We welcome the fact that the National Democratic Front (NDF) is not totally shutting itself out of the peace talks with the government.

The government shall pursue healing and reconciliation.

We hope this news would pave the way for the resumption of the peace talks and eventually the end of insurgency in the country.

With the filing of murder raps against Jose Ma. Sison, we now have a serious reason to ask the Dutch government to send him back to the Philippines.

We hope this will convince the Dutch government that Sison is wanted not for political but for criminal acts.

* * *

We would like to assure the families of our overseas Filipino workers that we are prepared to meet contingencies in the Middle East. Organizational, operational and financial resources are in place to insure the safety of our OFWs.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday witnessed the eucharistic celebration for the canonical erection of the Diocese of Paranaque and the installation of Bishop Jesse Mercado D.D., the diocese's first bishop in ceremonies held Tuesday evening at the San Andrews Cathedral in Paranaque City.

The President led government officials who attended the eucharistic celebration, among them Paranaque Congressman Ed Zialcita, Paranaque Mayor Joey Marquez, Las Pinas Mayor Vergel Aguilar, and Muntinlupa Mayor Jaime Fresnedi.

Roads leading to the San Andrews Cathedral were packed with the new diocese's religious as festivities and parades took place to celebrate the occasion.

The eucharistic celebration started at 5 p.m.

The communities of Paranaque, Las Pinas and Muntinlupa have been blessed by Pope John Paul II with the gift of the new Diocese of Paranaque, which is autonomous and now separate from the Archdiocese of Manila. With this historic announcement made last December 7, the Holy Father also announced the appointment of Rev. Jesse Mercado as the first bishop of Paranaque.

The occasion was also attended by the Catholilc heirarchy led by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, and Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

In becoming one diocese, the three cities now belong to one ecclesiastical district with 1,269,122 Roman Catholics out of a total population of 1.38 million.

There are 47 parishes, one chaplaincy and one shrine in the diocese: 22 parishes and one shrine in Paranaque; 14 parishes in Las Pinas; and 11 parishes and one chaplaincy in Muntinlupa.

Before becoming the first Paranaque bishop, Mercado was appointed auxillary bishop of Manila on Feb. 25, 1997, and ordained bishop on March 31, 1997 at the Manila Cathedral.

Mercado finished Philosophy at Ateneo de Manila in 1971, Bachelor in Theology at the Loyola School of Theology in 1977 and his Licentiate in Spiritual Theology at the Angelicum in Rome in 1984.

Cardinal Sin, in his speech for the occasion, said the business of Paranaque is to be saltmakers for the Kingdom of God and to be "formators" of new fishers of men, referring to the old salt industry of the city.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Efren C. Moncupa as acting chairman of the Board of Administrators of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA).

The President said Moncupa holds the rank of secretary.

Moncupa, until his recent designation, was Undersecretary for Field Operations of the Department of Agrarian Reform where he helped former DAR Secretary – now Press Secretary – Hernani Braganza carry out the Bayan Anihan program.

Bayan Anihan has become the DAR’s centerpiece program to hasten the implementation of the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), to spur rural growth and promote the welfare of agrarian reform beneficiaries and stakeholders.

Moncupa also helped establish the Farmers Bayanihan Center for Rural Development and the People’s Council for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development as mechanisms of grassroots participation in DAR projects.

He also negotiated and implemented multilateral and bilateral cooperation projects for the DAR.

Moncupa distinguished himself as a respected leader of non-government organizations and civil society groups from 1974 to 2000.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today cited several reforms in the country’s educational system that her administration would like to leave as her legacy to the Filipino people, one of them is sparing public school teachers from the "vagaries of politics."

In her keynote speech at the 75^th founding anniversary of the Far Eastern University, the President said in the 2004 national elections, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would start the computerization of the tabulation and counting of ballots, thus sparing public school teachers from this tedious task and preventing them from being involved in politics.

The President also directed Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus to cause the design of a classroom that would cost only P250,000 so that the government can build more classrooms throughout the country, especially in remote barangays.

Today, each classroom would cost about P750,000.

She said that to reduce the time and money spent to actually travel to school, every barangay must have a school building by 2004.

According to the President, in 2001, there were 1,612 barangays that did not have school buildings.

In 2002, the government built school buildings for 1,290 barangays, and the balance of 322 would have their school buildings within the next 17 months of her administration, the President said.

The President said that to improve the quality of education as required by the new economy, the government will continue to increase the number of textbooks and teachers per pupil.

"I want to make sure that all public school students have textbooks for the priority subjects in grades I to IV, and in the first and second years of high school," the President said.

The President also said that as a result of a supplemental budget that she acquired from Congress last year, the government was able to hire an additional of 15,000 new teachers.

She also lauded the military for setting up, during the past two years, distance learning packages for remote barangays, especially in conflict areas.

