Malacaņang said today that the reported Cabinet reshuffle was "mere speculation" and that any change in the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s official family would be announced in the proper time.

Press Secretary Milton Alingod noted, in an interview with Radio DZMM, that Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who was reportedly moving to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), had said he was "staying put."

"I think we’ll just leave it at that," Alingod said, adding that "we’ll have to wait for the President’s announcement (if there would be a revamp)."

For his part, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo, in a separate radio interview, said, "Wala po tayong mismong impormasyon diyan at pihadong ito’y bahagi na naman ng karaniwang ispikulasyon o haka-haka tungkol sa Cabinet (We have no information, and it surely is part of mere speculation about the Cabinet)."

"Ang pinakamainam po dito ay antabayanan na lamang natin kung sakaling mayroon ngang ganyan. Pero wala po ako mismong impormasyon (The best thing is to wait for any development. But, I have no information," Saludo added.

Saludo said that Housing Secretary Michael Defensor, who is concurrently Presidential Campaign Spokesman, attended the last Cabinet meeting.

Asked why Defensor has been quiet for some time, Saludo said that he was sure the housing secretary had been occupied in many tasks.

The threat of destabilization has already been crushed and the whole "Kawal Pilipino" affair is already a court matter as far as we are concerned.

It would be better for the civilians involved to reserve their squawking and plead their innocence before the court.

We are for truth and justice.

The President is working double time to iron out the differences between the House and the Senate before the session ends.

We have been hearing this allegation for a long time now but no pieces of evidence have surfaced.

This looks like a bum steer but if anyone has proof, let it come out in the open to be investigated.

The authority given by the BSP Monetary Board is aimed at cushioning the effects of the maturing foreign debts we have incurred and the threat of further weakening of the peso.

It is irresponsible to inject politics in this matter of public interest.

A recent survey conducted by the respected pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) for the AMA Group of Companies showed that Filipinos believe that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the most capable presidential candidate who can truly solve the country’s perennial economic problems.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman and Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo, in an interview this morning, said that the survey shows that one out of three, or 33 percent, of the electorate believes that the President possesses the best qualities to solve the country’s economic problems.

"We have been saying a long time ago that President Macapagal-Arroyo is the one capable of turning the economy around. This is evidenced by her performance during the three years she has been in office," Saludo said.

Saludo said that a survey earlier conducted by the Makati Business Club (MBC) among its members also showed that President Macapagal-Arroyo is the most capable of running this country.

"This shows that the business sector continues to have full confidence that the President can turn the economy around. The business sector also believes that business will flourish and foreign investments will continue to flow in and create more jobs if the President wins in the coming May elections," he said.

The survey conducted by the MBC showed the President as "best fit and most capable" of resolving challenges and issues that the country is presently facing.

The MBC survey showed that President Macapagal-Arroyo got the nod from 47.6 percent of the respondents while former Sen. Raul Roco got only 29.3 percent. Opposition bet actor Fernando Poe, Jr. got zero in the MBC survey.

Saludo also said, "The President, during her term has created more than 3 million jobs, compared with the 1 million (jobs) created under the Estrada administration".

"The economy also posted unprecedented gains under her leadership. In 2003, our gross national product (GNP) grew by 5.5 percent while the domestic economy, the gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.5 percent," Saludo said.

Saludo explained that the country has experienced the fastest growth rate in the Asian region since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

"Our agricultural sector also posted a 3.9 percent growth despite the onslaught of the El Nino weather phenomenon," he said.

Saludo attributed the continued growth of the agricultural sector to the government’s implementation of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, which paved the released of more than P60 billion in funds that resulted in the modernization of our agriculture and fishing industries.

He also cited the P25 billion fund loaned to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from January to November 2003, a far cry from the previous administration’s funding support for SMEs.

Saludo explained that the continuing weakness of the peso is due to excessive politicking and several destabilization plots. He said that peso was stable before the Oakwood mutiny.

"Destabilization plots and the continued politicking are the ones destroying investor confidence overseas," Saludo said.

Another five million families, or 25 million Filipinos, will get health insurance benefits as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today launched a new service, the Universal Family Health Insurance, to expand the coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

The President signed Executive Order 276 for the purpose at the Philippine International Convention Center during the first National Convention of the Philippine Social Security Association (PHILSSA).

"The truth is hard to face about the lack of availability to health services, but now, we are facing it squarely," the President said in her keynote address at the convention.

She said that universal insurance is the first installment after PhilHealth which was just a downpayment.

It is necessary because many Filipinos do not have the money to pay for treatment and hospitalization, especially for downpayment to hospitals that usually results in the patient not being accepted, the President said.

