President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today expressed confidence in Juanita Amatong whom she named officer-in-charge of the Department of Finance after the resignation of Secretary Jose Camacho Friday.

The President met with Amatong this morning to discuss her new responsibilities after they heard mass at the Malacaņang Chapel.

Amatong assumes her new responsibilities on Dec. 1 after Camacho’s resignation becomes effective at the end of this month.

"I am confident that Amatong will continue with the course I have set for our economy. This is a course that has generated a record low inflation, fiscal stability, and enhanced revenue collection," the President said.

She emphasized the appointment of Amatong, which she made Friday, sends a clear signal of continuity and stability to the financial markets.

The President’s confidence with Amatong stems from her distinguished career in government and international finance.

The President, who accepted Camacho’s resignation with "deep regrets," said Amatong "is well-respected at home and abroad and the international community is very comfortable with her."

Amatong has very good relationships with big financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The officers and members of the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) today assured President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo their organization will rally behind her candidacy in the 2004 presidential election.

Tiburcio "Ted" S. Macias, M.D., president of the PHA, issued the statement in his brief remarks during a luncheon meeting with the President at the Malacaņang’s Heroes Hall on Sunday.

In his statement, Dr. Macias said that the 2,096 hospital members would support her reelection and they are willing to campaign for her.

According to Macias their organization strongly believes in the leadership of the President and her political will to improve the economy.

"Madam President, as president I can assure you that we will rally behind your reelection because of what you have done not only for the hospitals but for our country. Never in the history of the Philippines has a President gone out of her way to visit the less fortunate in life," Macias said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated the need for a constitutional change to bring about the necessary reforms the country needs to really move forward.

She would have wanted the reforms ratified in the May elections "but what we want and what the confluence of events brings about are not always the same," she said in a dialogue with civil society groups Saturday at the Ateneo Professors’ School Auditorium in Makati.

"But what is important is that we must have this – as I said earlier – this dispassionate debate on constitutional change, because it is one of the issues that divide us. But in the end, I believe, under the present constitution, we’ll continue to be divided," she said.

If it can’t be done in the May elections, then it should be done after, she said.

The President also pointed to fiscal reforms as the key to four reforms she wants to bring about for the Strong Republic the people deserve.

Fiscal reforms are needed "so that we can afford the things we need to do, so that we can build infrastructure, so that we can have a business friendly governance environment because, in the end, that’s how the market creates jobs. And these reforms still need to be done," the President said.

Her administration has made administrative reforms to collect taxes well "but certainly we can afford much, much more infrastructure, which is so important for big and small businesses. We need road infrastructure. We’re an archipelagic economy, we need more of the roll-on, roll-off infrastructure, which are moving bridges. We need electric power reform. These are reforms that we still need to do," she said.

The other key reforms the President wants are agricultural modernization, asset reform and reforms in governance.

With agricultural modernization. farmers will be able "to transform their assets into credit that they can use for operating, and therefore, be economically independent of their former landlords," she said.

Asset reform refers to land, meaning agricultural land, urban land, ancestral domain land, micro credit and minimum basic needs like health, she explained.

With asset reform, which she is already working on in line with the De Soto model that has enlightened countries around us, then "hopefully each one of our unemployed families can find a self-employment opportunity," she said.

"We need to reform the bureaucracy, which we can’t totally do unless we give them better pay," she explained about reforms in governance. "Again, fiscal reform is the key to that. We need to reform the military and the police," she said.

"We need to reform the system itself, which is why we must have a dispassionate debate on changes in the constitution," she emphasized.

Malacaņang made it clear today that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s out of town sorties are part of her job. She has to check on the progress of government projects and to see that these are being carried out, specially those in the provinces.

"These visits of our President to the provinces are part of her responsibilities as president," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye emphasized this morning in a radio interview aired over RMN.

The President has said that the government is not like a private corporation where the chief executive’s orders are immediately carried out, Bunye also pointed out.

The President’s personal supervision is also important in our government, he added.

The President will do whatever is right and proper to insure that government projects are carried out, Bunye said.

And the President said before she would provide her personal attention to those projects in the provinces that need it, Bunye recalled.

Bunye also brushed aside comments the President is riding on popular personalities.

It can’t be helped that some people, specially politicians, give this kind of criticisms, Bunye explained.