Malacaņang today said that through its various agencies, the government will step up the implementation of specific socio-economic projects in some 500 barangays in the country that are "influenced" by the communist New People’s Army (NPA).

In an interview, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said that this was one of the items taken up by the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COCIS) in its regular meeting Monday.

According to intelligence reports, out of the more than 40,000 barangays in the country, the NPA is relatively strong in some 500 barangays because of poverty.

"Ang ibig sabihin nito ay medyo malakas ang NPA sa mga barangay na ito (What this means is that the NPA seems to have a strong influence in these barangays)," Bunye said.

In a statement, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said that the government will conduct a political, social and economic audit on these 500 barangays and determine a specific set of military or developmental countermeasures to extricate them from the grip of the dissidents.

Bunye said that one the measures now being conducted by the government is distance learning where residents in a remote barangay could get their education even with the absence of regular classrooms or teachers.

Distance learning is being conducted by teacher-soldiers assigned to remote localities.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today said that the government is now ready to name the most notorious drug lords and their coddlers as part of the government’s stepped-up campaign against illegal drugs.

Speaking before the 27^th general assembly and annual meeting of the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development at the NBC Tent in Fort Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, the President said that the intelligence community has a list of the most notorious drug lords and coddlers, and in due time, their names and necessary information would be exposed to the public.

"Drug lords must be exposed for what they are: destroyers of our future," the President said.

The President said that the government crusade against personalities behind the proliferation of illegal substances in the country must be "relentless and encompassing."

She explained that the rampant operation of illegal drug syndicates in the country is a major challenge to the country’s peace and order that needs a strong political will.

The main part of the President’s speech was devoted to the electoral reforms being undertaken by the Commission on Elections aimed at assuring clean and honest national and local elections in 2004.

She added that while the government is trying to achieve fundamental reforms in the electoral process and in seeking peace in Mindanao, there is also an immediate need for all sectors in society to work together to fight illegal drugs.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today commended local officials of Valenzuela City for their aggressive drive against unscrupulous businessmen selling repacked National Food Authority (NFA) rice priced at commercial levels.

The President, together with Valenzuela City Mayor Jose Emmanuel Carlos, inspected a Valenzuela warehouse stocked with NFA rice due for repacking and overpriced marketing.

Also found inside the warehouse were machineries and equipment for milling and repacking.

She congratulated Carlos and barangay officials for having discovered the trading anomaly and having acted on the case immediately.

The President said the anomaly involved some 230,000 to 240,000 bags of NFA rice worth several millions of pesos.

The poor consumers would have been shortchanged by ill-motivated businessmen if not for the discovery, she said.

Meanwhile, Carlos said he had issued last July 1 an order for the immediate closure of the MGM Metro Grains Marketing warehouse owned and operated by Eleonor Rodriguez.

The warehouse is located at Pearl Island Industrial Compound, Phase II, in Punturin, Lawang Bato, Valenzuela City.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today called on the Church and civil society to assist the government in "monitoring the milestones and advancing the advocacies" of a poll modernization program that business and church leaders have been pushing for some time now.

In a speech before the 27^th General Assembly of the Bishops-Businessmen Conference in Makati City, the President told her audience: "I want to ask for your support in making the systems work."

"After all, you worked long and hard for (the modernization of the electoral system), and I was only your instrument, as a faithful daughter of the Church, to make sure the facilities are made available," she said.

"We want to see the elections of May 2004 as a time when we cross a bold new threshold in democracy by cleaning up the voting process," she added.

The President recalled how leaders of the conference advocated for "High-tech na boto, ito ang susi ng pagbabago (High-tech votes, key to reforms)."

She said this inspired her to take a "giant leap of making available the financing needed to fully computerize the quick and accurate counting and tabulation of votes in the 2004 and subsequent elections" despite a multitude of threats to national security and stability.

The President added that she had assigned Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro to work closely with Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials "to make sure that the specific system for counting votes is technically above board."

She also ordered Alabastro to make sure that the system is "responsive to our needs and adherent to the high standards of integrity we want to preserve."

The President reported that the Comelec ably bid out the computerization process and the first batch of automated counting machines would arrive on August 5, 2003.

The Comelec would be setting up a testing site for the machines and would be put through "a grueling set of tests to make sure that they are hardy and worthy," she said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will launch the government’s Distance Learning Program when she visits depressed villages in Iloilo and Eastern Samar next week.

The President, during the Cabinet meeting today, said she had earlier launched the program, dubbed as the Strong Republic Grade School, in Iligan City last June 16 and in Agusan del Norte last June 17.

She lauded Priority and Official Development Assistance (ODA) Secretary Marita Magpili-Jimenez for spearheading the training of the "para-guro" or distance learning teachers that would start Wednesday (July 9).

Reporting on the status of the program, Secretary Jimenez said non-government groups have supported the program, donating some of the available 1,500 long distance learning equipment for grade schools.

Jimenez said requests for the distance learning program from other areas of the country such as cities and other urban areas, specially in the poorest sections of the area, have been received.

The President gave her go-signal to provide the program to the poor sectors of urban centers provided the Department of Education could fund them.

Some 500 Iligan City residents who could not avail themselves of formal education, will soon benefit from the program.

The project will extend the benefits of education to remote barangays bereft of classrooms and teachers, through television facilities.

The government has targeted some 3,000 barangays in Northern Mindanao, including 1,000 from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

All the targeted areas have been known to be sites where people do not even know how to read and write.

In line with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s commitment to accelerate peace and prosperity particularly in Mindanao, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide $70 million in grants for development assistance activities in the country.

Wendy Chamberlain, USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East, said today the agency would review its program in the country.

This included its support for expanding development programs for peace in Mindanao; improved governance of economic processes; delivery of family planning and health services; and stronger environmental management.

In a speech following her courtesy call on President Macapagal-Arroyo, Chamberlain said she hoped to get a better understanding of the challenging issues on peace and development in the Philippines.

Among the agency’s priorities are fiscal reforms, particularly measures to continue to enhance revenue collection; continued progress with the privatization of the energy sector; implementation of an effective anti-money laundering regime to combat terrorist financing; and additional measures to encourage economic growth, including investments that create jobs.

"USAID will be pleased to provide assistance similar to what we have provided former MNLF combatants, to help the parties in this conflict to consolidate their peace process and chart a new future for the children of Mindanao," Chamberlain said.

She added that the Philippines had been doing a great job in undertaking the USAID programs in the past.

She rated the country highly especially in good governance, environment management and economic prosperity.