AUCKLAND, New Zealand (via PLDT) - The Philippines and the Sanitarium Health Food Company (SHFC), a leading New Zealand food manufacturer, have forged a partnership agreement intended to bolster the two-way trade of food items between the Philippines and New Zealand

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who is accompanying President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in her five-day trip to New Zealand and Australia, briefed members of the Philippine media on the key features of the agreement during Mrs. Arroyo’s tour of the company’s facility near the Auckland international airport this morning, capping her four-day visit to New Zealand.

From the SHFC complex, the President went straight to the airport for the trip to Canberra, Australia on the second leg of her two-nation Asian trip.

Also with the President were Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Ambassador to New Zealand Bien Tejano.

SHFC officials led by Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kevin Jackson, General Manager Pierre Van Heerden, General Manager for Exports Dean Powrie, Marketing Manager Mark Roper and Nutrition Services Manager Kim Stirling welcomed the President.

Yap said the agreement with SHFC is part of the $30-million Philippine agriculture export package consisting of fresh and processed agro-fishery products signed during the President’s visit to New Zealand.

Under the agreement, the DA would facilitate SHFC’s linkup with Filipino suppliers who can meet the market and production requirements of the New Zealand health food company.

"We can pursue the sale of fresh and processed fruit and fruit products from the Philippines like mangoes, bananas and banana chips, nuts and desiccated coconut with SHFC, which is a leading supplier of breakfast
cereals and health food products," Yap said.

SHFC is a leading maker of quality, healthy and plant-based foods such as breakfast cereals and vegetarian products.

Founded in 1898, SHFC’s flagship product, Weet-Bix, has remained a top seller in the Australian and New Zealand breakfast cereal market for almost 40 years now.

Australia is a major ally and strong economic partner of the Philippines. Our friendship has been forged on the anvil of history from the battles of World War Two to liberate Asia, through Korea, Vietnam and now the war against terror.

As the first Philippine President to visit Australia in over ten years, I am deeply honored to be here to forge even deeper economic, security and cultural ties that will bring our nations even closer together.

As Chair of ASEAN, I am also deeply grateful for the leadership role that Australia plays to advance the interests of the entire region. At a time of uncertainty in the world, it is now more important than ever to build new alliances on a bilateral and multilateral basis to ensure greater political, economic and military security.

The government is ready to implement its old but effective measures to avert the domino impact on the domestic fuel prices of oil price increases in the global market.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon that this is in response to the plan of multinational oil companies to impose a series of oil price hikes in the next few weeks.

"The government will continue to implement the discount scheme in gasoline stations for all public utility vehicles," he said.

Oil prices rebounded yesterday to near $70 a barrel in London on lingering concerns over the Nigerian crude production.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), according to Ermita, will provide discounts and lower the prices of spare parts in order for motorists to make up for the increase in the prices of fuel or gasoline products.

These measures, which were already used by the government in the past, will be implemented anew to cushion the impact of the price increases, he said.

Ermita revealed that the Office of the President has directed the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to look into alternative fuels as the best solution to resolve the country’s dependence on imported crude oil.

Malacanang assured today government employees whose tenures will be affected by the implementation of Executive Order 366 or the Rationalization Plan that they will receive the full benefits due them.

In his weekly press briefing in Malacaņang this afternoon, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will set aside enough funds to cover the benefits due government workers who will go on early retirement.

There’s no reason for them to worry that they will not receive their benefits, he added.

Ermita said the DBM is in the process of preparing the necessary for the implementation of the government Rationalization Plan, particularly the funds needed to pay the employees affected by EO 366 to enable them to invest their retirement benefits in small and medium-scale enterprises.

On the other hand, state workers affected by the Rationalization Plan but who prefer to continue their employment will be "pre-positioned to other offices within the government," he added.

Ermita said EO 366 was conceptualized to trim down the bureaucracy and "remove redundancies and functions (in the executive department) and to re-deploy personnel from one agency to another without diminution of their salary and their position."

The Malacanang official said that 81 agencies -- 19 under the executive department, 29 under other executive offices, and 33 government owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs)) -- are affected by the Rationalization Plan.

Among these agencies are the Career Executive Service Board, the Civil Service Commission, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, National Early Childhood and Development Coordinating Council, Local Water Utilities Administration, and National Tobacco Administration.

Under the Rationalization Plan, 7,625 personnel currently employed in the 81 affected agencies will be trimmed down by 2,584 to 5,041.

Ermita pointed out that the government is doing everything possible to ensure that EO 366 is implemented smoothly and the affected employees would get a fair shake.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lauded today the important role Australia is playing in ensuring peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

"As Chair of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), I am deeply grateful for the leadership role that Australia plays to advance the interests of the entire region," the President said upon her arrival in Canberra this afternoon for a two-day state visit to Australia.

The President, who proceeded to Australia after her four-day visit to New Zealand, cited the need to "build new alliances on a bilateral and multilateral basis to ensure greater political, economic and military security."

Stressing her vigilance to terror threats, the President said she welcomes the "power and resources of our allies like Australia to help us root out and destroy these vicious killers who ply their dislocated and evil ideology on the innocent."

