There is an inspiring revolution out there in rice fields all over the Philippines that has started to bless farmers with better lives and opportunities for their children.

Reason is this high-yield Chinese hybrid rice that has been adapted to Philippine conditions and is being aggressively promoted by the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Not surprisingly, farmers have been rallying behind what now has been called "Gloria Rice." It has been doubling their harvests to an average 6.6 tons per hectare. The most productive of them enjoy up to 10 tons and a world record of 11.1 tons per hectare in Mindoro.

"If this was done in Mindoro, what more in Nueva Ecija which is No. 1 in rice production in the country," the President said in one of her frequent sorties to the provinces to personally entice farmers to join the revolution.

The introduction of the hybrid rice is part of her administration’s program of increasing the farmers’ yield, earnings and improving their lives, coupled with the spirited implementation of the P20 billion a year Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act.

"Our hybrid rice program is a vital component of Philippine food security," the President keeps emphasizing.

"Even when I was not yet President, I had said my ambition was to provide food on every table," the President recalled.

"The commercialization of hybrid rice and stronger partnerships between the private sector, government and local farmers have brought about economic miracles in rural areas," Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo enthused.

Now there is a new spring to the step of "Gloria Rice" convert Reynaldo Obillo of San Luis, Rosales, Pangasinan and a steady smile on his weather-beaten face.

"Our lives improved. Before my child gets only P25 in allowance in high school. Now he gets P70 because my harvest has improved," Obillo said.

With only about a hundred thousand hectares planted with the high-yield hybrid last year, a record harvest of 13.49 million metric tons has been registered.

This year, the target is 14.9 to 15.4 million metric tons, which approximate self-sufficiency, considering that the country’s estimated requirement for the year is 15.48 million metric tons.

This can be achieved by planting hybrid rice in 200,000 hectares in the wet cropping season (May to November) and 400,000 hectares in the dry cropping season (December to April) according to Frisco Malabanan, program director of the Ginintuang Masaganang Ani program.

BAGUIO CITY—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today that, with an experienced adviser in the person of Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr, the opposition should be able to clarify its platform of government and encourage Fernando Poe, Jr. to join the presidential debates.

In a press conference at the Mansion’s Presidential Guest House, the President said that in the elections, "it is not so much a matter of who joins whom but what one has to say about the issues affecting the lives of the average Filipino."

President Macapagal-Arroyo went to Baguio City Saturday to address the 99^th commencement exercises of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) this morning.

At the press conference, held prior to the PMA graduation exercises, the President said that she articulates on issues before the people, such as the problem of ancestral domain in the Cordilleras, the "white elephants" of the national government in Baguio City, and the "big long-term debt" of the national government.

"Everyday, I bring the issues to the people and confront these issues and address them, while the opposition seems to be caught in an endless storm of bickering and infighting," she said.

She stressed that the people deserve more than "petty fights" from supposed leaders of the opposition.

"The people deserve service, enlightenment, not infighting and discriminations," she added.

The President also said that she leaves "wooing the people" mostly to her partners in the Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan para sa Kinabukasan (K-4), while she focuses on governance.

Her trip to Baguio City, she said, "is governance," but even when her trip is for campaigning, "it is always mixed up in the schedule with governance activities."

BAGUIO CITY—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed belief that the war on insurgency and secessionism, which her government has been waging, could yet be settled at the negotiating table.

Speaking at the 2004 commencement exercises of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), held at the CAP Convention Center, Camp John Hay, the President said "I think we are doing well on the national security front, especially in Mindanao where the overall level of conflict has subsided."

With Malaysia playing the role of third party facilitator, the government (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have agreed to resume formal peace talks in Kuala Lumpur next month.

President Macapagal-Arroyo said that as part of her administration’s peace efforts, concrete measures at the ground level are being pushed to effectively isolate terrorist elements from the MILF bases, even as the lairs of Abu Sayyaf are being pounded.

The peace process involving the National Democratic Front (NDF), political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has also been moving forward, she said. Another round of peace talks between GRP and NDF will be held soon.

The President asserted her administration "has demonstrated that it has the fortitude to risk war but also the courage to seek peace."

"We are fighting war on two fronts," she said, pointing out that one front is made up of those who seek harm to the country’s democratic law-abiding way of life, while the other is poverty upon which "the agents of desperate and lawless acts are recruited."

Noting the terrorist bombings in Madrid, Spain, last Thursday that killed nearly 200 people and injured at least 1,4000 others, she said that the tragedy "is another wake-up call that democracy must be defended nationally and globally."

"We are working in our shores, and with other nations on this universal task," she said.

The President said that her administration has not hesitated in employing the nation’s military advantages of superior force, better training and equipment in dealing with those who take up force to destroy society or do harm to the citizens and their government.

The Chief Executive noted that the PMA graduates today will enter the Armed Forces with much better equipment, better training, and better force protection than those who had graduated four years before them.

"All of these were done during my three years of presidency," she said.

This marked the second time that the PMA graduation rites were done outside of the PMA grounds in Fort Del Pilar. The first was in 1981 when the exercises were held at the Baguio Convention Center.

The President handed out the diplomas to a total of 139 cadets and special awards to the honor graduates.

BAGUIO CITY—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today that the 139 graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) can repay the government’s P2-million investment in the education of each of them by strengthening the country and not weakening our democracy.

Speaking at the 2004 PMA commencement exercises at the CAP Convention Center, Camp John Hay, the President said that the PMA offers excellent academic training, "because being a soldier is not just fighting a war, and doing calculations of accuracy, it is also winning the hearts and minds of the people in communities where you operate."

The President noted that the graduates, who have been inducted into active military service as second lieutenants, will be sent off to all corners of the country on different assignments, with varying degrees of difficulty and danger.

"As often stated the price of freedom is perpetual vigilance," she said, adding that "the world and the Philippines have to live with a threat of terror as ever present anywhere."

She reminded them that the security of the communities as well as their means of livelihood and the public good is the business of every citizen, especially of the soldiers.

Working together, the President said, "we have reduced the threat of terror; however, we cannot let our guard down."

The President extended a special message for Lt. Rolly Joaquin, the 2004 Class valedictorian, of Aguilar, Pangasinan.

While passing through the town on the way up to Baguio, she said, they had to stop because of so many people along the highway. The people told her, Ma’am, valedictorian ninyo bukas, taga-amin sa Aguilar.

"Congratulations to you, they are very proud of you there," the President told Rolly. "That shows how important it is to be a product PMA and an outstanding product of PMA at that," she said.

The President noted that the Maliyab (Flaming) Class of ’04 went through a difficult experience. PMA Superintendent Edilberto Adan told the President that only 21 percent of the original plebe class were able to graduate. The valedictorian himself almost dropped out in the first year.

Malacaņang today called on the people to be calm but alert in the face of threats of terrorism.

At the 2004 commencement exercises of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio City this morning, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reminded that the deadly terrorist attacks in Madrid, Spain, Thursday last week, constituted "another wake-up call that democracy must be defended nationally and globally."

By working together, the President noted that the government and the people have reduced the threat of terror. However, she pointed out that "we cannot let our guard down."

In a radio interview this morning, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the terrorist bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid that killed nearly 200 people and injured at least 1,400 others "should be a wake up call for us that terrorism is alive."

"The terrorists are ready to attack targets that, in their view, are vulnerable," she warned.

Bunye said, "Kaya’t marapat lamang na patuloy tayong maging vigilant, patuloy tayong mag-observe ng security measures, lalung-lalo na doon sa ating installation na sensitibo (It’s just right that we remain vigilant and continue to observe security measures, particularly in our sensitive installations)."