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| FIELDS program cited for increase of Camiguin agriculture production |
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CAMIGUIN – The government’s FIELDS program has resulted in a significant
increase in agricultural production in this province, thereby raising the
income of the farmers. Camiguin Gov. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo said today the benefits of the FIELDS program to the farmers tops the list of his report to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo when she leads the Christmas gift-giving event for indigent residents at the provincial capitol grounds here tomorrow (Dec. 24). FIELDS stands for fertilizer, irrigation and fertilizer; equipment, education and extension; loans, dryers and post harvest facilities; and seeds. President Arroyo launched the enhanced agriculture productivity program in keeping with her administration’s to make food available, accessible and affordable especially to the poorest of the poor who are hardest-hit by the global price increases. The six food production assistance package was unveiled by the President during the National Food Summit held last April at the Fontana Convention Center at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga. Governor Romualdo said Camiguin’s palay production posted an 11 percent increase; corn by 2 percent this year as a result of the implementation of the FIELDS program. Romualdo said other Camiguin products that posted better yields were banana, root crops, coconut, and the province’s famous sweet lanzones. “We have managed to raise farmers’ production and profit. Increasing the productivity and income of small farmers and fisherfolks is the major weapon by which we can fight hunger and poverty in the province,” he said. Romualdo said the FIELDS program underscored the President’s desire to ensure national food sufficiency in the coming years, especially in the face of the global economic uncertainties that are expected to persist until next year. |
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| PGMA plays Santa Claus to indigent residents of Camiguin tomorrow |
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CAMIGUIN – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will play Santa Claus to about
3,000 indigent residents here tomorrow (Wednesday) a mere hours away from
the traditional “noche buena” celebration on Christmas eve. The President will lead the distribution of Christmas gifts to indigent residents at the provincial capitol grounds here. To assist the President in the distribution of family food packs are Camiguin Gov. Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, Camiguin Lone District Representative Pedro Romualdo and Mambajao Mayor Ma. Luisa Romualdo. Governor Romualdo said Camiguin residents are very happy and privileged to be with the President a day before Christmas Day, considering her hectic schedule. “We are much privileged to be with the President on the eve of the noche buena. The distribution of Christmas food packages really shows her concern for the poor residents in our province,” Romualdo said. He said that by Dec. 29 a total of some 6,000 poor residents of the province would receive family food packs. In the spirit of the Christmas season, the President had also spearheaded a medical and dental mission, and distributed family food packs to 2,000 indigent residents in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat. |
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| PGMA doubles allocation for govt’s pro-poor programs to P10 billion |
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Preparing for the worst while hoping for the best, Malacanang said today
that the P5 billion allocation for the government’s pro-poor subsidy
programs will be raised to P10 billion next year in an effort to soften the
impact of the global economic whiplash especially on the poorest of the poor
Filipino families. The Cabinet reached the decision to double the budget of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Pantawid Pamilya Program at its meeting this morning amid projections that the full impact of the worsening global economic crunch will be felt next year. In 2006, or two years before the Wall Street collapse triggered the current global crisis, the President launched the Pantawid Pamilya Program in response to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Briefing newsmen covering Malacanang after the Cabinet meeting, Social Welfare and Development Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the additional allocation of P5 billion released last week for the Pantawid Pamilya Program would double the number of beneficiaries from 320,000 households or one million children to 640 households are nearly two million children attending school. Cabral said the President has given her until the first quarter of next year to identify the beneficiaries of the program who will be given cash assistance. “We were directed by the President to saturate the 20 poorest provinces in the country if we can cover 100 percent of the poor households in the provinces with available resources. If there is money left, we will go to other provinces,” she said. Under the program, a household that has three children in school will receive a grant of P1,400 a month, P500 for health and P300 each for 10 months for each child in school, day care or high school or up to a maximum of three children. Cabral said the subsidy program now covers 40 percent of the 4.9 million poorest households, “a significant number of people.” She said that under the government guidelines, the poverty threshold is P1,200 a month per person. If there are five persons in the family the total income is P6,000 a month. “Yun ang poverty threshold. Consider na poor ka if that is the only income you have.” Cabral explained that children covered the government’s subsidy program should log at least an 85 percent school attendance, otherwise the assistance would be terminated. But she added that so far, beneficiaries have complied strictly with the guidelines of the assistance program. Earlier today, Malacañang said that while its strong anti-poverty and anti-hunger programs were in place, the “past months have been difficult for us.” The “President has made it her personal mission to help the poorest among us survive this global financial meltdown,” Deputy Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement. “The DSWD, for one, will get a P5B budget increase to support its pro-poor programs, particularly the 4 Ps, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a flagship project of the President which provides subsidies to poor families and is expected to help 321,000 households,” Fajardo added. |
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| Composition of GRP peace panel that will resume talks with MILF is out |
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Malacañang officially named today Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael
Seguis as the new chairman of the government peace panel that will resume
negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process chief retired general Hermogenes Esperon made the announcement in a press briefing this afternoon a day after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated her commitment to peace through negotiations in her speech at the 73rd founding anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) last Monday. Esperon said that the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) peace panel would be headed by Undersecretary Rafael Seguis whose members would include Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman, General Santos City Mayor Adelbert Antonino, and sectoral representative Ronald Adamat from Maguindanao. He said Secretary Pangandaman role is to provide continuity of the peace negotiations and to represent the Muslims while Mayor Antonino is to represent the local government and the Christian community and congressman Adamat is to represent the Lumads. "We have almost all sectors represented now...but we will weigh it thoroughly so [that] all sectors would have strong representation in the panel," said Esperon On Dec. 1, the President already named Seguis to head the new GRP peace panel in order to resume peace negotiations with the MILF. Seguis, who is currently the DFA undersecretary for Special Concerns, will head the new government negotiating panel with the MILF after the dissolution of the one which was headed by retired general Rodolfo Garcia. He also served as Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia, East Timor, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq and to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. |
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| Dureza: Malacanang respects Aquino’s decision to seek Estrada’s forgiveness |
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Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said today that Malacañang respects the
decision of former President Corazon Aquino to seek the forgiveness of
former President Joseph Estrada for helping the anti-Estrada movement that
led to his ouster in Jan. 2001. In a press briefing in the Palace this afternoon, Dureza described Aquino’s public apology to Estrada as a reconciliatory position. He said it should be noted that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself had “made the supreme reconciliatory move by exercising her presidential prerogative” of granting pardon to Estrada. In the same new briefing, Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno said Aquino’s mea culpa was a “good development” for the unification of the contending political groups in the country. “We should make every effort to reconcile with one another. Unity, not division, should be the order of the day. In that sense, we congratulate the former president for making the gesture of reconciliation as what President Arroyo has done,” Puno said. “Hopefully, this will open the way to calming down political fires that rage in the country,” he added. |
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