President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has released a check of P700 million from the coco levy fund that would benefit some of the 3.5 million coconut farmers and farm workers nationwide.

The check was released to UCPB Finance and Development Corporation (UFDC) Chairman Noel Cabrera at the EDSA Shrine Monday during the rites commemorating the 2^nd anniversary of People Power II.

One of those who witnessed the check turnover was Presidential Adviser and Special Resource Person to the UFDC Board Secretary Dodi Limcaoco.

Also on the UFDC Board are Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya Bishop Ramon Villena and two representatives from major farmers’ organizations.

The check represents the first significant amount released for the benefit of the coconut farmers and farm workers from the accrued interests of the coconut levy fund. The levy was collected from the farmers over thirty years ago.

This first major release from the coco levy fund is a major milestone in President Macapagal-Arroyo’s pro-poor and poverty alleviation reform agenda.

The levy has been an issue spanning five Philippine Presidents but major strides were made only during the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency.

More benefits from the levy are expected soon after the Sandiganbayan ruling that says the fund is public in nature. The sale of the 27% uncontested levy shares in San Miguel Corporation, now estimated in the billions, is also expected to further benefit coconut farmers and farm workers.

The P700 million that has been released will directly benefit an estimated 164,000 cocount farmers or their wives in programs and projects identified by the UFDC.

An estimated 18,000 wives of coconut farmers would will be provided with ‘Grameen-type" micro-finance loans for livelihood projects.

About 60,000 farmers will also benefit from increased income because of a ‘farm diversification’ program, which will result in increased prices for their copra and livestock.

At least 56,000 farmers will get additional income since they can sell their copra directly to oil mills cutting off traders and middle men. And roughly 30,000 farmers will benefit from loans extended to their cooperatives, non-government organizations (NGOs) and peoples’ organizations.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has released a check of P700 million from the coco levy fund that would benefit some of the 3.5 million coconut farmers and farm workers nationwide.

The check was released to UCPB Finance and Development Corporation (UFDC) Chairman Noel Cabrera at the EDSA Shrine Monday during the rites commemorating the 2^nd anniversary of People Power II.

One of those who witnessed the check turnover was Presidential Adviser and Special Resource Person to the UFDC Board Secretary Dodi Limcaoco.

Also on the UFDC Board are Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya Bishop Ramon Villena and two representatives from major farmers’ organizations.

The check represents the first significant amount released for the benefit of the coconut farmers and farm workers from the accrued interests of the coconut levy fund. The levy was collected from the farmers over thirty years ago.

This first major release from the coco levy fund is a major milestone in President Macapagal-Arroyo’s pro-poor and poverty alleviation reform agenda.

The levy has been an issue spanning five Philippine Presidents but major strides were made only during the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency.

More benefits from the levy are expected soon after the Sandiganbayan ruling that says the fund is public in nature. The sale of the 27% uncontested levy shares in San Miguel Corporation, now estimated in the billions, is also expected to further benefit coconut farmers and farm workers.

The P700 million that has been released will directly benefit an estimated 164,000 cocount farmers or their wives in programs and projects identified by the UFDC.

An estimated 18,000 wives of coconut farmers would will be provided with ‘Grameen-type" micro-finance loans for livelihood projects.

About 60,000 farmers will also benefit from increased income because of a ‘farm diversification’ program, which will result in increased prices for their copra and livestock.

At least 56,000 farmers will get additional income since they can sell their copra directly to oil mills cutting off traders and middle men. And roughly 30,000 farmers will benefit from loans extended to their cooperatives, non-government organizations (NGOs) and peoples’ organizations.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has called on the members of the ruling Lakas-NUCD Party which, she chairs, to unite and stay together in order to ensure the party’s victory in the 2004 national elections.

"As your party chairman, I ask you to stay with me and stay together," the Chief Executive said in her speech Monday night before members of the Lakas-NUCD Party during a meeting in Malacaņang.

The President said that while in the past, she was "not exacting or demanding of your demeanor as Lakas members, but now I ask for one common response: loyalty to our party."

