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| 10 NOVEMBER 2007 | ||
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| 10 NOVEMBER 2007 | ||
| PGMA orders education secretary to lead Independence Day celebration next year |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has directed
Secretary of Education Jesli Lapus to lead the planning, coordination and
implementation of the program of activities in celebration of the 110th
anniversary of Philippine Independence on June 12 next year. Under Administrative Order No. 205 which she signed last Oct. 30, the President ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to convene an inter-agency task force which would plan, coordinate and implement all programs, projects and activities related to the nationwide celebration . “The 110th anniversary of the proclamation of Philippine Independence is an ideal occasion for all Filipinos to unite and celebrate the freedom and liberty of our nation and to rally behind the government and the country’s institutions,” the President said. The inter-agency task force shall be composed of representatives from the Office of the President, DepEd, Department of Tourism and the National Historical Institute. The President enjoined all departments, bureaus, offices, national government agencies, local government units and government-owned and controlled corporations to give full support, assistance and cooperation to the DepEd. The main events and activities for the Philippine Independence Day celebration include the National Flag Day commemoration on May 28, 2008 which will serve as the kick-off rites. The formal celebration of Independece Day will be highlighted by Flag-Raising and Wreath-Laying ceremonies at the Rizal Monument at the Rizal Park in Manila. The event will be simultaneously celebrated at the Barasoain Church Historical Landmark in Malolos City, Bulacan; Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, Cavite; the Veterans Memorial at the Manila North Cemetery; the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City,and the Pinaglabanan Shrine in San Juan City. The Independence Day parade at the Quirino Grandstand will be held in the afternoon of the same day. |
| CICT moves to ensure competitiveness of RP's offshoring and outsourcing industry |
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In a move to ensure the
continuous growth and global competitiveness of the country’s information
and communications technology (ICT) industry, the Commission on Information
and Communications Technology (CICT) is asking Congress to pass into law the
measure seeking the creation of a Department of ICT along with the
Philippine Anti-Cybercrime bill. CICT Chair-Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III, in a recent press briefing in Malacanang, said that aside from the two measures pending in Congress, the agency has also created so far 11 Regional ICT Councils so as to improve the Philippines ranking as the fourth most favored destination for ICT services in the world. The CICT was created by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through Executive Order No. 269 in February 2004 as a transitory measure, until a Department of ICT is created, to address the urgent needs of the country’s fast-growing ICT industry. Chua said the Philippine Cyber Corridor, one of the five super regions in the President’s new economic development strategy unveiled in her 2006 State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA), has to sustain its growth considering its enormous contribution to the economy. “As the development champion of the Cyber Corridor Super Region, I am committed to sustaining the growth and competitiveness of our offshoring and outsourcing industry. CICT is working closely with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and other industry associations, as well as ICT councils from the various regions and other stakeholders of the ICT industry in pursuing this objective,” Chua said. Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, call centers, animation studios, software development and gaming businesses, medical and legal transcription outfits, knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms and most back office operations of multinational companies have found a gemstone in the Philippine Cyber Corridor, he said. Chua noted that because of the huge contributions of the ICT industry to the growth of the Philippine economy, the President has challenged the industry to produce two million jobs by 2010. In 2005, ICT-related jobs totaled 163,000 and earned $2.1 billion for the country. Last year, the ICT industry generated a total of 244,000 jobs and raked in $3.6 billion in revenue. This year, the industry aims to employ 403,000 ICT skilled workers and earn $5.1 billion for the country. As proof of the strength of ICT, the Private Services growth picked up by 8.9 percent in 2007 from 7.7 percent in 2006. The highest contributor was the Business Services subsector which strengthened on the back of strong BPO growth which rose by 14.7 percent. But more than the figures, the benefits of the Corridor are steadily being felt not just in mature BPO sites like Manila, Baguio, Cebu and Davao but also in the development of the regional ICT hubs that continue to progress rapidly as locators expand their operations outside of Metro Manila such as in viable ICT locations like Dumaguete, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Bohol, Clark, Sta. Rosa, Lipa, Legazpi, Naga, Rizal, and Bacolod. Before the end of 2007, locators will set up shop in places like Cabanatuan, Dagupan, Subic, Cavite and Tacloban, bringing the number of regions with locators to 30 or 35, Chua said. In Dumaguete alone, there are