(continued)
Look at the BPO sector. Back in the year 2000, only five thousand people were employed in this industry. Fast forward to 2011: 638,000 people are employed by BPOs, and the industry has contributed 11 billion dollars to our economy. It has been projected that come 2016, it will be bringing in 25 billion dollars and will be employing 1.3 million Filipinos. And this does not include the estimated 3.2 million taxi drivers, baristas, corner stores, canteens, and many others that will benefit from the indirect jobs that the BPO industry will create.
A large portion of our job generation strategy is building sufficient infrastructure. For those who have gone to Boracay on vacation, you have probably seen our newly christened terminal in Caticlan. The plan to expand its runway has also been laid out.
The BPO Industry demonstrates what’s possible when Filipinos engage with the rest of the world. However, the revenues of the BPO industry are not enough. For the most part only the real estate developers in Makati benefit from the BPO industries.
Building infrastructure is a good strategy BUT the devil is in the details. When the project’s participants are limited to Filipino big business only, taxpayers wind up paying more than they have to. Need we be reminded of the Philppines having the most expensive electric rates in the world?
Removing the 60/40 restrictions will bring in more to estimated 3.2 million taxi drivers, baristas, corner stores, canteens, and many others that will benefit from the DIRECT jobs.
And we will not stop there. Before the end of my term, the New Bohol Airport in Panglao, New Legaspi Airport in Daraga, and Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental will have been built. We will also upgrade our international airports in Mactan, Cebu; Tacloban; and Puerto Princesa Airport, so they can receive more passengers; in addition to remodeling the airports in Butuan, Cotabato, Dipolog, Pagadian, Tawi-Tawi, Southern Leyte, and San Vicente in Palawan.
Like I previously said – Building infrastructure is a good strategy BUT the devil is in the details. When the project’s participants are limited to Filipino big business only, taxpayers wind up paying more than they have to.
I am the fourth president to deal with the problems of NAIA Terminal 3. Airplanes are not all that take off and land here; so did problems and anomalies. Secretary Mar Roxas has already said: Before we convene at the next SONA, the structural defects we inherited in NAIA 3 will have been fully repaired.
This June, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension project began to move forward. When completed, it will alleviate traffic in Las Piñas, Parañaque, and Cavite. In addition to this, in order to further improve traffic in Metro Manila, there will be two elevated roads directly connecting the North Luzon and South Luzon Expressways. These will be completed in 2015 and will reduce travel time between Clark and Calamba to 1 hour and 40 minutes. Before I leave office, there will be high-quality terminals in Taguig, Quezon City, and Parañaque, so that provincial buses will no longer have to add to the traffic on EDSA.
Building infrastructure is a good strategy BUT the devil is in the details. When the project’s participants are limited to Filipino big business only, taxpayers wind up paying more than they have to.
Perceptions have also changed about a department formerly notorious for its inadequacies. I still remember the days when, during the rainy season, the Tarlac River would overflow and submerge the MacArthur Highway. The asphalt would melt away; the road would be riddled with potholes, until it ended up impassable.
As the representative of my district, I registered my complaints about this. The Department of Public Works and Highways’ reply: we know about the problem, we know how to solve it, but we have no money. I had to appeal to my barangays: “If we don’t prioritize and spend for this ourselves, no one will fix it, and we will be the ones who suffer.” Back in those days, everyone called upon the government to wake up and start working. The complaints today are different: traffic is terrible, but that’s because there’s so much roadwork being done. May I remind everyone: we have done all this without raising taxes.
The devil is in the details – where Arroyo took a cut, the new dispensation lets its PPP partner jack up the rates – so yes, no taxes were paid BUT consumers paid for higher rates.
We will not build our road network based on kickbacks or favoritism. We will build them according to a clear system. Now that resources for these projects are no longer allocated haphazardly, our plans will no longer end up unfulfilled—they will become tangible roads that benefit the Filipino people. When we assumed office, 7,239 kilometers of our national roads were not yet fixed. Right now, 1,569 kilometers of this has been fixed under the leadership of Secretary Babes Singson. In 2012, an additional 2,275 kilometers will be finished. We are even identifying and fixing dangerous roads with the use of modern technology. These are challenges we will continue to address every year, so that, before end of my term, every inch of our national road network will be fixed.
Kickbacks or favoritism is too small – think big, think PLUNDER IN BROAD DAYLIGHT – think Public Private Enterprises. Where government pretends it did not raise taxes – but it collects from the increase in collection fees of the private service provider who happens to be a crony. Smart eh. No worries – Pinoys are too dumb to figure that out.
