Peso-Dollar Rate

The peso continues to be supported by good economic fundamentals which are the same factors that kept it very stable last year. Our reserves are at a comfortable level which can cover any expected demand for dollars. If at all, the current weakness of the peso is temporary.

Be that as it may. BSP assures that it is prepared to take the necessary steps to maintain the stability of the peso.

Tiglao-Braganza

I was present during the meeting and I did not notice anything unusual.

Re Meatless Weekend

Nothing to worry about. Big raisers and suppliers of meat have assured the Department of Agriculture of continuous supply at stable prices.

Iraq Embassy Security

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has spelled out the four institutions that would be strengthened to build a strong Philippine Republic that she envisioned for the Filipino people.

In her policy speech delivered Thursday before students and members of the faculty of the De la Salle University in Manila, the President identified these four institutions as effective government, a vigorous free enterprise economy, a true and vigorous democratic representation, and a vibrant civil society.

By effective government, the President said she means an effective national and local governments and a professional and dedicated civil service.

An effective government also means that it is capable of securing the persons and properties of the citizens of the Republic and should be able to help the poorest and weakest citizens and empowering them, the President said.

"A strong Republic must go further to dismantle the structures that protect abuse and perpetuate weakness," the President said.

The President said to promote the free enterprise economy in a strong Republic, the government must remove monopolies and combinations in restraint of trade.

"The government must ensure a level playing field. But not just that, a strong Republic commits itself to provide the basic necessities for as many as it can, to women, minorities, the old, the young," the President said.

But the President also warned that a strong Republic cannot just leave its workings entirely to the free market.

"While a strong Republic does not dictate to the market, it plans the direction that the economy ideally should go," the President clarified.

On the third component, the President said that a strong Republic must have a strong democratic representation. "The more empowered the people are, the less political bosses dictate the outcome of the political process, so, much stronger does a republic grow," she said.

On the fourth institution, the President said that the power of the civil society to effect rapid political change has been proven during the two EDSA people power uprisings.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today took time out to visit her soon-to-be godchild, the new-born baby of a former rebel amazon who returned to the fold of the law late last year.

The President, in a visit to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Medical Center in V. Luna, Quezon City, cuddled for almost 20 minutes Sheena Rose Cocoy, two-day-old baby of Rosalyn Cocoy or "Ka Lorena."

The mother was one of 150 former members and sympathizers of the communist New People’s Army who were presented to the President last November 15, 2002 in surrender rites at Barangay Pinugay, Rizal.

The President was able to talk to Ka Lorena, who was pregnant with her second baby at that time, and promised that she would be the godmother of the baby.

When the President learned that Ka Lorena gave birth at the AFP Medical Center, she immediately visited her.

With the President during the visit were AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Dionisio Santillan, Second Infantry Division commanding officer Maj. Gen. Efren Abu and AFP Medical Center commanding officer Col. Ronald Kempis.

Earlier, the President condoled with the family of Senior Police Officer 2 Pedro Vicedo, a presidential motorcycle escort, who died in an accident while escorting the President in one of her activities outside Malacanang Thursday.

The President went to the Arlington Memorial Chapel along Araneta Ave. in Quezon City and expressed her condolences to the family.

Vicedo was with the President’s party on a motorcycle when a ten-wheeler cargo truck crashed into his motorcycle. He was trying to catch up with the lead car of the presidential convoy near the Del Pan Bridge in Tondo, Manila when the accident happened.