The President also launched at the same venue the Pensioners Day program of the Social Security System. "This is a project to reach out to almost a million pensioners of the SSS," the President said.

Pensioners Day will provide free medical and social services to SSS pensioners, the President said. For now it will be held every last Friday of the month at the SSS head office in Quezon City and will soon be replicated in all other parts of the country.

"If it proves successful and is acknowledged by the pensioners, then it could be held more often," the President said.

As of now, about 40 million Filipinos, or 56 percent of the population, benefit from PhilHealth. Its new program aims to extend coverage to as high as 87 percent or another five million families, or 25 million Filipinos, Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said.

All those covered by PhilHealth will receive, either free or subsidized hospitalization, depending on the size of the bill. This includes payments for room, doctor, medicine, laboratory, X-ray and even surgery if necessary.

The new PhilHealth project will be funded by P3 billion, half of it from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and the other half from the government which is expanding its budgetary outlay for 2004.

"It is best achieved by pursuing our investment and employment programs so that more employees can pay the premium. We have made a strong start in just a short period of my presidency, the President said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today distributed PhilHealth cards to 100 patients at the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRMMC) along Avenida Rizal in Manila as initial recipients of the Universal Family Health Insurance Coverage program.

Earlier this morning during the First National Convention of the Philippine Social Security Association (PHILSSA) held at the Philippine International Convention Center, the President signed Executive Order No. 276 creating the Universal Family Health Insurance to be implemented by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth.

The President visited a ward in the JRMMC to personally hand over PhilHealth cards to 10 indigent patients.

She was assisted by Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Ma. Livia "Honeygirl" de Leon and PhilHealth president Dr. Francisco Duque III.

Among the patients the President visited were four-month old baby girl Mary Ann Vicente and one-year-old baby girl Dionisia dela Cruz, both suffering from congenital hydrocephalus.

The other patients who got their PhilHealth cards personally from the President were Romeo Fulgencio, 46; Jayson Labarigo, 12; Marilyn Espelong, 36; Josephine Espina, 36; Bonifacio Baretto, 44; Arnel Villaran, 18; Marjorie Nagas, 5; and Restylee Florentino, 12.

After her rounds, the Chief Executive proceeded to the Out Patient Department (OPD) of the JRMMC where she handed out the remaining 90 PhilHealth cards.

The President received a warm welcome from the administration, medical practitioners and staffers of JRMMC, particularly the employees in Ambulatory (Day) Surgery Unit–Minor Operating Room that put out streamers and banners expressing their support for the President’s bid for a full six-year term in the May 10 elections.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will preside in the scheduled reopening tomorrow, Tuesday, of the mothballed P13.8-billion National Steel Corp. (NSC) in Iligan City in what is considered as another milestone achievement of her three-year administration.

The President has said that the reopening of the closed steel mills was one of the priorities of her administration when she assumed the presidency in January 2001.

A consortium of creditor banks yielded ownership and control of the NSC to the Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (GIHL) of India in a memorandum of agreement (MOA) concluded last week between the two parties.

President Macapagal-Arroyo is specifically interested in resurrecting the NSC because of its high impact on the social and economic well being of the country.

As envisioned, the plant will generate some 5,000 new jobs and an immeasurable amount of economic benefits to countless people, including those engaged in the downstream business the facility would generate.

When the NSC folded up in1999, it was remitting about P1 billion in annual taxes to the national government, and an additional P200 million in real estate taxes to Iligan City.

Tapping the expertise of her team of economists, the Chief Executive took the necessary steps and persevered, despite serious setbacks, to put back the NSC into the mainstream of the country’s industrial production.

The realization of Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo’s vision for the Mindanao-based steel facility became certain when the GIHL stepped into the picture, and subsequently signed the MOA with the creditors led by the Philippine National Bank, the MetroBank, Land Bank of the Philippines, China Banking Corp. and the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

The five banks held 64 percent of NSC’s indebtedness to the banking system valued at P13.8 billion.

Thirteen other creditor banks are expected to sign the MOA soon to finally remove the last major obstacle to the plant’s reopening.

The GIHL will formalize its full control of the NSC as soon as an asset purchase agreement is sewed up with the creditor banks under which the Indian firm was required to come up with a P1 billion down payment to the secured creditors. The balance of P12.25 billion is payable in eight years under a negotiated schedule.

The creditor banks will then register the transaction with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas under the Special Purpose Vehicle Law of 2002.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today expressed the hope that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the defense cooperation between the governments of the Philippines and the Czech Republic will further improve the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Cyril Svoboda, who called on the President at Malacanang today, signed the MOU with Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita at the Rizal Hall of Malacanang.

