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| 08 NOVEMBER 2007 | ||
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| 08 NOVEMBER 2007 | ||
| Statement of Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye Re: Saguisag Couple |
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President Arroyo is saddened by the unexpected
death of Mrs. Dulce Saguisag and the serious health condition of Atty. Rene
Saguisag after a tragic vehicular accident. "It's very sad news. Let's pray for the swift recovery of the former senator and the peaceful rest of his wife, Dulce," the President told Secretary Bunye after learning about the accident. Mrs. Saguisag served the country as Department Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary and had been very active in promoting breast cancer awareness. |
| PGMA sets Eastern Samar trip |
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BORONGAN, Eastern Samar – President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo is expected to arrive here Friday to touch base with
ordinary Eastern Samarenos and attend the 42nd Eastern Samar Foundation Day
and Anti-Poverty Summit. She will also hold meetings with local government officials, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to discuss the peace and order situation in the area. The President is scheduled to arrive from Tacloban City shortly before noon at the Borongan National Comprehensive High School Landing Zone where she will be welcomed by Gov. Ben Evardone and Borongan City Mayor Fidel Anacta, among others. While en route to Eastern Samar, the President will conduct an aerial inspection of the Lapinig-Jipapad Road Project, which is part of the Samar Circumferential Road Project. This province used to be a hotbed of the New People’s Army (NPA) insurgency, but over the years the rebel movement has been progressively losing ground as Eastern Samarenos shun armed conflict as a means to uplift their economic situation. Provincial officials headed by Gov. Evardone will present to the President a consolidated action plan to further reduce poverty incidence in Eastern Samar, a recent graduate of “Club 20” or the country’s 20 poorest provinces. The President will also receive a detailed briefing on the various priority development projects of the provincial government that are intended to fight poverty, notably farm to market roads, irrigation and water supply. As in most agriculture areas of the country, Eastern Samarenos are largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, but lack of modern farming facilities, including irrigation and farm to market roads and technical assistance, continue to hobble agricultural development in this province. The President’s Eastern Samar trip will also take her to the town of Guiuan, a budding tourist destination in Eastern Visayas that used to be the biggest United States naval base in the Far East in World War ll. From Eastern Samar, the President will fly back to Tacloban City to address a Local Peace and Security Assembly (LPSA) for Region 8 or Eastern Visayas Friday afternoon. |
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PGMA's Speech during the
8th Annual Convention of the Philippine Society of
Geriatric Medicine Centennial Hall, Manila Hotel 08 November 2007 |
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Thank you. Thank you very
much Secretary Duque. |
| PGMA saddened by Saguisag couple's tragic accident |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed
sadness over the untimely death of Mrs. Dulce Saguisag, wife of former Sen.
Rene Saguisag, who both figured in a tragic predawn vehicular accident in
Makati City early Thursday morning. "It's very sad news. Let's pray for the swift recovery of the former senator and the peaceful rest of his wife, Dulce," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio R. Bunye quoted the President as saying after learning about the incident. In a statement, Bunye said, the President cited Mrs. Saguisag for her civic work during her term as Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) under the Estrada administration. He said the President particularly lauded Mrs. Saguisag for her active participation in promoting breast cancer awareness. Mrs. Saguisag died instantly when their Toyota Hi Ace Grandia van collided with an Isuzu dump truck along Arnaiz Avenue near Osmena Highway (formerly South Super Highway) in Makati City at about 1:15 a.m. Thursday. The former senator, on the other hand, was in critical condition after suffering serious injuries on his ribs. He has been transferred to the intensive care unit of the Makati Medical Center. The couple was with two others aboard the van when the accident happened. |
| PGMA moves to strengthen healthcare programs for elderly persons |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo moved today
for the strengthening of the country’s healthcare program for elderly
persons through legislation, institutionalization and exchange of knowledge
