President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo challenged today members of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), the country’s most dominant political party of which she is the national chairperson, to play a bigger role in the fight for the rightful economic and social deliverance of the people

In her keynote speech at the party’s national convention at the Folk Arts Theater in Pasay City this morning, the President said the challenge is timely and urgent considering that there is no other time in the last decade than now that the country has that real opportunity for an economic takeoff.

"We must internalize this distinction and embrace it as a solemn responsibility to pursue the fight for the rightful economic and social deliverance of our countrymen," she told partymates, referring to perceptions that Lakas is the party most capable of addressing the nation’s concerns.

The President then called on the administration’s Team Unity to set aside petty differences and join hands "in synergy" so that the momentum of the country’s economic progress, its goals and visions would be sustained.

"In achieving victory and advancing our country’s goals and visions, let us be in synergy rather than in combat with the five other parties within the Team Unity coalition as well as with the essential sectors of the national community," the President said.

Of the 12 Team Unity senatorial candidates, seven: Ralph Recto, Mike Defensor, Miguel Zubiri, Prospero Pichay, Cesar Montano, Luis "Chavit" Singson and Vic Magsaysay, come from Lakas-CMD while the rest belong to other parties.

Senators Edgardo Angara and Joker Arroyo, and Jamalul Kiram III belong to Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), Kampi, and Partido Demokratikong Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), respectively, while former Senators Vicente "Tito" Sotto III and Tessie Aquino-Oreta are Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) members.

In the same speech, the President outlined to those present the "grand agenda of the administration of fighting poverty and terror and building peace as the foundation of political victory in the elections" which, she said, would be achieved with the "help of our phalanx of Lakas-CMD partymates who are at the frontline of change."

"Today, the administration coalition has the most comprehensive, doable and ongoing platform of nation building that has brought six years of continuous growth for the Philippines on top of strong campaign for law and order, democracy and human rights," the President said.

"Your numbers, the numbers of Lakas-CMD (members), push the momentum of victory for the administration at all levels," she added.

Also in the same speech, the President unveiled the newest slogan her Team Unity senatorial candidates would use during their campaign sorties around the country: "MAS PARA SA KIDZ MO."

The new campaign slogan, which means "More for your/our children" underscores all the hard work and "tough decisions" implemented by the Arroyo administration so that Filipino children will be assured of a brighter and better future.

MAS PARA SA KIDZ MO is also a play on the names of Team Unity’s senatorial candidates to provide instant recall for the voting public:

• MA – Magsaysay
• S – Singson
• P – Pichay
• A – Angara
• R – Recto
• A – Arroyo
• S – Sotto
• A – Aquino-Oreta
• KI – Kiram
• D – Defensor
• Z – Zubiri
• MO – Montano

Meanwhile, President Arroyo heeded the call of the Catholic Church for all candidates to spare the Lenten season from political noise.

Skills training and other micro-entrepreneurial campaigns would be implemented alongside the government’s Hunger Mitigation Program (HMP) to ensure its sustainability, Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye said today.

"The drive to cut hunger is a centerpiece of the social payback on economic growth, and will be implemented side by side with a strong skills training and micro-enterprise campaign to get at the root of poverty in a comprehensive manner," he pointed out in a statement.

In a National Nutrition Council (NNC) Board Meeting held last Friday in Malacaņang, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the fast-tracking and improvement of the existing components of the HMP, including the food-for-school program (FSP), the food-for-work program and various feeding programs of the non-government and religious organizations.

Bunye said funds for the HMP would be augmented as needed to ensure that the social payback on economic growth trickles down at every level, particularly on the feeding program for children.

"The idea is to make poor families captains of their fate, so that they can be prime movers of nation-building as members of a strong middle class," Bunye said. 

Meanwhile, National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Lead Convenor Domingo Panganiban said the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) would train some 180 out-of-school youths on various courses in Parola in Tondo, Manila to provide them job opportunities and improve the socio economic condition in the area.

Since January this year, Panganiban said six "Tindahan Natin" outlets were provided to qualified beneficiaries in the area.

HILONGOS, Leyte – Relatives of the victims of extrajudicial killings in this town 22 years ago asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today to help them in searching for justice and bringing the culprits to jail.

Edeltrudez Lamadora, 56, wife of one of the victims, Jimmy Lamadora, voiced out the request to the President when interviewed by media this morning at the newly-found mass gravesites at the hillside of Mt. Quinasagan in Sitio Sorsogon, Barangay San Antonio, Hilongos town, this province.

Lamadora said she was very happy that after more than 20 years of waiting and searching for her husband, at least, there is now a big possibility that among the skeletal remains exhumed at the seven gravesites in the area were those of her husband.

"We’re very thankful to the soldiers because they found these gravesites," Lamadora said in Waray dialect. "We are now requesting President Arroyo to help us so that justice will be served for my husband and other victims," she said.

Mrs. Lamadora also asked the leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to protect them from the threat of communist rebels after they decided to file criminal charges against the culprits.

She recalled that her husband was among the 36 persons forcibly abducted by several armed men, believed to be members of the New People’s Army (NPA), in their barangay while they were busy preparing to celebrate their traditional feast on June 12, 1985.

Mrs. Lamadora said that a month after the abduction, the armed men visited their barangay again and announced that the men and women they arrested were killed after they were found guilty in the movement.

Major Gen. Armando Cunanan, commanding general of the Army’s 8^th Infantry Division, revealed that based on their records, the civilians were abducted by the NPA as part of its "Venereal Disease" campaign to cleanse the ranks of their civilian supporters.

He said the 36 civilians were tagged by their abductors as traitors for allegedly providing intelligence information to the military.