currently 1,800 ICT skilled workers employed in companies like TeleTech, SPI, South Travel in Sibulan, Entheos IT, YEHS Outsourcing Corp., Original Code Weavers, Nexus Transcriptions, and IT Outlook Wireless Services Company. Iloilo is also a study in competitiveness, playing host to ICT companies like ePLDT Ventus, Call Box Customer Contact Center, Echo Customer Contact Center, Global Mega Communications Inc., Techno Call Corp., Interactive Voice Call Center, Medilink Transcription Services and Eversun Software Philippines Corp. Cebu, which is considered as one of the brightest growth spots of ICT in the regions, is home to BPO companies like Access Direct Teksolutions, Brightpoint Philippines, Calltek Center Int’l., Cebu Global Teleservices, Convergys, eTelecare Global Solutions, Goldtelecomm Specialist, iComm International, iNTOUCH, PeopleSupport, and Sykes, to name a few. Chua also noted that there is a new middle class emerging with a strong purchasing power funded by the ICT industry. The Corridor’s success is steadily powering the expansion of both upstream and downstream industries like telecommunications, food, real estate, construction, electronics, transportation, entertainment and lifestyle businesses. Lives and destinies of the people in the provinces are actually changing dramatically for the better with the entry of ICT players in the regions. And all these, Chua said, have to be sustained by further strengthening the ICT sector. |
| RP's farm exports to New Zealand up by 30 percent in June |
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The value of the Philippines’
exports of agro-based products to New Zealand in June this year increased by
some 30 percent to $2.5 million, the Department of Agriculture(DA) reported
recently to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In a letter to DA Secretary Arthur Yap, New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines David Pine noted that “the largest rise was seen in the value of bananas and plaintains.” Pine also noted significant increases in the sales of dates, figs, pineapples and avocados. “We cannot be sure how much of the improvement is directly due to the success of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s visit earlier this year. But the increase is too large to be unrelated to the hard work that you Undersecretary Romulo-Puyat and Ambassador Donald Dee put into promotion of Philippines agriculture in the lead up to, and during, the State visit,” Pine said in his letter. Citing data from the National Statistics Office (NSO), the DA noted that exports of fresh bananas to New Zealand increased by almost two-fold to $986,480 in June compared with the same period last year. Exports of fresh pineapples also grew by 189.27 percent from $48,415 in June 2006 to $140,049 in June 2007. As of mid-year, nine New Zealand-based importers and distributors have pledged to buy over $30 million worth of fresh and processed agro-fishery exports from the Philippines during a product exhibit and selling mission conducted by the DA on the sidelines of the President’s recent state visit there. Yap said New Zealand buyers will import Philippine products such as mangoes, bananas, pineapples, dried mangoes, banana chips, desiccated coconut, canned sardines, ready-mix sauces, dried anchovies and squids, pili nuts, biscuits, juice in tetra packs, spices (chili and tamarind), fresh coconut and fresh coco juice. Among these buyers is James Crisp Ltd., a known importer and distributor of food ingredients and brand developer for food products in the New Zealand and Australian markets. Other companies that have committed to purchase local goods are the Fusion Marketing Ltd. Ashon Ventures (NZ) Ltd., Tres Marias Trading Ltd. and Panamex Pacific Exporters. Yap said these companies made the commitment during a product exhibit and business-matching session at the Stamford Plaza Hotel in Auckland, New Zealand last May 29. |
| PGMA seeks concurrence of Congress in her offer of amnesty to communists |
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
has ordered the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) to inform all members
of the House of Representatives on the administration’s latest step towards
attaining peace and reconciliation in the country. The President made the directives through Administrative Order No. 207 that she had issued on Nov. 6, 2007, tasking the OPAPP and the PLLO to sustain and give their full attention on peace initiatives at local, national and international levels. Under her directives, the President wants the OPAPP and the PLLO to brief the congressmen on Presidential Proclamation No. 1377 or amnesty proposal to members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), and other communist rebel groups, in order to speed up the passage of the congressional resolution on the said matter. “The OPAPP shall report and give recommendations on recent overtures of the NDF for resuming peace talks, without prejudice to local peace initiatives,” the President said in AO 207. She also ordered National Security Council (NSC) adviser Secretary Norberto Gonzales and the OPAPP to hold local peace assemblies in Luzon before the end of the year, and make a report on peace initiatives conducted in Bohol, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro and Tacloban City. The President also wants the NSC and OPAPP to include in the discussions in the forthcoming local peace assemblies in Luzon the development projects designated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines National Development Service Command. The agenda for the holding of peace assemblies in Luzon shall be discussed in the National Security Council-Cabinet Group meeting on Nov. 13. Last