With the phenomenal growth of the information technology industry in the country, trade and investment officials now look forward to installing the Philippines as the world capital in contact center and business process outsourcing (BPO) markets by 2009.

Encouraged by the high growth rate of the call center industry, investors have expanded their operations to alternative sites such as Clark Field in Pampanga, Cebu City and Davao City.

Once more, I commend the PNP and the Anti-Terrorism Task Force for another breakthrough in the government’s campaign against terror.

Amidst the controversies of the moment, our vigilance does not sleep.

It is important for the public mind to settle down to normalcy so that we can leave the counting to the institutions entrusted with it and get on with the day-to- day priorities of governance.

We are as interested as any parties to get to the root of any charges of election fraud but we must follow the standards of due process so we can reinforce the rule of law and temper post-election violence.

We welcome all sincere overtures by our national leaders to stop all street protests and bring these matters within the ambit of reasoned and objective inquiry.

The issues about alleged election fraud will not be resolved through sweeping accusations and media grandstanding.

We must have evidence on the table to proceed with any meaningful administrative or judicial processes.

The pursuit of clean, honest and peaceful elections is not only the responsibility of election officers and law enforcement agencies but also of the candidates themselves.

Any attempt to destabilize the government will be a blatant travesty of the Filipino people’s will as expressed during the May 10 elections.

Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus has said that some 1,742 families were already identified by the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) as initial beneficiaries of the Iskolar ng Bayan program launched by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last March.

The President launched the program last Easter Sunday to provide one scholarship to each of the identified 5 million poor families nationwide.

At the Cabinet meeting held Friday in Malacaņang, de Jesus said they have already distributed the certificates of scholarship to the 1,742 families from six regions.

These beneficiaries are from Pangasinan (174 families), Laguna (1,048 families), Sorsogon (50), Iloilo (318), Cagayan de Oro (60), Iligan City (62), and Marawi City (30 families).

"These 1,742 families can avail of the scholarship by the time the school opens in June," he said.

De Jesus estimated that some P1.5 to P2 billion would be earmarked from the 2004 General Appropriations Act to accommodate the applicants for the coming year.

But de Jesus said they don’t expect that all 5 million families would be able to cash in their education vouchers immediately because of three conditions.

First, the beneficiary must belong to the poorest class to be determined by the DSWD; second, the student must have a high school diploma; and third, the applicant must pass the requirements imposed by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for the programs they seek to enroll in.

According to de Jesus, the DSWD and CHED are now firming up the list of beneficiary families.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has unveiled a package of fiscal reforms, including the reduction of foreign borrowings and the budget deficit, to realize her campaign pledge of providing six services to the ordinary Filipinos in the next six years.

Appearing on IMPACT 2004, a talk show hosted Friday night by journalist Max Soliven on ABS-CBN news channel (ANC), the President said that her administration has plans for fiscal reforms "so that we can afford these six things that are felt by the ordinary Filipino."

She repeated her six-point pro-poor program, with these specific goals: 1) create one million new jobs a year, 2) triple loans to small and medium enterprises and self-employed businesses, 3) bring clean water to each of the 45,000 barangays nationwide, 4) energize 1,500 barangays a year, 5) reduce the prices of medicines by one half, and 6) build 3,000 new classrooms a year, put a computer unit in every school, and provide college or vocational scholarship to every indigent family.

President Macapagal-Arroyo said that in the first three years of her administration, her goal was to reduce the "budget deficit as a percentage of GNP (gross national product)."

In the next six years, she said, "it has to be reduction of the public debt as a percentage of GNP. So, we have to reduce our debt, which means that we have to start reducing our borrowings. And we have to start financing our expenditures more through revenues than through borrowings."

She revealed that her administration has been contracting rather than increasing loans. "We are turning down loan offerings that we feel are not so high in priority because we want to reduce our borrowings," the President added.

The President said that foreign investor confidence in the Philippines remains strong as reflected by the 26 percent increase in investments in 2003 alone. Intel has now a billion dollar investment in the country, while Ford Motor Company is coming in with $50 million to expand its local car assembly plant, she said. Texas Instruments put up $100 million in investments last year, while Sunpower has just come in with $330 million for its solar power plant, she added.

The President said that the "next year of reform" of her administration would involve the "electric power sector."

She said that the government has started by splitting up the National Power Corporation (Napocor) into one company in charge of generation (GENCO) and the Transco (Transmission Corporation), which handles the transmission lines.

There is also the Asset Management Corporation (AMC), which handles the assets and liabilities of the state-owned power firm, she said.

While the government has made these things work, she said the government has to privatize the Genco and Transco. "Why do we have to do that? Because the government is not an efficient manager of a corporation," the President said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today ordered the indefinite suspension of the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who intend to work as drivers in Iraq even as the government continues to assist OFWs who want to voluntarily leave the embattled country.

In approving the recommendation of Ambassador Roy Cimatu, chairman of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee (PMEPC), the President said that while the voluntary repatriation of OFWs from Iraq would be allowed, it is important to maintain good relations with the employers of these OFWs.

In his report, Cimatu, who also heads Team Iraq, said that the present security situation in places in Iraq where OFWs are deployed ranges from fluid to volatile.

The President ordered Cimatu and all concerned government agencies to undertake periodic review of security situation in Iraq "in the light of evolving political developments" in that country.

Earlier, one Filipino, Raymond Natividad, an employee of Prime Projects International (PPI), was killed during a mortar attack on Camp Anaconda in Iraq.

The President approved Cimatu’s recommendation that OFWs in Camp Anaconda may be allowed to continue working provided their living quarters are moved to a safer location inside the camp, which will be at least five kilometers from the nearest perimeter fence.

Cimatu also recommended additional requirements from employers for the approval by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) before they will be allowed to deploy OFWs to Iraq, such as:

• company security plan; and

• security guarantee duly endorsed by the camp commander of the United States base where the OFWs will be deployed stating that the living quarters of OFWs are out of mortar range and safe from suicide attacks or bombings.

On the voluntary repatriation of OFWs, the Team Iraq identified five points in Iraq where the repatriation procedures could be initiated: Mosul, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Al Fallujah, and Al Ramadi.

Cimatu informed the President that the first batch of 100 OFWs to be repatriated to Manila would leave Camp Anaconda within a few days. He said that PPI would charter a plane to bring these OFWs to Dubai, and from Dubai, they will take a commercial plane to Manila.

In a meeting with Neil Helliwell, PPI managing director, in Amman, Jordan, Cimatu said that he was told that about 250 OFWs have filed their resignation papers and have asked to be repatriated to the Philippines

According to Helliwell, his firm, which is based in Dubai, employs some 3,800 Filipino workers who are deployed in different US bases in Iraq.

He said his company prefers Filipino workers because of their long association with them, which dates back to the first Gulf War in l991. Helliwell also mentioned the "invaluable help" of Filipino workers in the construction of the Gunatanamo Bay prison facilities in Cuba, which were rushed in two months.

Given the mandate, the next six years would afford President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo enough time to significantly change the culture of corruption, a festering problem of the bureaucracy.

In an interview with Max Soliven on his TV program IMPACT 2004, aired Friday night over ANC, the President said aside from conducting lifestyle checks and electronic procurement in government, she would work for the creation of an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The President said the commission, an independent body to be created by Congress, would go after corrupt officials and grafters, including those close to her.

"I know how ordinary people feel when they are powerless and they see somebody taking advantage of power. On the other hand, many times, (some) charges … are just black propaganda. So… all should follow the rule of law," she said.

The President said ICAC would be patterned after the ICAC of Hongkong, the agency that has considerably brought down the level of corruption in the former British colony.

The President revealed that she has asked the founder of the Hong Kong commission to be a consultant in the planned Philippine anti-graft body.

She noted that, initially, people in Hong Kong were not receptive to the creation of such commission, but eventually they were won over because the ICAC produced results.

"It took them seven years before people would say that Hong Kong was already graft-free," she said.

The President earlier had created the Presidential Commission on Values Formation (PCVF) as part of the government’s continuing and intensified drive against graft and corruption, patronage politics, apathy, passivity, mendicancy, factionalism and lack of patriotism in the government bureaucracy.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today reiterated that her population policy is responsible parenthood, which is in consonance with the religious and cultural beliefs of the people.

In an interview with Max Soliven in his program "IMPACT 2004" over ANC, the President noted, however that the population policy is implemented by the Department of Health, which has been devolved, along with local governments, around the nation.

The President said that if one allows parents to choose the methods of birth spacing in accordance with their own family, religious and cultural beliefs, then "you will have more women joining that population program."

The President noted that both the Catholic Church and the Constitution encourage responsible parenthood, and this includes determining the way you raise or create a family taking into account the welfare of its members.

