The administration has actually been praised for the way we have applied our loans to programs and projects aimed at improving the lives of Filipinos.

We have invested our borrowings in modern infrastructure and in education and training for jobs that people need to succeed.

We need all these to attract investments and multiply our gains.

Massive disaster operations are ongoing and I would like to thank the US government for lending a hand in the delivery of assistance and the search for the missing.

Meanwhile, I am ordering the DENR to get a comprehensive plan in place to restore ecological stability in the areas affected by this recent tragedy.

The DENR will closely work with other concerned government offices as well as the NGOs to step up reforestation.

We have to sustain the environment and at the same time, provide alternative sources of income for the people so that they will be encouraged to plant trees and build forests.

These are important for the safety and welfare of the people, for the strength of the economy.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Undersecretary Delia Domingo-Albert, a career diplomat, as the new foreign affairs secretary, replacing the late Blas F. Ople.

In his regular press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that it was Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo who announced Domingo-Albert’s appointment during this morning’s Cabinet Meeting.

Domingo-Albert is a career diplomat who has represented the Philippines in various capacities in Switzerland, Romania, Hungary, the former German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Commonwealth of Australia with concurrent accreditation to Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

In 2001, she served as the dean of the diplomatic corps in Canberra while assigned to Australia.

Prior to her appointment, Domingo-Albert was the Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for International Economic Relations and a senior official for Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC).

Domingo-Albert attended the University of the Philippines as well as academic institutions in Europe, namely: the Institute for International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland; the Diplomatic Institute in Salzburg, Austria; Boston University Overseas in Bonn, Germany; the Institute of Political Science and Strategic Studies in Kiel, Germany; and the J.F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Having attended language courses in Tokyo, Geneva, Bucharest and Bonn, Domingo-Albert speaks English, German, French, Romanian, Spanish and Japanese.

She began her career in the Department of Foreign Affairs as assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1967 and passed the foreign service officer’s examination in 1973.

During her diplomatic assignment at the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in Switzerland, she attended conferences of the various United Nations specialized agencies both in Geneva and Vienna as well as conferences at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

In the home office, Domingo-Albert served as director-general of the ASEAN National Secretariat of the Philippines. In that capacity, she participated in various ASEAN meetings as well as in ASEAN and APEC summits.

She served as secretary general of the Conference Secretariat of the 4^th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in the Philippines in 1996, for which she was commended by the Philippine Senate.

In recognition of her efforts in promoting Philippine relations with Germany as well as relations between ASEAN and the European Union, she was awarded the Knights Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1992.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration has shifted to high gear its rural electrification program to attain 100 percent accomplishment by 2006.

According to the Department of Energy, only 3,081 barangays out of a total of 41, 945 barangays nationwide have yet to be energized.

Luzon registered the highest electrification rating with 95 percent accomplishment, followed by the Visayas with 89 percent, while Mindanao has 77 percent.

President Macapagal-Arroyo said the enthusiastic participation of the private sector in the country’s energy development efforts has accelerated the energization program from a monthly average of 39.5 barangays during the Aquino presidency to 120 barangays at present.

The government has energized a total of 3,750 barangays since January 2001 when Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency, bringing the total number of energized barangays to 37,327 as of last August.

The government-owned Philippine National Co.-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) has committed to deliver electricity to 827 barangays in the provinces of Leyte, Negros Oriental, Albay, Sorsogon, Samar, Iloilo and Cotabato starting next year until 2006.

The PNOC-EDC is stepping into the picture in support of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s Expanded Rural Electrification Program which envisions to light up the entire countryside within the next three years.

Financial constraints on the part of the government has seriously set back the program over the years. Estimates showed that bringing electric power to one barangay alone would cost about P1 million to P1.3 million.

To ease its fiscal burden, the government encouraged the independent power producers (IPPs) to light up their host communities, with the PNOC setting the scheme in motion by empowering a number of barangays in Ormoc, Leyte as early as 2000.

The President said the privately owned power facilities and other institutions have made significant contributions to the government’s rural electrification program.

To enhance the viability of the privately owned IPPs, President Macapagal-Arroyo implemented a restructuring program for the electric cooperatives through Executive Order 119 issued on Aug. 28, 2002. This gave rise to the adoption of more efficient Performance Improvement Programs and Rehabilitation Efficiency Plans for the nearly 120 electric cooperatives across the country.

The National Electrification Administration put under management receivership at least ten "inefficient and problematic" electric cooperatives to nurse them back to viability

Reacting to a snowballing support from various quarters, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to have a simple and simultaneous proclamation of all pro-administration party candidates, Presidential Campaign Spokesman Mike Defensor revealed today.

In a press briefing in Malacanang, Defensor also announced that the President intends to file her certificate of candidacy before the January 2 deadline.

Defensor said the President is mulling simple proclamation rites to be attended by members of the Nationalist People"s Coalition (NPC), the Liberal Party (LP), Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), and other satellite political parties that have already signified their support to her presidential candidacy.

"We need not go through a big rally. And that is the sincere feeling of the President," Defensor said. "She wants one without much fanfare, without mobilizing thousands of people, or having a grand rally as others would do. She would rather keep it simple."

Defensor said the President would file her candidacy as soon as her running mate and senatorial bets have been chosen.

"What’s important is to get a slate that will be able to help the President in her agenda, in her programs, in the continuity of her reforms and change," Defensor added.

He said the senatorial candidates of the President should be able to "support and pursue the legislative agenda as we have done in the past years."

These concerns included health care, housing and infrastructure development "so that we can primarily push the economy."

Defensor, the housing czar of the Macapagal-Arroyo Cabinet, expressed confidence that the administration party could get all the supportive political groups together in the light of the snowballing support for the President.

"As the other candidates are being abandoned, you see a lot of people going to the President," Defensor said.

He cited former Speaker Noli Fuentebella, former Caloocan City Rep. Luis "Baby" Asistio, former Rizal Gov. Casimiro Ynares, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn and Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson.