In his arrival speech at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Centennial Terminal II, the Chief Executive said officials of top firms from the US, Malaysia and Singapore had expressed their intentions of expanding relations between our countries by pouring more of their respective investments here.

The President noted that company officials wanted to expand their scope of operations in the country due to the renewed vigor and confidence of the Philippines under his administration.

“In the last week during our visit to the United States, we were able to send our message across: the Philippines is open for business,” the President said after deplaning from his commercial flight from San Franciso, USA at around 4 a.m.

President Aquino also said that officials of top US companies Coca-Cola, Pfizer, AES, Hewlett-Packard, JP Morgan Chase, Sutherland Global Services, Inc., Century Properties, General Electric, Headstrong Corporation, SPI Global and Affinity Express have also expressed their desire to open and expand their operations in the country covering a “wide range of sectors such as power generation and consumer products, business and knowledge process outsourcing, healthcare and garments and leather goods.”

“We were able to secure a commitment of at least 43,615 new jobs in the next three years including some 4,500 in construction related jobs and because of the multiplier effect, we estimate some 200,000 more jobs to benefit our countrymen,” he added.

“AES, a global power company, will expand the capacity of the Masinloc power plant by up to 660 megawatts with a project cost of $1-billion,” the President stressed.

“Coca-Cola will invest another billion dollars in their upgrading and replacement of equipment and creation of new products and processes, while the other companies are investing another $400-million,” he said.

According to the President, his visit to the United States “enabled us to generate $2.4-billion in new investments.”

“Furthermore, we received an additional $434-million in the form of a grant from the Millennium Challenge Corporation to expand the coverage of existing social programs that have been performing outstandingly,” he said.

He called on all Filipinos, especially those who continue to criticize his government to put aside their rantings and join him and his government’s advocacy to lift the lives of the citizenry through hard work and perseverance. (PCOO/PIA)

The money was awarded under the US-run Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) that helps developing countries reduce their levels of poverty as long as they meet performance criteria on the rule of law and democratic principles.

Present for the signing was US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

The grant is intended to be used for a road project in Samar province, curb corruption through the modernization program of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) Project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The MCC, an independent United States aid agency, gives five-year compact grants for countries that pass MCC’s eligibility criteria in poverty alleviation, and threshold grants which are smaller grants awarded to countries that come close to passing these criteria and are firmly committed to improving their policy performance.

In 2006, the MCC also awarded the Philippines a $21-million threshold grant to eradicate corruption and attract international investments through the Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Program. (PIA)

The President said the new funding sources are part of the administration’s renewed drive to
garner more funding sources through public-private partnerships.

Without specifying an amount, the President said the World Bank had agreed to provide
fresh funds for the Kalahi-Cidss program, one of three poverty alleviation measures the
government is implementing through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The other two programs are the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which allocates
conditional cash grants to qualified families provided certain requirements concerning
maternal health and the education and health of their children, are met; and the Self
Employment Assistance-Kabayan (SEA-K) – a sustainable livelihood project that aims to
enhance the socio-economic skills of qualified Filipino families.

The President pointed out that the number of additional Filipino families who will get the
chance to improve their lives through the anti-poverty program is still far from his target of
4.6-million families.

President Aquino added that the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an innovative and
independent U.S. foreign aid agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty will
give a total of P5-billion for the Kalahi-Cidss program. (PCOO/PIA)

In an interview, President Aquino said he will be meeting with Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima “who just came back from setting the ground work for the US trip” to discuss the particulars on how “to make the country even more attractive to all of these investors in the hopes of generating all of those jobs.”

The President said that he was informed by US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas upon their first meeting that “there is a serious interest on the part of investors to know what’s in store for them if they invest in the Philippines.”

The President said that aside from pushing for the Philippines as an investment haven, his other itinerary for the US trip will include his attendance to the United Nations General Assembly, witnessing the signing of the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact granting $434-million to the country and meeting with the Philippine Development Foundation (PDF).

He said his meeting with the PDF was to discuss ways of “growing our information technology base of people, engineers and scientists.”