In her speech, the President also exhorted educators to restore "Good Manners and Right Conduct" in the school curriculum, saying that even if technology is to be the foundation of future economic development, proper values should not be neglected.

The Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s family planning program is based on four principles, namely, responsible parenthood, respect for life, informed choice, and birth spacing, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

The DOH, through its Head Executive Assistant Ma. Cornsorcia Lim-Quizon, made this statement in response to the statement made by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that the government should remove abortifacient drugs and devices including contraceptives from the market.

Quizon said that under the respect for life principle, "this means that the state upholds the Constitutional provision against abortion, for that matter, induced abortions due to unwanted pregnancies."

"It is for this reason that Postinor or Levonorgestrol 750 meg., commonly referred to as an emergency contraceptive (EC), was delisted by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) form the market due to its alleged abortifacient effects," she said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today called on the academe to help her government provide every Filipino "a life rich with empowerment and possibility."

In a speech during the 75^th founding anniversary of Far Eastern University (FEU) in Sampaloc, Manila, the President said that empowering the people "means, among other things, generating jobs."

She stressed the need for government and educational institutions to work hand in hand to also create future prosperity and push national economic growth.

The President noted that the country’s unemployment rate remained high, but that education could reverse the condition.

"Education generates jobs because it is the educated who can find employment. It creates prosperity because one has to be gainfully employed to become prosperous. It brings about economic development because a country cannot develop if its unemployment rate remains high," she added.

The active partnership would promote the realization of her core vision of "Edukasyon, sariling tahanan, pagkain sa bawa’t mesa (Education, a home, food on every table)" for every Filipino, she said.

Stressing her commitment to significantly reduce, if not eradicate, poverty nationwide within the decade, the President said that "through education, we want to promote fast-growing industries where high-value jobs are most plentiful."

A case in point, she said, is the information and communications technology (ICT) industry.

She noted that former FEU president and now Education Secretary Edilberto C. de Jesus used to sit in the government’s Information Technology and E-Commerce Council as the academe’s representative. "I know that he and FEU believed that ICT is the key to prosperity in the future."

The Chief Executive stressed that the Filipino’s adeptness in speaking and writing English, his aptitude and skills had given him a competitive edge in ICT.

She said there should be no let-up in further honing the advantage, as she directed De Jesus to adopt measures that would reverse reported declines in English literacy among Filipinos.

"Unless Congress enacts a law mandating the use of Filipino as the sole language of instruction, I am directing the Department of Education to return English as the primary medium of instruction," she said.

"Some subjects may still be taught in Filipino. But we must recognize the demands of competitiveness," she added.

According to the President, another area that should be given priority is the upgrading of the teaching of Mathematics and Science in basic education. "This would prepare the youth to be the next generation of knowledge workers."

She said that the DepEd has started increasing the number of hours of Mathematics and Science laboratory in the current schoolyear.

In her speech, the Chief Executive also cited the relevance and vibrancy of FEU as a major educational institution in the country.

Special Envoy retired General Roy Cimatu of the Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT) today reported that the government’s contingency plans for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) "are in place" and ready for implementation once war erupts in Iraq.

In a press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon, Cimatu assured families of Middle East-based OFWs that there is no need for them to worry about the safety of their breadwinners.

"The preparations are already in place," he said, adding that all the Philippine embassies have been alerted to carry out the plan, in case of a US-led attack on Iraq.

"The OFWs, their employers, and their host governments are aware of our contingency plans which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved," Cimatu said.

He said focus had been given to OFWs in Kuwait, one of the countries in the Gulf that might suffer the worst in the event of a US-Iraqi war.

The MPET has established an evacuation site 100 kilometers away from the Kuwait City, quite far from Iraq.

He said Filipino workers in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, Israel, Syria, and Turkey have been ordered to stay in their areas of work but maintain their heightened alert.

Cimatu noted that the OFWs were very happy about the government’s contingency plan, as they expressed gratitude to the President.

They felt the concern and support of the government, he said.

"To borrow the words of a Kuwaiti leader, he said that the OFWs are very lucky because they have a government that takes care of them. And this gives inspiration to the OFWs in the Middle East," Cimatu added.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today called on the Iraqi leadership to extend full cooperation to the United Nations arms inspection teams to avert a war in the Middle East.

The President issued the statement in the wake of the renewed warning by US President George W. Bush that the US would lead a coalition that would forceably disarm Iraq’s Saddam Hussein if he would not voluntarily destroy his arms of mass destruction.

The warning was contained Bush’ State of the Union Address delivered Tuesday in the US Congress.

The President’s statement in full:

"The Philippines support the case brought by the United States against Iraq before the UN Security Council.

"For the sake of peace in the Middle East, we call on Iraq, to give the UN Security Council resolution the most urgent and serous consideration and to extend full cooperation to the UN arms inspection teams."

Earlier, in his press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that the Philippines would support any decision by the United Nations Security Council on the Iraqi issue.