and experiences on increasing the life expectancy of Filipinos. The President noted in her keynote address at the 3rd Okinawa International Longevity Conference at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel this morning that the Philippines’ population is relatively young and so government resources are put into healthcare programs for the majority of its population but the conference made her realize that there is indeed a need also for a stronger government healthcare program for the elderly. “I am glad I am here with you today… This is so important for us Filipinos because Filipinos unlike the Japanese are a young population. And so, most of our resources are concentrated on how we can take care of the elderly even though their population is not as large as the population of our young people in the Philippines. And we officially recognized this,” the President said. “But I thank you for being here for being a reminder that we must take care of the elderly…,” the President said. Noting that there is an apparent lack of trained health professionals in the field of Geriatrics and Gerontology, the President saw the need to expand the institutionalization of geriatric care in the country to improve the government’s healthcare program for elderly persons. She noted that there are only four universities in the country that include geriatric care in their curriculum, namely the University of the Philippines-Manila, University of Santo Tomas, St. Luke’s Medical School and the Cebu Doctor’s Hospital. “There’s an inadequate research on key issues pertinent to old age…I still feel now that we have to expand the field of participation… we have to expand the field,” the President stressed. The President said among the universities in the country, the UP-Manila is the lead agency for institutionalizing geriatric training. She directed Health Secretary Francisco Duque to help UP-Palo in Leyte and the University of Northern Philippines to develop a geriatric care curriculum. In line with this, as the President is scheduled to visit Leyte tomorrow, she announced that she would bring with her a P1 million check for UP-Palo as a start up fund for the development of its geriatric care curriculum. The President also asked the Philippine Society of Geriatric Medicine to help her administration draft the right legislation that would bring improved long term care for senior citizens. “In my State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last July, I expressed the conviction that we must invest in strengthening social safety nets including access to healthcare…In that same SONA, I asked Congress to pass a legislation that brings improved long term care for our senior citizens,” the President said. She noted that the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, although it was said to be one of the best in the world, is not yet enough to ensure long term care for the elderly. “But we want to make it even better…I ask you who love our elderly to help our administration...,” she said. The President said the legislation she is thinking of is one that will “ put more money in the hands of the older persons for medicine, for medical care and provide some form of pension for more of them.” According to her, the second part of the legislation is not really healthcare but access to healthcare which she said the Asian Institute of Management could help the government work on it. The President also asked experts on geriatric care in the Philippines to join hands with regional and international geriatric care experts in further improving healthcare programs for the elderly through exchange of knowledge and experiences and “cascade that knowledge to the frontline health providers.” The President said although the government has already put in place some healthcare programs for elderly persons, “ there is still much more to be done” to increase the life expectancy of Filipinos and experience the Okinawan longevity lifestyle. “We would like to see a significant number of our population in this situation where at a ripe age of 90 at least still go to market, walk and still go to folkdances,” she said. “The Philippines remains committed to doing this, to vigorously pursue active measures that I have mentioned earlier to create a ‘society for all ages.’” She noted though that Okinawa, Japan is a first world country, but the Philippines would be joining the ranks of a modern and developed countries, like Japan, in the next 20 years as she is focused on further improving the economy. It is said that the most number of centenarians anywhere in the world can be found in Okinawa, an archipelago southwest of the main island of Japan which has about 600 centenarians out of a population of 1.3 million. That means 39.5 centenarians for every 100,000 people, compared to only 10 for every 100,000 Americans. The Okinawan centenarians still go out to tend vegetable farms, walk to the market for fish and vegetables for a meal and go to evening dances to socialize. The Okinawa Gerontology Institute, in collaboration with the Philippine Society of Geriatric Medicine (PSGM) and the Asian Institute of Management Policy Center, organized the 3rd Okinawa International Conference on Longevity with an aim to gather experts, specialists, policy makers, sectoral groups and individuals with an interest in achieving healthy aging and longevity. It also aims to come up with resolutions and draft policy statements on geriatric education and training, healthcare and recommendations for greater health benefits and welfare support for the elderly. |
| PGMA directs DepEd to hasten and widen implementation of alternative distance education |
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Having heard about the fate of a schoolgirl who
took her life for lack of transport fare to school, among other needs in
life, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed today the Department of
Education (DepEd) to hasten and widen the implementation of its alternative