Sept. 6, the President signed Proclamation No. 1377 before she left for the 15th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting in Sydney, offering amnesty to members of the CPP-NPA-NDF and other communist rebel groups in the country. The amnesty proclamation is “essential to attaining peace and reconciliation,” explained the President. The amnesty program is itself “an integral component” of the Arroyo administration’s comprehensive peace efforts as mandated in Executive Order No. 3 dated Feb. 28, 2001 -- one of President Arroyo’s earliest peace overtures. Proclamation No. 1377 – which shall take effect upon the concurrence by a majority of the members of Congress -- is also part of the Social Integration Program for former rebels as provided under Administrative Order No. 172 which President Arroyo issued on March 23, also this year. Under AO 172, the principal body at the national level that would coordinate and monitor the implementation of Proclamation 1377 is the National Council for Social Integration (NCSI). In issuing Proclamation 1377, President Arroyo stressed that “accepting rebels back into the folds of the law through amnesty, and eventually providing them access to the government’s existing socio-economic services, are essential to attaining peace and reconciliation in the country.” Amnesty, added the Chief Executive, is an “instrument of reconciliation,” aside from being a “path for their (the communist rebels’) return to a peaceful, democratic, and pluralistic society.” |
| PGMA's Leyte-Samar visit bolsters super regions development projects |
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TACLOBAN CITY - Economic
activities and the potential of Eastern Visayas to become the country's
premier tourism destination under the super regions concept was amplified
10-fold with the visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo here and Eastern
Samar Friday. This was the observation of mediamen in Region VIII during their 45-minute informal interaction with the President last night after she inducted the officers of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP)-Leyte chapter at the Leyte Park Hotel here. Also yesterday, the President during her inspection ordered the immediate completion of the Jipapad-Lapinig and the Lapinig-Arteche road projects in the northernmost part of Eastern Samar. The Lapinig-Arteche stretch is the remaining unfinished portion to complete the Samar circumferential road project that would link the provinces of Eastern and Northern Samar. On the other hand, the 5.22-kilometer Jipapad-Lapinig road would greatly ease the plight of the residents of Jipapad, the most isolated town in Eastern Samar. As it is, the only access of the residents of Jipapad to the nearest town of Oras also in Eastern Samar where they bring their produce, is a rigorous 12-hour banca ride crisscrossing through the Oras River. The mediamen told the President they were awed by her stamina in inspecting vital government projects in the remote parts of the country. The President plans to take a backbreaking six-hour land trip during her next visit to Mindanao this month. The President replied by saying she was used to such strenuous activities as she had already visited quite a number of remote areas even before she became a senator of the country. Aside from the two road projects, the President also expressed government support to the upgrading of the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport here into an international airport, and the rehabilitation of the American-built 2,084-meter long and 46-meter wide airstrip in Calicoan Island and the former US Navy 3149 Base in Guiuan, Eastern Samar. The road and airport projects have been described as "an accomplishment of a lifetime" that would greatly boost economic activities and improve the influx of tourists to the three islands of Leyte, Samar and Biliran that comprise Region VIII. The three Eastern Visayas islands, famous for their natural wonders such as waterfalls, caves, pristine white beaches, dive sites, limestone and rock formations, and centuries-old churches and historical sites, also offer year-round festivals Eastern Visayas' famous historical sites include the US Navy 3149 Base in Guiuan, which used to be the biggest naval base in the Far East that ensured Gen. Douglas MacArthur's successful "I Shall Return" campaign to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation during World War II. Even former US President John F. Kennedy, then a captain, was stationed at the naval base as the youngest commander of the torpedo boat, PT 109. On Sept. 28, 1901 in Balangiga, Eastern Samar, American soldiers brutally retaliated after suffering a major defeat at the hands of Filipino rebels during the American occupation, turning the town into a "howling wilderness" and taking the famous Balangiga bells which are still being held by the Americans. On March 16, 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan first touched land on Homonhon Island in the southernmost tip of Eastern Samar wherein a visitor can scrutinize a stone carved with "Magellan" which is recognized by the Philippine Historical Commission as the "Magellan Landing Site." On March 31, 1521, Spanish Priest Fr. Pedro de Valderrama celebrated the “First Mass in the Orient” on Limasawa Island in Southern Leyte. Other famous attractions in Region VIII include Tinago Falls, Mainit Hot Spring and the shifting sand bar in Biliran; MacArthur Landing Memorial in Palo, Leyte; Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park and Rawis Cave both in Basey, Northern Samar; Lake Danao in Ormoc City; Calbiga Cave in Calbiga, Samar; and the man-made San Juanico Bridge connecting Leyte and Samar. |