But Bunye said that the main interest of the government right now is how to protect some 1.3 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East, including some 60,000 who are in Kuwait, which is very close to Iraq and the possible area of conflict.

Bunye said that President Bush has said that he would still consult with the UN Security Council on February 5 where the US would make their presentation of the alleged violations of Iraq.

In a separate interview, also in Malacañang, Ambassador Roy Cimatu, head of the Middle East Preparedness Team (MEPT), said that a contingency plan for OFWs in the Gulf states are now in place and ready for implementation.

Asked about the possibility of a unilateral US attack on Iraq, Bunye said: "This would be an entirely new situation."

He said that if this situation arises, the President would convene the National Security Council to decide on the position to be taken by the Philippines on the matter.

Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Haydee Yorac today reported to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) that some P25 billion worth of real properties could be made immediately available to support the government’s comprehensive agrarian reform program (CARP).

The list of real properties, including part of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses, has been submitted to the Asset Privatization Trust, Yorac said during the regular monthly NAPC en-banc meeting in Malacanang.

"These are actual existing properties ready to be converted into cash for the support of CARP," Yorac said.

She, however, lamented that the current depressed price of real estate in the market could hamper government from getting expected sales from the properties.

Yorac also expressed confidence that any day now, the Supreme Court decision on the $700-million Marcos account with the French Foundation in Switzerland would come out.

"I am also confident that we will get the money because the evidence is overwhelming," Yorac said.

She stressed that this was part of the PCGG’s commitment to hasten the process of completing litigations over substantial amounts.

With respect to the estimated P100-billion coconut levy fund, Yorac expressed the hope that before the end of the year, the Supreme Court would render judgment on the case.

"It is now at the Sandiganbayan, and to abbreviate the proceedings, we have filed a motion for the summary judgment instead of going though full litigation," she said.

Yorac believed that the PCGG had a lot of evidence against the concerned oppositors to secure a favorable judgment.

She also informed the President that the decision on the motion for summary judgment at least in one case would come out either this month or early February.

In addition, she said the case involving the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company’s (PLDT) holding company had reached the Supreme Court.

"We estimate this to be valued at about P5 billion," Yorac said, adding that the amount would also be allocated to CARP.

Yorac urged the Department of Agrarian Reform to help PCGG goad the Supreme Court to immediately deliberate on the PLDT case.

She said the PCGG had asked for two years to finish the presentation of government evidence.

Members of the urban poor, workers, farmers and children today reiterated their support to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s eight-point reform agenda in building a strong republic.

In a letter presented to the President during the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) meeting in Malacanang, NAPC Vice Chairman for the Basic Sectors Oscar Francisco said this show of support reciprocated the President’s concern for the basic sectors.

Francisco wrote on behalf of 14 sectoral representatives, 317 NAPC sectoral council members and 5,000 delegates -- including l,500 from the urban poor, 600 persons with disability, 700 workers in the informal sector and 700 coconut farmers -- who attended the Basic Sectors Day last January 18 at the Luneta Amphitheater.

He cited the President’s full recognition of the NAPC as the "institutionalized consultative mechanism where basic sector problems, issues, needs and concerns are articulated and proper government action to address these are crafted."

"We also value the many changes in policies and governance, and the fast movements made through the NAPC framework," he added.

Francisco also acknowledged that the basic sectors in the past three NAPC en banc meetings got a "basketful of palpable gains."

"We also committed ourselves to heighten our partnership with non-government agencies and local government units to push forward the social reform agenda and your eight-point agenda in the service of alleviating our people from poverty," Francisco said.

The ongoing challenge to the 14 sectoral councils is to maximize the opportunity provided by the eight-point Millenium Development Goal and the advocacy shown by international development agencies and donors to support the anti-poverty Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) program through a planned 2003 offensive in Europe, Francisco said.

Francisco also thanked the President for the following:

• Release on January 20, 2003, on the second anniversary of EDSA II, the P700 million windfall from the coconut levy funds benefiting millions of coconut farmers and their families;

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye today said the Department of Justice (DOJ) is exploring alternatives to bring back communist leader Jose Ma. Sison to the Philippines to face trial for crimes against the people.

During his regular press briefing in Malacanang, Bunye said that the government acknowledged the fact that it has no extradition treaty with the government of The Netherlands.

"But there are ways and weans of asking governments to accede to our request," he said.

Bunye cited the case of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman Nur Misuari who fled to Malaysia after leading an aborted military uprising in Sulu.

"We were able to secure his presence, even in the absence of an extradition treaty with Malaysia," Bunye said.

Bunye also said that the government would continue to pursue peace talks with the Communist rebels.

"But at the same time, we are also taking the necessary action to bring those believed responsible for the killings to justice," he said.

As for Sison, founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) "the alternatives are being explored by the DOJ," he said.