She said she looks at family planning not in terms of controlling the population but rather in terms of birth spacing. "Because when one spaces births, two or three years, rather than have a baby every year, it is better for the health of the baby, it is better for the health of the mother, it is better for the relationship of the parents and the child, it is better for the relation between husband and wife. It is better for the health of the family as a whole," the President said.

"When you explain it that way, the net result is the same. If you encourage having a baby every year, in eight years, eight babies, But if you encourage them to space two-three years apart, you are talking about just less children," she said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today that she is praying for the success of Manny Pacquiao’s protest against the controversial decision in his bout with World Boxing Association (WBA)/International Boxing Federation (IBF) champ Juan Manuel Marquez last May 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

During a luncheon at the Heroes Hall of Malacaņang, the President expressed her support for the formal protest filed by Pacquiao’s camp with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Pacquiao knocked down Marquez thrice in the first round, but drew the 12-round fight due to a scoring error admitted by one of the judges.

"For you, Manny, congratulations. You are a champion and we believe in your second championship and we believe and we pray that you will win in your protest," the President said.

The President said that a victory for Pacquiao in his protest would be a vindication not only for him but also for the Filipino people.

She also promised Pacquiao that she would follow his boxing career, particularly in his upcoming world title fights, because "he is the perfect example of a great Filipino worker."

In the Filipino’s heart and for the rest of the world, she said, Pacquiao is a world champion whom they admire and would continue to admire.

President Macapagal-Arroyo reminded everyone that Pacquiao was given the Athlete of the Year Award last year; adding that he truly represents the world- class Filipino.

She recalled that in her last State of the Nation Address (SONA), she cited Pacquiao as example of the great Filipino worker because Pacquiao had just won a world championship fight at that time.

Pacquiao’s business manager Rodolfo Nazario, American promoter Muhammad Murad, and sports writer Ronnie Nathanielsz accompanied Pacquiao during a courtesy call on the President at the Reception Hall of Malacaņang.

She also thanked Pacquiao for endorsing her bid for a fresh six-year mandate in the May 10 elections.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has stated that budget deficit was minimized during the campaign for the May 10 elections through prudent spending and more focus on governance than on campaigning.

The President made this point during an interview Friday night by Max Soliven on the talk show IMPACT 2004 aired over ABS-CBN news channel (ANC).

The President said her administration did not use government funds and resources during the election campaign period as this would be reflected on the country’s deficit.

"If I were spending public funds for the campaign, how is it that I was able to keep the budget deficit below the deficit target?," the President asked.

If government resources and funds were used during the campaign, the President said the government would have exceeded the budget ceiling or government services would have bogged down.

The President said the majority party’s "Pulong Bayan" campaign strategy, articulated on government programs, kept expenditures within limit compared to the traditional political rally, which is much more expensive to hold.

Binabati ko po ang ating People’s Champion na si Manny Pacquiao at para sa ating mga Pilipino at sa buong mundo, maraming lugar ng mundo, Manny, ikaw pa rin ang kampeon.

Naala-ala natin si Manny…total hindi pa naman nawawala yung isang world championship mo, this is for another world championship, di ba? So, world champiopn ka pa rin at itong new championship ay ikaw pa rin.

Noong isang taon, Manny was named as the Filipino of the Year, at tamang tama dahil kinakatawan ni Manny yung world class Filipino. Talagang world class si Manny at naala-ala ko nung ako ay gumawa ng aking State of the Nation Address, noong pinag-usapan ko yung Great Filipino worker, ang ibinigay kong halimbawa ay si Manny. Kasi nang panahong yon, he had just received his world championship.

Tama, Manny, nandito ka. At gusto kong sabihin ngayon at nandito ka sa tabi ko, kaming lahat, gusto kong sabihin sa inyo na ipinagdarasal ng sambayanan na manalo ka sa iyung protesta. Dahil ang tagumpay ng iyung protesta ay katarungan hindi lamang para sa iyo kung hindi para sa lahing Pilipino.

Susundan namin ang lahat ng laban mo sa boksing at patuloy ka naming ina-admire dahil nasa iyo nga ang diwa at puso at pagkakatawan ng dakilang Pilpinong manggagawa—the great Filipino Human Resource.

Muli, Manny, congratulations! You are a champion and we believe in your second championship. And we believe and we’ll pray that you will win in your protest.

Maraming salamat, Manny.