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• I always feel gratified being with you. You are development-focused leaders who will take the Philippines to the verge of First World in two decades, when we will have dramatically reduced poverty, created a robust middle class and have all the hallmarks of a modern society in strong, stable institutions. And by 2010, together we will have launched the Philippines to be well on its way to achieving that vision. Already we have moved mountains with our macroeconomic condition through fiscal discipline, toward a balanced budget, pre-paying our debts and investing billions in human and physical infrastructure. And these fundamentals are paying off in huge increases in investment, 6 million new jobs and a strong peso and stock market.

• So I believe we will be remembered for making tough decisions on the economy, dramatically cutting poverty, making huge investments in infrastructure, instituting permanent change in the economy and improving the living conditions of our people.

• Poverty alleviation is our overarching goal. It is one that we will continue to focus on in the remainder of my term. Balancing the budget is just the first step. Over the next three years, we will translate the positive results of our reforms to real benefits for the people. We will increase investment in our country and our people to: 1) improve our infrastructure to create an environment in which businesses feel confident to expand and employ more people, because more jobs means less poverty, 2) improve social services such as health insurance subsidies for indigent families and food for school programs, 3) boost educational support in our efforts to reduce poverty by investing in better school buildings, new textbooks and teaching materials, and training programs for teachers and school administrators, and 4) cutting red tape and continuing to eliminate corruption from the system.

• In short, we are investing in reforms for our economic, social and moral life. We want all sectors to do their bit to strengthen society’s moral fiber even as we call on everyone not to be swayed by truths and partisan intrigues.

• And of course we will continue to fight against terrorism and work to bring peace and prosperity to Mindanao.

• The Human Security Act enhances the safety and domestic security of our country by giving us more legal power to prosecute those who commit any acts of terror on our people. But to strengthen it we are working with Congress on a bill to make the illegal possession of explosives nonbailable, with ample safeguards and penalties against planted evidence. Our message must be clear: if you are armed and kill civilians, you will be prosecuted. If you are a communist terrorist, religious terrorist or even a rogue element of our own police or military, we will stop you. We must be adequately empowered to crush the terrorist movement in the country and to transform our nation’s response to political violence, ensuring that civil rights and social justice are available to all Filipinos, not just a privileged few.

• My faith in our military and police forces is firm and solid. I happen to believe that 99% of our military men and women are good, upstanding and loyal patriots, fighting to protect our country everyday.

• On peace and prosperity in Mindanao, the clergy of Mindanao, having the most experience in peacemaking on the ground, can best demonstrate that peace and progress are won not by intrigues but by hard work and sincere efforts.

• I thank the Catholic Bishops of Mindanao as well as the 12 bishops from the North for being the voice of reason in these times when several groups are trying to obfuscate controversial issues.

• No doubt my grant of executive clemency to former President Joseph Estrada will be debated, welcomed, criticized and given all sorts of meanings and motives.

• Part of my ten-point program is that hopefully by 2010, the divisive issues generated by EDSA 1, 2 and what some people call EDSA 3 will be just memories. Dapat wakasan na sa makatarungang paraan ang mga hidwaang bunsod ng EDSA Uno, Dos at iyong tinatawag ng iba na EDSA Tres.

• National unity and advancement, along with the rule of law, justice and accountability have guided our decisions and positions taken in the Estrada case until today. We braved a backlash from the masses when we enforced the Sandiganbayan arrest order in April 2001. We never wavered in respecting and following the edicts of the court in the past six and a half years, whatever the political cost.

• We thank the many moral and political leaders, as well as ordinary Filipinos, who enriched our decision with their perspectives, both for and against pardon.

• The Department of Justice highlighted both legal and humanitarian arguments, including the former President’s age, the condition of his mother, his express willingness not to contest proceedings to recover the fruits of plunder, and not to seek public office in the future.

• For many years now this Administration has been pardoning inmates who have reached the age of 70. When that policy was announced at a forum of senior citizens many years ago, it was met with loud applause. Former President Estrada is now more than 70 years old. It is time to release him as well, and time for him to be at the bedside of his dying mother. Many of our leaders, public and private, agree.

• If I have showed concern for the personal circumstances of the former president, it is not a sign of diminished determination to see justice done.

• It is out of sensitivity to the feelings of the segments of our masa who continue to identify with his personal circumstances.

• President Nixon was pardoned before conviction. President Estrada has been in detention for six and a half years. The former Presidents of Korea were released after spending two years in detention. They were granted a special pardon by President Kim Dae-jung to help reconcile a country torn apart and enable it to focus on repairing the economy hit by the Asian financial crisis.

• Similarly, for the whole time that I have served as President, the issues surrounding former President Estrada’s trial and detention constituted the single most significant cause of political noise and controversy in the national firmament. Although such noise and controversy have largely failed to derail the overall course of our administration, it has been a cause of distraction, recrimination and intrigue.

• This is a period of Constitutional healing. The wisdom of the law enables the President to exercise the power of pardon. The system of justice is working. I am using the law for what I see in my best lights as the good of the greater number.

• In the end, we had to make a decision that was bound to please and displease, impress and confound, unite and divide.

• But we must move on as a nation. The great majority of our people, including you captains of commerce and industry, are much, much more concerned about taking advantage of our economic progress than the backsliding of political protest. The great majority of our people are less interested in argumentation and more in reconciliation and what the pardon can contribute to the healing of divisions in our land.

• Let us now all pray, reflect and join hands to make the Estrada pardon a powerful force for righteousness, compassion, healing, national stability and advancement.

• The people deserve peace, order and political and economic stability. We have been through many upheavals. The people deserve a stable government and economic progress. That is what they are getting now.

• We are focused on the economy. Only a strong economy will lift our people out of poverty and expand our middle class.

• We already see signs of the current benign, stable growth conditions sparking a wave of entrepreneurial activity in the Philippines. We need a vibrant middle class if we are to reach the verge of first world in 20 years. In several key areas we have promoted a new entrepreneurial class. One is in microfinance, where the system has extended more than P80 billion in low and middle income men and women who want to start their own businesses. In addition, through our central banker, we have created a series of investment incentives and programs for foreign remittances to be invested into capital enterprises.

• It will take the private sector working together with government to create the jobs we need to build a strong middle class and a modern, first world nation.

• The high price of energy, while difficult in the near term, is actually an opportunity that we have seized in order to take our energy future into our own hands. We are resolved not to be reliant on imported oil. We aspire to be like Brazil, becoming more sufficient in bio fuels within a decade. This is the future of commerce. This is the future of our own self-reliance on alternative fuels like thermal, wind and solar.

• In the meantime, we have clamped down on price gouging. I instruct the DTI to tightly monitor supply and pricing of basic commodities. I ask PCCI to be a partner in this.

• PCCI is a true partner for development.

• Let us continue to move as one, think globally while taking pride in the Filipino.

• This partnership will not wane, it will continue to flourish through the years for it is built on the common desire to give every Filipino the decent life he deserves and claim our rightful place among the strong republics of the world.

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Over the past 60 years, however, Iceland has the leading technology in producing geothermal energy and supplies a large portion of the Icelandic population with geothermal water for domestic heating and gradually developing new steam fields for power production.

Minister Skarphedinsson said they want to bring in Iceland’s expertise and REI is currently focusing on creating possible partnership to develop geothermal areas in the Philippines.

The REI officials said energy produced from geothermal sources today amounts to less than 0.1 percent of the global use and their mission is to share their proven experience to increase the use of geothermal energy worldwide.

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