Cabinet meeting sees improvements in 2006

Better economy and more jobs for the people, is what the national government foresees as the country has favorable fiscal performance and outlook for this year.

During the full Cabinet meeting held at the Malacañang sa Sugbu yesterday, Cabinet secretaries were briefed on the programs and prospectives of the national government for the year.

President Gloria Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro were also present during the closed-door meeting that lasted four hours.

In a media briefing, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said that the year 2006 is very favorable for investment and improvement of the economy.

He said the implementation of the 10-percent Expanded Value Added Tax last November and the increase to 12 percent in February this year has resulted to "quite substantial income and strengthening of the peso."

Bunye said that it has also improved the country's credit standing in the international community because it has collected enough money for debt servicing.

"All in all we have so much money to service our debts and also to fund the basic services," he added.

At the start of the year, he said that Arroyo has identified key areas where the money would be spent-education, health, infrastructure, which would generate more jobs and similar expenditures.

Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said investments for this year is targeted to reach P55 billion in areas focusing on food, health, education, housing, infrastructure and defense reforms.

He said that the highlight of the full Cabinet meeting is the report on the pump-priming releases, wherein as of last Thursday, the national government has allocated a total of P15.6 billion for the different programs for this year.

Among the biggest releases went to the Philippine National Police, which received P1 billion for the recruitment of 3,000 police personnel, acquisition of 5,000 9mm pistols, 630 patrol cars and various civil disturbance management equipment.

For the agricultural programs, P1.96 billion was released for irrigation, P931.6 million was released for GMA Rice and Corn program and P106 million for GMA Livestock program.

Another P500 million was also released to the National Food Authority for the provision of rice and noodles to Tindahan Natin outlets, P200 million for the Food for School Program, P500 million for the community mortgage program, P500 million for health insurance, P100 million for the procurement of the imported and local medicines for the half-priced medicines for the poor.

Education vouchers program were also allocated P500 million, P1 billion for the school building program, P271 million for the Third Elementary Education Project and P500 million for the flood control projects.

Many other coming projects like the expressway projects, rail project, airport development and farm-to-market roads were also discussed.

Meanwhile, Saludo also said that the government will have a dialogue with the members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines to discuss joint projects that will be implemented in the future.

He said the government and the church have very much the same stand on many issues like in politics, preservation of peace and developing and helping communities. - Wenna A. Berondo