distance education program. The President stressed that while the DepEd’s priority is Metro Manila and the 10 most “food-poor” provinces, it does not mean that the poverty-alleviating program of the DepEd is exclusively for the said areas. The victim, Marianeth Amper, 11, came from the well-off Davao region in Mindanao. The DepEd’s alternative education program uses modules for distance learning, and is very much like the “open universities” offered by colleges and universities for their college and post-graduate courses. In her visit and informal interaction this morning with leaders of three barangays along Katipunan Road in Quezon City where the main topic was education, President Arroyo asked how the DepEd’s alternative programs could help pupils and students in such circumstances. DepEd Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, who showed a five-minute powerpoint presentation on the DepEd’s programs -- including its Health and Nutrition Program – said the DepEd in Region III (Central Luzon) had just launched its own “Baon Para Kay Bunso” Program. Labrador said she used to visit students who were absent for some three days to find out what was keeping them away from school; and recommended that teachers practice the same. The DepEd’s programs for the Elementary Level include “Alternative Learning Delivery” dubbed MISOSA for “Modified In-School and Off-School Approach” in education. The DepEd also has a feeding and rice take-home program for identified pupils from pre-school to Grade VI numbering 2.6 million nationwide; plus the 1.2 million based in the national capital region, or a total of 3.8 million pupils. Further, the DepEd has a “Gulayan sa Paaralan” projects where students harvest the vegetables and take these home as additional food for the family table. The President visited the university area of Matandang Balara, Pansol and Loyola Heights in Quezon City where she awarded vocational scholarships to interested students whom she urged to try the in-demand welding, call-center and butchering industries. |
| PGMA bats for more old age healthcare legislations |
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Awed by the Okinawan longevity experience,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today she wants to create a “society
for all ages.” The President admitted before the participants of the two-day 3rd Okinawa Longevity Conference being held at the Centennial Hall of the Manila Hotel that the increased resources of the government as a result of the implementation of tough fiscal and economic reforms are concentrated on the delivery of enhanced healthcare services to the majority of the population which are young. This is so, the President said, because the Filipinos are a young population. However, National Statistics Office (NSO) data showed that as of 2005, only 6.3 percent of the total population or about five million are aged 60 and above but noted that the number is growing at a very fast rate that it has projected that by 2025, there would be about 11 million elderly persons in the country or about 10.5 percent of the projected population. Thus, the President wants to channel more resources in strengthening her administration’s healthcare program for the elderly persons so that the Filipinos would live a “ripe old age” and grow old gracefully and productive just like the centenarians of Okinawa, Japan. “I am told that in Okinawa even at a hundred or so years, they still go out to tend vegetable farms, walk to the market and in the evenings go out for folk dances,” she said. She noted that there are some elderly Filipinos who are like the centenarians of Okinawa but surmised that these people were able to do that because they had at least a comfortable middle class life. And the President wants this to happen even to the poor. “And if the institutions around us will be able to do that even to the poor then we will see more of them even if we don’t necessarily reach the proportions in numbers of Okinawa.” First, the President said the Philippines has to be a First World economy just like Japan and “we hope to do that in 20 years.” “But we don’t have to wait 20 years before we improve our old age healthcare. We begin today,” the President said as she reiterated her commitment to vigorously pursue active measures such as the institutionalization of geriatric healthcare programs, the need for more legislations that would bring about better long term care for the elderly and the dissemination of information down to the grassroots. “Let’s all join hands to bring about the day when everyone who grows old will have a kind of care that will allow them to age gracefully and productively,” the President said. |
| Impoverished QC youths get scholarships from PGMA |
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Impoverished youths in Quezon City who can only
watch in envy as well-off scions of rich families drive to prestigious
