

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, in a press briefing in Malacanang, led a video presentation showing elements of the Misamis Occidental Police Provincial Office arresting Nestor Dapar, a businessman and a resident of Dipolog City, in an entrapment operation.

The arrest took place last September 24 inside the Office of Governor Ocampos and was witnessed by representatives of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).

According to Boncodin, Dapar was immediately arrested after receiving marked money from Gov. Ocampos. The marked money was supposed to represent the 15-percent commission of the group in connection with the "facilitation" for the release of LGSEF to the provincial government.

A case of swindling was filed against Dapar before the City Prosecutors Office in Oroquieta City on the same day of the arrest.

The group of Dapar, Boncodin said, claimed responsibility for the release of the funds allegedly using their connections inside the Office of the President and the DBM.

DBM Assistant Secretary Edgardo Opida, who was present during the arrest, has debunked Dapar’s claim.

Last month, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the DBM presented architect Manuel Tolentino who was arrested in a similar entrapment operation in Manila.

Barely two months after the DBM sought the assistance of PAOCC, government investigators have already unraveled a significant part of the group’s intricate network and inner workings.

The DBM said it believes that a group, which operates nationwide, has already victimized several government officials and private businessmen during a certain period of time.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is neither offended nor insulted by impersonations on her in government infomercials, wherein she explains government efforts in lowering the cost of rice, electricity and medicines, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said today.

"Ang ating Pangulo naman ay (Our President is) game. She’s sport. She takes everything in stride," Bunye said in his regular press briefing.

Responding to queries if the President is slighted by imitations of her infomercials, Bunye noted that it is usually the heads of state that are subjected to impersonation.

"The more important you are, the more you become targets of caricatures or spoofs. These are normal in a democratic setup," he added.

Bunye noted that it is the government’s duty to inform the people on the available government programs.

Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin today reassured government workers that they would be getting their regular Christmas bonus by the yearend.

‘We will all get our usual yearend bonuses from the budget as prescribed by law," Boncodin said in a press briefing in Malacanang.

The budget secretary noted, however, that the additional cash incentives are still being worked out, if there will be any.

"As you know, we have just completed our third quarter performance review and it (cash incentives) will depend on what the finances will look like by the end of the year," Boncodin said.

Boncodin noted, however, that the government could not afford the P3,000-salary increase, which is being asked by some government employees.

She said the government is looking at options to provide non-monetary benefits to state workers in lieu of salary increase .

According to Boncodin, the DBM is now meeting with the Civil Service Commission on this issue.

She added that DBM has discussed with the Public Sector Labor Management Council the possibility of providing benefits that are non-wage to public employees.

EL NIDO, Palawan—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today assured the nation that the government has already identified countries where Filipinos could be relocated in case of an outbreak of another war in the Middle East.

In her opening statement at a media briefing here after her inspection visit to the Malampaya project, the President said that the identification of these relocation sites is part of the functions of the Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT) headed by former AFP chief, retired Gen. Roy Cimatu.

The President said although the relocation countries have already been identified, diplomatic prudence requires that these countries should not be publicly named.

"Rest assured, however, that specific relocations plans are being worked out by our crisis manager," the President said, referring to Cimatu.

The President said that Cimatu met Thursday with the ambassadors of countries sharing borders with Iraq, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

According to the President, the ambassadors of the four countries assured the Philippines of their support for any relocation activities that would be undertaken for our Filipino nationals in their territories.

Cimatu has estimated that only 5 percent of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East would be affected if the United States pushes through with its threat to attack Iraq.

EL NIDO, Palawan—The Philippines is prepared for any energy contingency that may arise in the Middle East because of Iraq’s refusal to comply with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council.

In her opening statement during a media briefing here, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today stressed this as she cited the country’s less dependence on oil, bulk of which it imports from the Middle East.

The President said the Philippines is now only 21 percent dependent on oil for its power needs, compared to more than 60 percent in the last Gulf War in the early 90s.

"This is because we have been able to diversify our power sources," the President said.

She noted that the country has developed its energy sources and has tapped "geothermal, coal, hydro and most recently, natural gas with the coming onstream operations of Malampaya."

The President earlier made a brief inspection of the offshore platform of the Malampaya Deep Water Gas to Power project in Palawan.

She said the Philippines was fortunate to have gained the approval of at least "four new exploration companies from Britain, Japan and the United States prospecting around Northern Palawan."

"We have been actively promoting our country’s potentials in oil and gas exploration," she said.

The country is in a better situation today than during the previous Middle East crisis, the President said.

But there is a need to plan ahead because "we are still dependent on imported oil for our transportation needs," she said.

The government’s contingency plans include the increase in the country’s oil inventory and the facilitation of arrangements for a special contingency bilateral supply with traditional and new oil supplying countries.

Citing "diplomatic prudence" for not naming the oil suppliers, the President said there were talks with a Middle East nation for a "formal solid assurance on oil supply that will be finalized within the next few weeks."

A commercial arrangement between the Philippine National Oil Company and its counterpart in a neighboring country is also being concluded, she added.

She said she would send a high-level mission to initiate the second arrangement that would give the Philippines "an alternative source of oil with a non-traditional country source."

The President said the Philippines, in response to the call of Japan to set up a regional oil stockpile during the recent Asean + 3 Energy Ministers meeting, has offered Subic Bay "as a location for the regional stockpile."

The issue would be taken up in the November Asean Summit.

Further, the President ordered Energy Secretary Vincent Perez, Jr. to prepare an executive order "requiring all oil companies to maintain a certain minimum oil inventory within the country."

"There will be no need to hoard. There will only be a need to conserve," the President said.