We have fixed more than roads; our DPWH has fixed its system. Just by following the right process of bidding and procurement, their agency saved a total of 10.6 billion pesos from 2011 to June of this year. Even our contractors are feeling the positive effects of our reforms in DPWH. According to the DPWH, “the top 40 contractors are now fully booked.” I am hopeful that the development of our infrastructure continues unimpeded to facilitate the growth of our other industries.
DPWH fixing its system? Since when did it not “fix” its system. “Fixers” abound in that den of thieves. It is easy to talk savings by the DPWH – the question is should the DPWH even be allowed to exist as a department – and its functions turned over to the DILG instead – as a bureau therein.
The improvement of our infrastructure is intertwined with the growth of our tourism industry. Consider this: In 2001, the Philippines recorded 1.8 million tourist arrivals. When we assumed office in 2010, this figure had grown to only around 3.1 million. Take note: despite the length of their time in office, the previous administration only managed to add a mere 1.3 million tourist arrivals—and we contributed half a year to that number. Under our administration, we welcomed 2.1 million tourist arrivals by June 2012. More will arrive during peak season, before the end of the year, so I have no doubt that we will meet our quota of 4.6 million tourist arrivals for 2012. This means that we will have a year-on-year increase of 1.5 million tourists. The bottom line: In two years, we would have had a bigger growth in tourist arrivals, compared to the increase charted by the previous administration in their nine years. We are not singing our own praises; we are merely stating the truth.
Building infrastructure is a good strategy BUT the devil is in the details. When the project’s participants are limited to Filipino big business only, taxpayers – AND TOURISTS wind up paying more than they have to.
But Secretary Mon Jimenez is still not satisfied. He says: if 24.7 million tourists came to Malaysia in 2011, and around 17 million visited Thailand, would it be too far-fetched to have ten million tourists visiting the Philippines annually by 2016? And if the Filipino people continue to embody the same solidarity that allowed the Puerto Princesa Underground River to become one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature, there is no doubt that we will be able to achieve this. As we have already announced to the entire world: “It’s more fun in the Philippines.” Secretary Mon Jimenez has been at his post for less than a year, but we are already reaping the fruits of the reforms we have laid down. So, when it comes to tourism, we are confident in saying, “It’s really more fun—to have Secretary Mon Jimenez with us.”
Ten million tourists to do what exactly? To smell Manila’s putrid polluted air? Asia’s favorite site for gore tourism? It’s more fun in the Philippines is a nice slogan – until you land on NAIA – and you wish you can turn the plane back as you stare at the row of rusty rooftops, the muddy rivers. Then there’s the taxi drivers from hell who con tourists left and right. Clean beaches are getting harder to come by as crap floats from untreated sewage. Next time you take a dip in those clear, blue, pristine waters – check for E. coli – it might save your life.
When it comes to growth and development, agriculture is at the top of our priorities. Secretary Alcala has been working nonstop to deliver us good news. Before, it seemed as though the officials of DA cultivated nothing but NFA’s debts. The NFA that our predecessors took over had a 12-billion peso debt; when they left office, they then bequeathed to us a debt of 177 billion pesos.
For so long in the past, we were led to believe that we were short 1.3 million metric tons of rice, and that we needed to import 2 million metric tons to address this shortage. They ordered rice as like it was unlimited—but because we had exceeded far more than what we needed, imported rice went to rot in the warehouses.
In just our first year, we redcued the annual shortage of 1.3 million metric tons to just 860,000 metric tons. This year, it is down to 500,000—including a buffer stock to dip into in times of calamity. And, if the weather cooperates, we’ll be able to export rice next year.
The Philippine agriculture industry remains the most protected industry – not because of farmers who own minimal landholdings – but due to the agricultural corporations who have benefited from tax subsidies and trade protection. The rotting of imported sacks in a government warehouse is a result of government’s intervention in markets. When government restricts importation to protect rice traders – consumers are hurt by high prices – even as rice traders continue to pay low farm gate prices to farmers. Small farmers are also hurt by rice export regulations that prevent small farmers from exporting their rice to traders who can pay a better price than the douche bag rice traders who are in cahoots with the NFA , the DA, and the Bureau of Customs.
Secretary Alcala has said that key to our success is a feasible irrigation program and the assiduous implementation of the certified seeds program. What is galling is that this knowledge is not new—it simply wasn’t applied. If they had only done their jobs right, where could we have been by now?