schools lining Katipunan Avenue can now heave a sigh of relief. Thanks to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Showing her concern for those who can only dream of pursuing college degrees, the President released today 375 scholarship vouchers in the area barely three days after granting an additional P350 million for call-center training for interested youths, especially those with basic fluency in English. This, even as three known universities operate along Katipunan Avenue, namely, the Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College and the University of the Philippines. The 375 scholarship vouchers were divided equally to three barangays – Pansol, Matandang Balara, and even to well-off Loyola Heights. Loyola Heights Barangay Chairman Cesar Noguera reported to the President that not all youths in the barangay can afford to go to college, and welcomed the scholarship vouchers that are meant to enroll them in practical courses with waiting employers. The other vouchers were given to Pansol Barangay Chair Dominic Flores and to Matandang Balara Chair Beda Torreocampo. The President advised the youths who trooped to the barangay inter-action at the Loyola Heights barangay hall to go for the high-demand courses – welding, call center training and butchering. Early this week, the President had expressed her elation over the country’s victory in the prestigious London-based search for the best off-shoring and out-sourcing destination in the world. The Philippines was given the “Outsourcing Destination Award” by the highly prestigious 4th Annual Awards of the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) in ceremonies held in London, England last Oct. 19. So elated was the President over the country’s feat in business process outsourcing (BPO) that she immediately granted the P350 million in additional training funds for 70,000 interested youths. The President ordered the allocation of the additional call center training fund on the day she graced the launching of the “Offshoring and Outsourcing Philippines: Roadmap 2010” by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) last Monday at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The BPAP recognized and thanked President Arroyo for her government’s focus on BPO training via the PGMA Training for Work Scholarship Program (PGMA-TWSP), saying it helped prop up the country as the top BPO destination. The PGMA-TWSP, which is administered by the TESDA, has so far graduated the following number of trainees from May 2006 to September 2007: a total of about 37,300 call center agents, 49 percent of whom have found jobs; some 5,000 medical transcriptionists at 54-percent rate of employment; and some 230 software developers, 81 percent of whom are now employed. The BPO sector is considered as one of the fastest growing business sectors in the country today. In less than 10 years, it has provided jobs to some 235,000 Filipinos, and earned some $ 3.3 billion in revenues for the country, thus contributing roughly two percent to national GDP. The Philippines presently enjoys a five-percent share of the global BPO market; but the BPAP is hoping to capture its “10x10” dream: 10 percent market share (worth $13 billion) by the year 2010. The President’s infusion of P350 million in fresh training funds is expected to spur training and workforce development in the sector, thus helping the BPAP meet its 10x10 dream of cornering 10 percent of the global market share of BPOs by the year 2010. This projected increase will raise total direct employment to 900,000, or an increase of more than 600,000 jobs, as well as create 1.2 million to 1.5 million more new indirect jobs. |
| PGMA confident Congress would pass P2-B public pre-school education budget |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed
confidence today that Congress would approve her administration’s P2-billion
allocation for pre-school education for 2008 aimed at widening coverage of
the education program. The President made the remarks during her interaction this morning with leaders of three barangays along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City, namely, Pansol, Matandang Balara and Loyola Heights. The President noted that her administration has quadrupled its annual allocation for public pre-school education from P500 million each for 2006 and 2007 to a total of P2 billion for 2008 to attain “universal coverage” of the country’s five-year-old youths. Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador, in her report on basic education, said pre-school education now exists in all elementary schools, with 445 pre-schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) alone. The President instructed the DepEd to ensure that the pre-schoolers should at least learn the ABC, and basic arithmetic. Labrador revealed that there have been pre-schools in the past that were financed by local governments; but that the national government has now entered the picture to help set up and increase the number of pre-schools in the country. For his part, Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte revealed that the QC government has been assisting pre-school teachers with a P3,000 per month “supplemental” salary each to add to their monthly earnings. The Arroyo administration presently has the following pre-school education programs: the one-kilo rice program for complete weekly attendance; deworming; “expanded universal and dental check-up”; and “Gulayan sa Paaralan.” |
| Gov't doing its best to lick hunger, poverty |
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The Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD) has extended moral and financial assistance to the family of an
alleged 11-year-old suicide victim from Davao even as the government assured