The MOU on defense cooperation between the governments of the Czech Republic and the Republic of the Philippines is centered on eight areas of cooperation in defense and military matters.

The MOU also contains eight specific activities and projects aimed at enhancing defense cooperation and consolidation of defense capabilities of the two countries.

The MOU is also seen as a significant factor in paving the way for a Philippine-Czech partnership in the modernization efforts of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

During the courtesy call, the President and Svoboda also talked about the two countries’ active involvement in the international community’s security and peace efforts, particularly in the war against global terrorism.

The President informed Svoboda that much has been done to contain terrorism in the Philippines. "The people feel more secure now with the great reduction of the number of the Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao and the arrest of several members of Jemaah Islamiyah," the President told the visiting Czech official.

She, however, added that terrorism remains a threat worldwide.

Svoboda, who is a Roman Catholic, told the President that he attended a mass at the EDSA Shrine yesterday, with Manila Auxiliary Bishop Socrates Villegas as celebrant.

He said he also enjoyed his visit to the cool city of Tagaytay.

Svoboda is on an official visit to the Philippines and was also scheduled to meet with Secretary Leandro Mendoza of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) and other officials.

Mary Ann Judith Delupio, food technology student at the University of Sto. Tomas, need not bug her parents for more money to settle her school obligations and join her classmates in their forthcoming graduation rites.

Mary Ann, a working student, became an instant recipient of the government’s Student Assistance Fund for Education for a Strong Republic (SAFE 4 SR) launched recently by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

"Thank you Madam President, now I can finish my studies and join the graduation rites this year," Mary Ann told the President in an open forum held at UST Auditorium in Espana, Sampaloc, Manila this afternoon.

The lucky coed’s application for P8, 000 financial assistance loan was granted outright to cover her unsettled obligations with the school prior to her graduation.

It was some sort of sentimental visit for Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo to the alma mater of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, and mother Evangelina Macaraeg.

She recalled that her father, who was bright but impoverished, had to work his way through law school at the state-run University of the Philippines. He had to walk daily from Tondo, Manila where he lived with a relative in a squatter area to UP in Diliman, Quezon City. Somehow, he contacted tuberculosis and was advised by a doctor to quit either school or work. He chose to quit both and return to his hometown in Pampanga.

For her part, Evangelina Macaraeg hailed from a well-to-do family and had no problem pursuing her medical education.

As fate would have it, a philanthropist in Pampanga named Honorio Ventura offered to bankroll Diosdado’s college education on a condition that he would choose the school. The rest is history.

"But not all needy but deserving students can find a Honorio Ventura," President Macapagal-Arroyo pointed out.

Hence, her administration conceived the SAFE 4 SR to be implemented by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Office of Student Services in collaboration with the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Youth Affairs.

In her speech, the President told the students that the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs improved their tax collection performance, enabling the national government to hit a lower than target deficit ceiling.

"Were within lower than our target deficit ceiling, that’s why we can now increase the fund for the scholarship for the student loan program," the President said.

CHED chairman Rolando Dizon, Bukidnon Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri, Presidential Assistant on Youth Affairs Dennis Cunanan and National Youth Commission chairman Paul Benigno Aquino IV accompanied the President in her visit to the UST.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today that a total of 600,00 hectares has been targeted for the "Gloria Rice" (hybrid rice) program as part of the government’s P60 billion agriculture modernization program.

The President made the disclosure before more than 3,000 farmers from Laguna and Cavite who belong to the National Confederation of Irrigators Administration, (NCIA).

"Iginagalang ko ang mga magsasaka dahil kayo ang pinanggagalingan ng pagkain sa bawat mesa (I respect the farmers because they are the source of food on the table)," she said.

The P60 billion, she stressed during her speech at the Maalcanang Park, is the biggest ever laid down by the government for agricultural modernization which includes irrigation and the hybrid rice program.

"Down payment pa lamang po yan. Kailangan pa ng mga installment para puspusin po natin ang benepisyong makukuha natin sa susunod pang mga taon (Its only a downpayment. We still need to put installments to fully reap the benefits in the coming years)," she said.

The farmers, coming from the Laguna towns of Sta. Rosa, Cabuyao, Bay, San Pablo, Calauan, Victoria, Sta. Cruz, Nagcarlan, Liliw, Lumban, Pami, Sta.Maria, Pila and Cainta and several parts of Cavite pledged their support to the President during the occasion.

They were led by Gen. Orlando Soriano, president of the NCIA which counts some 850,000 members nationwide. Region 4, where Cavite and Laguna belong, is led by Benjamin Villanueva.

The Chief Executive noted that Laguna is fast becoming a hybrid country because of the so many farmers who are into the hybrid program.