She stressed that loyalty to Lakas, particularly at this crucial time in the country’s history "is loyalty to the needs and aspirations of our country."

"That sense of loyalty dictates upon each one of us to exercise organizational discipline and cohesion. While I am a non-candidate President, I will not prejudice our right and our need to have a winning standard bearer in 2004," the President said.

The President said there is no paucity or shortage of materials for the presidency, adding that within the Lakas-NUCD, "there are several members whose brilliance and track record of service to our people make them deserving of the "party’s attention and excitement."

During the meeting, the President also asked all her partymates to band themselves together and choose the party’s "standard bearers at the appropriate time, perhaps at the end of the year."

"We must choose as one, move as one, and win as one," the President stressed.

The President likewise asked the Lakas members to have faith in the party as well as its leadership and the process by which "we will not only ensure victory in 2004, but assure the nation of a new presidency capable and determined to pursue the reforms needed by our people."

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo urged her Lakas partymates to support her vision for economic recovery, national healing and a clean and honest 2004 elections and to put the people’s welfare over and above personal agenda.

During a meeting with Lakas party leaders in Malacaņang Monday night, the President said the tasks that remain to be done in her remaining days in office are not easy and at stakes are 80 million Filipinos who look up to the Macapagal-Arroyo administration for deliverance from conditions of inequity, deprivation and poverty.

"You are the backbone of the biggest and most powerful political party today. As incumbent officials or chapter chairmen of the party, you wield considerable political ascendancy in your respective provinces, districts and cities as well as in Congress," the President said.

The President specifically asked her partymates in Congress and the Senate to pass the measures that make up the structural reforms of her administration.

"These include strengthening the anti-money laundering reforms; making land reform serve our farmers better by allowing them to use farmlands as bank collateral; the revenue measures on sin products and automobiles to finance the gigantic development requirements; the reform of the BIR into a lean and mean corruption fighting corporate machine; the Transco franchise which will mobilize private capital into our power sector so as to avoid massive brownouts by the year 2007; and the absentee voting bill," the President said.

For her partymates from the local governments, the President urged them to support the administration’s micro-economic programs to increase productivity and build up domestic demand.

The President said that these programs include the massive promotion of small and medium enterprises which are the most efficient users of capital; the accelerated jump-start of housing which has the biggest multiplier effect on the economy; reducing transport costs from Mindanao through the Visayas to Luzon by building a nautical highway made of roll-on-roll-off ferry terminals; decongestion of Metro Manila; and, promotion of premier tourist destinations.

She exhorted her partymates to make Lakas a powerful structure to ensure the success of her administration’s initiatives. "Help me reach out to the people. Communicate to them the urgency of these programs," the President said.

"Help me enlist the support of local officials and barangays under your influence – so that our reforms can take root and bare fruit in all our communities," she added.

The President said she could only do her remaining tasks if politics is set aside from the time being. "I ask you this even as I assure you that I know only too well your anxieties about 2004. I know that most if not all of you are direct stakeholders in the elections to be held next year," she said.

The President said she knew fully well that "there are those who wish that a rift will grow between us over the means for charter change."

"I am not about to surrender to such wishful thinking of our enemies. For I will still be your President, more than ever your strong President, until June 30, 2004," the President pointed out.

The President said she can exercise her authority fully until the last minute of her tenure, and she intends to do so.

"I do not ask you to engage in political abnegation as I did, but I do ask you to engage in the politics of performance in support of my reform program – and our administration’s reform program," the President said.

The President stressed that she will help those who help her leave a good legacy of change for the country.

Malacaņang today belittled the move by some key opposition and non-government organization personalities to impeach President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In a press briefing this morning in Malacaņang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio "Toting" Bunye said that the impeachment move "is a premature launching of the senatorial campaign of some of the gentlemen included among the complainants."

A group of opposition and civil society personalities has moved to impeach President Macapagal-Arroyo for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.