Look at our coconut industry: Coconut water, once treated as a waste product, is now being utilized by our farmers. From 483,862 liters exported in 2009, to 1,807,583 liters in 2010, to a staggering 16,756,498 liters of cocowater exported in 2011. And where no one previously paid heed to coconut coir, we are now experiencing a shortage due to the high demand of exporters. We are not wasting this opportunity: we are buying the machines that will process the coco fibers. We have allocated 1.75 billion pesos to invest in, and develop, this sector.
There is no need for the DA to buy the machines that will process coconut noir. Rather, open the market so that local and foreign companies can bring in the needed capital and technology – without expense to taxpayers.
My mother initiated the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. It is only just that this program sees its conclusion during my term.
We are improving the system, so that we can more swiftly and more efficiently realize agrarian reform. The government is doing everything in its power to ensure that our farmers can claim as their own the land they have tilled and nurtured with their sweat.
There are those, however, who wish to obstruct us. I say to them: We will obey the law. The law says, the nation says, and I say: Before I step down, all the land covered by CARP will have been distributed.
Your mother initiated CARP then weaseled her way out with Stock Distribution Option. Better yet, why didn’t you guys returned the land after the 10 years you were supposed to – CARP or NO CARP. Gimme a break.
Let me shed some light on our advances in the energy sector. In the past, an electrical wire needed only to reach the barangay hall for an entire barangay to be deemed energized. This was the pretext for the claim that 99.98 percent of the country’s barangays had electricity. Even the delivery of so basic a service was a deception?
We challenged DOE and NEA, allocating 1.3 billion pesos to light up an initial target of 1,300 sitios, at the cost of one million pesos per sitio. And the agencies met the challenge—they lit up 1,520 sitios, at a total cost of 814 million pesos. They accomplished this in three months, instead of the two years it took the people that preceded them. Secretary Rene Almendras, I give you credit; you never seem to run out of energy. With public service, you are not only ever-ready, but like an energizer bunny too—you keep on going, and going, and going.
We have suffused the nation with light—and it is this light, too, that has exposed the crimes that occur in the shadowed corners of society. What the Filipino works so hard for can no longer be pilfered. Crime volume continues to decline across the country. In 2009, over 500,000 crimes were recorded—this year, we have cut that number by more than half, to 246,958. Moreover, 2010’s recorded 2,200 cases of carnapping has likewise been reduced by half—to 966 cases this 2011.
Shed light? Really? With electricity bills being the highest in the world – in the midst of rolling power outages due to “maintenance”. If the economy were open – there will be more providers who can provide capacity – should MERALCO decide to have “maintenance”. Then we can do away with all those ocho ocho rallies of the leftists everytime there’s a rate increase – amidst calls of price controls and nationalization of the power industry – madre mia.
Yup – Aquino has suffused the nation with YELLOW light – so that the nation is blinded to the PLUNDER IN BORAD DAY LIGHT of a lousy group of filipino businesses who are scared of open competition and yet have the gall to be proud pinoy. The hell is that?
It is these facts that, we hope, will be bannered in headlines. We do not claim that we have ended criminality, but I’m sure no one would complain that it has been reduced. In the span of just a little more than a year, haven’t we finally put Raymond Dominguez in jail, after years of being in and out of prison? Charges have been filed against two of his brothers as well, and they are now serving time, too. Of the two suspects in the Makati bus bombing of the past year—one is dead, and the other is living in a jail cell. He shares the same fate as the more than ten thousand individuals arrested by PDEA in 2011 for charges relating to illegal drugs.
Pacquiao does not fight every day, and so we can’t rely on him to bring down the crime rate. Which is why we’re strengthening our police force. When this administration began, 45 percent of our police carried no guns and probably relied on magic charms as they chased criminals. But now we have completed the bidding—and we are now testing the quality—for an order of 74,600 guns, which we will provide our police, so that they may better serve and protect the nation, our communities, and themselves.
Criminality is driven by poverty and ignorance. All of which can be addressed by having the right economic policies. We delight in sacking small time Customs employees when the crooks who got away with tax exemptions, higher tariffs on their competition – all the way to the bank – SALN waiver not needed.
The biggest criminals are the people who keep on giving the consumers of the Philippines high prices and non-existent value for the money.
The biggest criminals are the people who keep jobs away from the job seekers of the Philippines.
The biggest criminals are the oligarchy who have plundered this nation’s resources in broad daylight and then look for scapegoats – whose heads can be handed on a silver platter labeled Priority Development Assistance Fund.
(To be continued)
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