it is doubling its efforts to address hunger and poverty. Health Secretary and National Nutrition Council (NNC) Chairman Francisco Duque III issued the assurance in the wake of reports that Marianeth Amper, a Grade 5 pupil from the Ma-a Elementary School in Davao City took her own life recently due to extreme poverty. Duque said Amper’s case is an isolated one, stressing that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with her accelerated hunger mitigation program (AHMP), is making sure the government can respond and resolve the problem. “We need to continue to do our job. This is the mandate of the hunger mitigation program,” he explained. Duque appealed to media to help the government spread the good word about the accelerated hunger and poverty reduction program of the government. “(The) President has been at the forefront in making sure that we could step up our programs to respond to this problem of severe hunger and poverty,” he told reporters. The President, he said, has invested billions of pesos to address the problem on poverty. “This administration is indeed very sensitive about issues affecting the living conditions, the health and education of our people,” he added. Joining Duque in the press briefing held in Malacanang were Undersecretary Vilma Labrador of the Department of Education (DepEd), Undersecretary Jesus Parazo of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Executive Director Ma. Bernadita Flores of the National Nutrition Council (NNC). |
| PGMA forms 'Anti-Kotong and Anti-Colorum' Task Force in exchange for transport fare increases |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo created today
a Presidential “Anti-Kotong and Anti-Colorum” Task Force upon the request of
the transport sector to put an end to these nefarious activities of some law
enforcers in the main thoroughfares in Metro Manila. Presidential Spokesperson and Press Secretary Ignacio R. Bunye said the President made the move during a meeting this afternoon with the transport group and other members of the Cabinet in exchange for the requested hikes in transport fares. She named Department of Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes as head of the screening committee of the Task Force composed also of representatives from the Departments of Justice, Transportation and Communications, Interior and Local Governments and the private sector. Bunye said the President has designated DOE Undersecretary Roy Kyamco, a retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general, to head the task force. Kyamco, before his retirement from the military service, headed the AFP Southern Command. Secretary Reyes, during a press briefing, said the problem the government is trying to abort is the increase in fare in the public transport system like the jeepneys, buses, taxis and tricycles due to the increase in oil prices in the world market. Reyes said the transport group had asked the government to put a stop to the rampant “kotong” practices of some law enforcement agents, and also the illegal transport franchising called “colorum.” “Ito pong task force ang sagot natin bilang kapalit sa pagtaas ng pamasahe na hinihingi ng mga drivers na biktima ng “kotong” at “colorum,” Reyes said. He said the President’s instruction is to immediately organize this task force while the administrative order is still being drafted. Reyes added that he will ask the law enforcers from the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the DILG to fully support and cooperate with the task force mandated to go after the “kotong cops” and “colorum” vehicles. |
| President to visit 2 Eastern Visayas provinces tomorrow |
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BORONGAN, Eastern Samar – Wanting to spend more
time here for a more comprehensive discussion of her administration’s
poverty-alleviation, peace and order and energy conservation programs,
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to proceed to this provincial
capital town to open her two-province Eastern Visayas sortie on Friday. Originally scheduled to hold a series of meetings tomorrow morning in Tacloban City, the President will instead helicopter to Borongan from the Daniel Romualdez Airport after a brief stop in Jipapad town, also in this province. After an aerial inspection of the 5.2-kilometer, P20-million Lapinig-Jipapad road development project funded by the President’s Social Fund (PSF), the Chief Executive is expected to arrive in Borongan at about 11:30 a.m. The Lapinig-Jipapad road project is part of the Samar Circumferential Road project under the Arroyo administration’s Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan (KALAHI) program. The project is being undertaken by the 53rd Engineering Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as part of the government's peace building efforts in Eastern Visayas. Once completed, the road project is expected to greatly ease the flow of transportation, goods and services by connecting Northern and Eastern Samar provinces. The other KALAHI projects being undertaken by the 53rd EB are the P386,000 farm-to-market road rehabilitation project in Lavezares, Northern Samar, and the P2.7-million farm-to-market road project in Barangay Obong in Can-avid, Eastern Samar. After the inspection, the President would proceed to the provincial capitol grounds in Borongan, Eastern Samar to award various social services projects for the province. Afterwards, the President would fly back to Tacloban City to address the culmination of the two-day Local Peace and Security Assembly (LPSA) for Region VIII at the Leyte Park Hotel here. In the evening, the President would host a dinner and informal media interaction also at the Leyte Park Hotel. |