“Because there are Filipinos and Americans of Filipino descent who are into venture-capital industries and they are movers and shakers of that industry. They find it difficult to invest in the Philippines primarily because we lack the human resources to meet the needs of industries in that category,” the President said.

When asked if he would hold talks with US President Barack Obama, President Aquino said that the details were “still being finalized.” (PIA-Bohol)

Early this week, the national government sent to Bohol an entourage of key Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) officials to Bohol to let them pore through Bohol program framework for poverty reduction.

MCC, a subsidiary corporation of the United States Government has been granting multi-year agreements in funding programs aimed at reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth for low income countries across the globe.

Bohol, like many provincial governments and like many poor nations, vies for MCC funds when the Philippines has become eligible for the US help.

The country’s MCC eligibility was attained after the government instituted anti-corruption measures which gained a high MCC rating. Putting up anti corruption measures is a key country performance indicator before it becomes eligible for MCC funding.

The Philippine anti-corruption measure was accepted despite a low rating on investing in people.

Not to be left out this time, Bohol attempts to allow its 231,976 public school enrollees to widen their classroom knowledge by connecting them to the vast information superhighway accessible in the world-wide web.

The Bohol project, which would also be co-shared by local governments concerned proposed for equipment procurement, information management system set-up, training, support services and studies as well as program implementation, says Provincial Planning and Development Officer John Titus Vistal during an MCC interaction at the Capitol recently.

Consistent with the local governments 10 point agenda, other Bohol projects for MCC funding include the Rice Accelerated Emergency Response (RACER) for rice sufficiency, Livestock Integration for Food and Family Enhancement (LIFFE) an innovative livestock dispersal project, Skills Trainings Advocating Reliance and Self-Employment (STAR) a barangay based job generation project and Bohol Employment Placement Office job generation agenda.

Also proposed are environment protection projects in the Private Sector Assistance in Land Management (PSALM) and mari-culture zones establishment.

For the health programs, Bohol proposes for hospital laboratory equipment upgrading and flagship hospital projects as well as its province-wide anti-rabies campaigns. (PIA-Bohol by Rey Anthony Chiu)

The Bohol visit though, is no indication that Bohol’s priority anti-poverty development projects would automatically funnel funds from the multi-million dollar grants portfolio that the MCC has been granting to the world’s countries thrashing out of poverty, MCC Vice President John Hewko says.

He stressed however that the Philippine is already eligible and a core team in Manila actually decides which projects, sectors or geographic area can be granted aid in the Philippines.

The Philippines has lately achieved MCC grant eligibility and all local development efforts needing assistance now compete for it.

On the other hand, Department of Finance Undersecretary Roberto Tan assured that the Philippine government would like to be very broad in its consultations to be able to come out with a framework that has the most impact to communities.

The MCC in Bohol also immerses the bigwigs of the US grant agency to the development innovations in Bohol, one which was presented to them by Provincial planning and Development Officer Atty. John Titus Vistal.

Hewko lauded Bohol presentation calling it excellent, and one of the best in their 20 or more provincial and city government interactions across the globe.

With the rave, hopes still remain high as MCC’s hinted that Bohol could hold an ace in its attempt to dip into MCC fund sources. MCC saw that its goals are consistent with Bohol’s development priorities.

In another show of unity and support, both Governor Erico Aumentado along with Capitol department heads and Vice Governor Hererra with his flank of legislators sat through the entire interaction held at the Chatto Conference Hall May 14.

In another presentation, Hewko cited that their corporation aims to provide greater resources to countries that are taking responsibilities in their own development.

He added that their assistance jibes with development as a key pillar in US policy aims.

According to Hewko, the MCC is a United States Government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world.

MCC, he said is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom and investments in people.

Its mission is to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth.

Citing local efforts, MCC said they are into helping countries with sound governance and economic policies, broad country ownership of development efforts and with clear objectives, measurable results and with a high level of transparency.

Bohol has all of these in place, MCC officials said after the presentation. (rachiu/PIA)