PGMA's Speech during the 9th National Convention of Government Employees Working Council (NCGEWC) and the 60th Anniversary of the Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA)

PGMA's Speech during the 9th National Convention of Government Employees Working Council (NCGEWC) and the 60th Anniversary of the Philippine Government Employees Association (PGEA)

Heroes Hall, Malacañang (08 December 2005)

Good morning.

Thank you very much, Secretary Duque.

Honorable Ocampo, the president of the PGEA; our new general manager of the Philippine Retirement Authority, Honorable Silvestre Bello; our officers of the Association of Local Colleges and Universities, ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you for all being here today. I'm happy to be with you today because first of all it's my aim to make our government workers and our educators and our executives champions in nation-building.

I'm glad to celebrate with you a special anniversary. We've been together many times, Espie, but this time it's special because its the 60th anniversary of the PGEA. Happy jubilee to all of you!

When I met you for the first time I was VP, I didn't realize PGEA had already been 60 years in existence. Ninety? Oo, ninety eight when we met, pero 60 years na pala. In fact, the association is older than many of you and me. and it is high time to congratulate you for all these decades of spirited quest of true service and your fight against graft and corruption. Because of your spirited quest for true service and your fight against graft and corruption, you are making an essential contribution to governance.

But we all know, while I must say and I think Espie and some of you know, some of the revamps we've made had been as a result of recommendations of the PGEA. We all know that much more needs to be done to clean up and modernize our bureaucracy. In fact, our entire political system if we want to attain the dream of joining the ranks of first world countries in 20 years.

Well, the journey of a thousand miles they say is anent the proverb says begins with a few steps. And I have always said the first step is to reconcile the nation with god through a period of national renewal. For the Catholics this is a special very period. The last three days were days of devotion to the sacrament of reconciliation because today is not only the 60th anniversary of PGEA, it is the 150th anniversary of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. So this has been our period of prayer and renewal for the Catholics.

For the Muslims, I have asked them since Ramadan, the last Ramadan to use that period for reconciliation with God. And for other denominations we have had a similar program in their churches by declaring since last year, November 30th, as a period of prayer, a day of prayer and fasting. In these times of prayer, I have asked our society to seek guidance from and concentrate all its efforts to God. That's the first step, getting guidance from the Lord.

The second step in this journey of a thousand miles is to redirect the focus of government so that the bureaucracy will be more responsive to the call and need of the times. And this is where I ask PGEA to help in the modernization of the bureaucracy. This may mean amending the objectives of EO 366. Some of you are uncomfortable with that to begin with, so we amend its objectives. And that may mean issuing a new enabling executive order that I have asked the deputy national security adviser, the colleague of our... The former colleague of our police officers here, General Virtus Gil, to draft this enabling executive order after the consultations he's undergoing now that will allow front line agencies, like many of your agencies, to operate in an emergency or state of calamity mode. Why? Because it is you, the officials and employees in the bureaucracy whose leadership and dedication can make a difference in the overall score of national excellence. I talk about national excellence because of our athletes, who have just proven our national excellence.

Indeed, the source of excellence of our economy is its human resources. Like them, the athletes and you, the government employees. Not to mention of course our world-class work force in a hundred forty countries all over the world. Because of them, the global work force, our gross international reserves have hit 18 billion dollars, unprecedented. Our economy is the only one in the world which gets an adrenaline shot in the arm every yearend because of them. But this year is special, a forty percent increase in overseas remittances.

And therefore the role of our local colleges and universities comes to the fore because our great human resources are our greatest resources. I ask the local colleges and universities on the occasion of your oath taking of your officials to train our sights on strengthening our overseas worker base, beginning with tweaking the school curriculum to prepare the Filipino to be the best worker in the world. This includes a focus on English, computer literacy, cultural awareness, and supervisory and technical skills. Such an effort is consistent with every nation's pursuit to make its citizens globally competitive, but more than that it is a means of people empowerment because our greatest resources are our people.

But at the same time, while we extol our people as our greatest resources, we must also define the major role of land in wealth generation, especially land reclamation. And this is my marching order for our new general manager of the Philippine Reclamation Authority, the Honorable Bebot Bello.

The people pin their hopes upon the performance of our public servants. Cabinet members like Secretary Duque, government corporate executives and CEOs like Secretary Bello, our leaders of the educational system, our bureaucracy from the top officials to the lowest rank and file. And we are trying hard, in spite of budget limitations, to alleviate the plight of our government work force.

That's why in the 2006 proposed budget, we've included a compensation adjustment fund of 13 billion pesos so that you can have an increase in your compensation.

And this is also why I have asked the DBM to collate from all the national government agencies the total of our savings so that we can use that pool of national government savings for a uniform extra bonus for all of you. and last night, Secretary Neri confirmed to me that we can give you an additional bonus of 5,000 pesos.

To all of you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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