The group is spearheaded by former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, and People’s Consultative Assembly secretary general Linda Montayre, along with former Sen. Franciso Tatad.

"It looks like they have started their campaign very early. And I am referring to Mr. Enrile and Mr. Tatad. It looks like this is the start of their election period," Bunye said.

Bunye noted that based on what he heard over the radio and what he read in the newspapers, the complaint that they are supposed to file is a rehash of all their allegations that have remained unsubstantiated.

"A number of them have been the subject of investigation by the Senate and nothing has come out of this investigation," Bunye said, referring to the allegations.

COTABATO CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today released P1 million in fund aid to initially bankroll and spur the growth of small and medium enterprises (SME) engaged in agricultural production in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao.

The President, in a visit and ocular inspection of possible agri-industrial sites in newly-created Mamasapano town, sought to raise the interest of domestic and foreign investors to put up labor-intensive agri-industrial projects in the area.

Mamasapano is southeast to the towns of Datu Piang and Sharif Aguak.

Mamasapano Mayor Datu Acmad Ampatuan received the P1 million check, representing the town’s allotment under the President’s "One Town-One Product-One Million Peso" project.

The project aims to help SMEs in all towns of the country develop and market its main product. The President had released a number of similar checks nationwide since last year when the project was launched.

The promotion and enhancement of SMEs nationwide is one of the eight thrusts in the President’s reform agenda for the remaining 18 months of her administration.

In a short program during the visit, the President also released P1 million to Mayor Ervin Luntao of Sto. Niņo town, South Cotabato for the same project.

The President and Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman likewise witnessed the turnover of some P50,000 worth of medicines given by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to Mamasapano town.

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao---President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo arrived here today at 11:00 a.m. to inspect government projects and award medals to some deserving military personnel.

The presidential helicopter landed at the adjacent Awang Airport.

Earlier, the President flew to Mamasapano town in Maguindanao to assess several ongoing government projects in the area.

Immediately after her arrival, the President held a close-door meeting with the town mayors of Maguindanao inside this camp's conference room.

The President later led in the awarding of medals to 14 officers and men of the Army's 6th Infantry Division (6ID) under Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga for gallantry in combat against rebels and other lawless groups operating in the Cotabato-Maguindanao area.

COTABATO CITY – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today cited the gallantry of at least 16 army officers and enlisted men who figured in operations against kidnap-for-ransom groups and helped improve the peace and order condition in Central Mindanao.

The President, who visited Camp Siongco – headquarters of the Army’s 6^th Infantry Division – in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat town, Maguindanao, said the bravery of Filipino soldiers had kept criminality, banditry and terrorism at bay in the provinces of Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani.

The President mentioned the ongoing Battle of Colombio (a town in Sultan Kudarat) where some of the soldier-awardees bravely fought it out and the others are still going after and exchanging fire with a band of bandits who ran to President Roxas town in North Cotabato.

"Gusto kong bigyang pansin ang Battle of Colombio. Beinte otso na sa mga kalaban ang nasawi, kahit isang sundalo ay wala pang namamatay (I want to take note of the Battle of Colombio where our soldiers killed 28 of the enemy, without having any fatality)," she said.

The President explained that some of the soldier-awardees could not make it to the rites as they are still in the field, completing their mission.

She called the Colombio battle as "the biggest victory of my administration," a reason why she did away with red tape and personally saw to the immediate formal awarding of medals to the hero-soldiers today.

The President quoted Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes who earlier said that the soldier-awardees "are the future of the Armed Forces of the Philippines."

"Malaki ang galang ng sambayanang Pilipino sa kawal na Pilipino (The nation has high respects for the Filipino soldier)," she added.

The Military Merit Medal awardees included Lt. Col. Eduardo Andres of the 27^th Infantry Battalion (IB), Capt. Reymundo Panaguitan of the Tactical Operations Group 12, 2Lt. Generoy Boado and 2Lt. Romeo Delgado Jr. of the 1^st Marine Brigade, and Technical Sergeant Anastacio Camporedondo.