"And there is no more reliable friend and ally than Australia to anchor our peace and security. I am optimistic about the unity of our region and our prospects for peace, stability and economic growth," the President said.

She also said she is "deeply honored" to visit Australia, a major ally and strong economic partner of the Philippines, "to forge deeper economic, security and cultural ties that will bring our nations even closer together."

President Arroyo is the first Philippine President to visit Australia in over 10 years after the 1995 state visit there of then President Fidel Ramos.

"Our friendship has been forged on the anvil of history from the battles of World war Two to liberate Asia, through Korea, Vietnam and now the war against terror," President Arroyo said.

Australia has given the Philippines some A$10 million in grants for counter-terrorism capacity building, including cooperation on law enforcement, maritime, aviation and transport security.

Malacanang welcomed today the move of Rep. Satur Ocampo of the militant party-list Bayan Muna and the Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights (KARAPATAN) to participate in the investigation of the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations being conducted by the Melo Commission.

Militant activists had initially refused to testify before the Melo Commission, but Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita revealed during his weekly press briefing in Malacanang today that Ocampo and other members of militant groups have apparently changed their minds and were ready to appear before the commission on June 15.

The commission, headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, was created by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in August 2006 to look into the spate of extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses in the country over the last several years.

But the refusal of victims of human rights violations and their families to testify had hobbled the Melo Commission investigations.

Ermita said that with the willingness of Ocampo and other members of militant groups to testify, Malacanang is hopeful that the government would be able to establish conclusive findings on the criminal acts and go after the culprits.

"We hope to be able to satisfy the clamor for more conclusive findings by the Melo Commission now that we got a signal that they (militants) will participate (in the investigation)," he added.

Ermita said commission chair Melo has informed Malacanang about the forthcoming appearance of Ocampo and other witnesses from the Kapatiran before the probe body.

Mitigating measures to help exporters and families of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) cope with the adverse effects of the strong peso are now in place, according to Malacanang.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly press briefing this afternoon that while the government and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will not interfere and let the market determine the exchange rate, it is ready to act to prevent changes that are too fast.

"To slow down the peso, we have been prepaying some of our debts while the BSP has also been accumulating foreign exchange, that is why the gross international reserves are at record levels," he said.

The peso has been hovering at the P45 to P46 exchange rates against the dollar, reaching levels from as far back as seven years ago following the general trend of appreciating Asian currencies.

To directly help exporters, Ermita said the government has cut exporters’ fees and has set up an initial P280 million fund to support exporters through the Industrial Guarantee and Loan Fund (IGLF) which will be used to improve product quality, packaging, design and marketing.

"The BSP has also been supporting small and medium exporters through microfinance," he said. "Ultimately, the best way to help our exporters is to lower power rates, but that is for the medium term."

Ermita even read the position report of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Finance (DOF) stating that in 2006, exports of goods grew by 14 percent, the fastest in eight years.

He said that the strong peso has also helped reduce interests costs including those for the financing needs of the exporters.

"For OFW remittances, in year 2006, it rose to an all-time high of $12.8 billion while this year, they are up by 24 percent despite the fact that OFW deployment or the number leaving the country has gone down and the foreign direct investments in 2006 expanded by 26 percent," Ermita pointed out.

"Why am I reading this? Sinasabi maaapektuhan daw ang export and yet despite the improving peso laban sa dollar, export continued to improve," he explained.

Malacaņang has ordered the Department of Health (DoH) to look into allegations that the government’s Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) program might have been "taken advantage of," leading to its P4-billion loss since 1995.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita disclosed in his weekly press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has been directed to take a closer look at allegations that there are private hospitals and private doctors taking advantage of the PhilHealth program.

"We want to be sure that the money that the National Government is spending will be put to good use. That is why we want to determine whether this report about the PhilHealth program being taken advantage of by some private practitioners and hospitals is true," he said.

The Philippines has been reelected to a second term in the United Nations Human Rights Council which, according to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, is an affirmation of the confidence in the country and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s efforts to promote and uphold respect for human rights.

In his weekly press briefing in Malacanang this afternoon, Ermita said the Philippines obtained 179 votes in the elections held last May 17, 43 votes more than what it got in last year’s polls among various countries to a one-year term in the 47-member council.

"This news is relevant in the sense that it affirms confidence in the President’s efforts to promote and uphold respect for human rights," he pointed out.

Ermita also announced the President’s appointment of four highly qualified individuals to various government posts and signing of two presidential issuances -- one on human and animal rabies elimination and another on the program activities for the 109^th Independence Day rites.

Appointed were Enrique B. Galang Jr. as Associate Commissioner and Franklin Z. Littaua as Executive Director, both at the Bureau of Immigration under the Department of Justice (DOJ); Elmer A. Soneja as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC); and Teresita G. Inciong as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).

The President signed Republic Act No. 9482, which provides for the control and elimination of human and animal rabies and prescribes penalties for violations thereof.

Although formal diplomatic relations with Australia started in 1946, the President noted that her visit marks some 200 years of informal relations with Australia.