PGMA hails AFP role in Barangay Kalayaan projects
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PORAC, Pampanga – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo congratulated today the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) for their various missionary projects here, particularly in helping bring down the classroom
backlog in the remote barangays of this municipality, one of the most devastated towns in the 1991 eruption of
Mt. Pinatubo.
The President inspected government projects under the Kalayaan Barangay Program, a local peace building
initiative intended to put an end to the decades-old communist insurgency and usher in peace and
development in poverty-stricken rural barangays of the country.
The President inspected the school buildings established by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) 355th Aviation
Engineering Wing in Barangay Babo Sacan and the upland barangay of Villa Maria which is inhabited mostly
by the Aeta indigenous people.
The President was accompanied during the project inspection by Public Works Secretary Hermogenes
Ebdane, Porac Mayor Rogelio Santos, Cabinet Officer for Region 3 Secretary Edgardo Pamintuan, Local
Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) Chairman Prospero Pichay, and Col. Pedro Rieza Jr., commander of the
PAF 355th Aviation Engineering Wing.
She also inspected the school building for the Aeta graders at the Villa Maria Integrated School which now
enjoys a 1:24 classroom-student ratio.
“One of the best student-to-classroom ratio,” the President commented.
Joan Duya, a Grade 5 pupil of the Villa Maria Integrated School, told the President that they used to share a
classroom with lower grade pupils before the new school building was constructed.
The President told Joan that she would no longer have to walk an hour going to school, as she instructed
Mayor Santos and local school officials to put up a satellite school near her residence in Barangay Diaz on the
other side of the mountain from Barangay Villa Maria.
Before going to Villa Maria, the President also told Rieza to hasten the completion of 32 other Barangay
Kalayaaan projects in the remote barangays including electrification, potable water supply and school
building projects.
The President likewise inspected the 1.45-kilometer farm-to-market road which was constructed by the PAF
last December. The rural roadway has been a big help to the 500 residents of Barangay Babo Pangulo and
the Aetas in upper barangays in bringing their agricultural produce to the market.
In Barangay Villa Maria, government agencies conducting a PGMA caravan also distributed vegetable seeds,
PhilHealth cards and conducted medical, dental and feeding missions for some 100 Aeta families.
The President and her party then proceeded to inspect the Kalayaaan school building project in Barangay
Sacan which has now a 1:39 classroom-student ratio.
At the school grounds, the President also led the distribution of PhilHealth cards, scholarship certificates from
the Technical education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), one hand tractor, 10 sprayers and
shredders, and certified palay and vegetable seeds for the residents and farmers of Porac.
Afterwards, the President inspected the water system project that has benefited 900 households in Barangay
Planas, one of the three Barangay Kalayaan water projects completed by the AFP last December in the
barangay.
Other projects completed by the PAF 355th Aviation Engineer Wing since 2007 under the Kalayaan program
were school buildings in Barangays Sepung Bulaon, Camias and Pio; and a farm-to-market road in Barangay
Sapang Uwak.
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PGMA turns over P5-million check for water supply project in Porac barangaY
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PORAC, Pampanga - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo turned over today P5-million for the rehabilitation of
an old waterwell and the installation of water distribution pipes that would benefit some 900 households in
Barangay Hacienda Dolores here.
The President turned over the check to Porac Water District (PWD) General Manager Gil Manalastas. The
allocation is part of the P10-million budget of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) for the pipe-
laying works and rehabilitation of the old water tank donated to the town by the Japanese government.
Assisting the President during the groundbreaking rites are LWUA Chairman Prospero Pichay, Porac Mayor
Rogelio Santos, Cabinet Officer for Region 3 Secertary Edgardo Pamintuan, and Hacienda Dolores Barangay
Chairman Emilio Sarmiento.
Pichay said the P10-million allocation is part of the P1.5-billion subsidy provided by the President for LWUA’s
potable water projects all over the country.
Idle for the past two years, the water tank is being renovated while water pipelines are being readied to
provide potable water to the barangay residents who have been largely dependent on nearby streams and
rainwater for their daily water needs.
Mayor Santos said a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is now being finalized between LWUA and Porac
WaterWorks for the rehabilitation and turnover of the maintenance of the reservoir.
During her visit here, the President also inspected the farm-to-market road and school building projects of the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) under the Barangay Kalayaan program.
Santos thanked the President for her support for their urgent projects such as drainage and flood-control
systems, school buildings, rehabilitation of irrigation canals, farm-to-market roads and other support
mechanisms for agricultural production, particularly in the remote villages of Porac.
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PGMA says call center agent "glamour job of this generation"
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PORAC, Pampanga – Residents here thanked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for providing them with
alternative means of livelihood under the scholarship grants of the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority (TESDA).
The President led the distribution of TESDA scholarship certificates, PhilHealth cards, and various farm
implements for Porac residents on Monday afternoon at the Barangay Sacan Elementary School here.
Saturnina Enriquez, 22-year-old student at the Holy Angel Academy in Angeles City who lives in Barangay
Planas here, told the President that she had recently undergone the TESDA summer training program for call
center agents.
“The glamour job of this generation,” the President said.
Enriquez told the President that a P13,000-a-month job awaits her come June 22 as a call center agent at the
UPS in Clark.
Emilio Manguera, a father of two who works at the Mekeni Food Corporation here, told the President that he
would soon receive P85,000 to P100,000 a month in Canada after undergoing the slaughtering/butchering
training conducted by TESDA.
The scholarship grants that the two beneficiaries received are part of the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's
Training for Work Scholarship Project (PGMA-TWSP) under TESDA.
The scholarship program aims to provide and upgrade the employment/skills/competencies of poor but
deserving out-of-school youth and unemployed adults to prepare them for jobs here and abroad.
The TESDA scholarship grants include welding, masonry, carpentry, automotive servicing, plumbing,
electrician, electronic technician, computer programmer, computer service technician, household service
worker, and commercial cooking, among others.
As part of the government's economic sustainability program and to pump-prime the economy in the midst of
the financial crisis, the President has initially allocated P2 billion, with an open line of P3 billion, for the PGMA-
TWSP scholarship grants.
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Statement of Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita: PGMA thanks Congress for go-signal to
increase gov't worker's pay
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has expressed her gratitude to both houses of Congress for giving her the
authority, through a Joint Resolution, to implement a new compensation program for government employees
that will increase salaries by an average of 50 percent spread over four years, while setting the minimum
wage if civil servants higher than those of their private sector counterparts starting next month.
Aimed at attracting skilled and competent personnel to work in government and retaining them on the long-
term, as well as assuaging the economic conditions of the government’s workforce, the new program will
raise salaries of teachers and nurses, and doctors on entry by 54 percent and 84 percent, respectively.
The impact of such a program will be such that by July 1, 2009, the daily minimum wage of P402 of
government workers, consisting of basic salary and the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA), will be
higher than that of their private sector counterparts which remains P382.
All government personnel of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches; Constitutional Commissions;
State colleges and universities, government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCC), government’s
financial institutions (GFI), and local government units (LGU) will be covered by the program.
The initial implementation covering national government, GOCC, and GFI employees will begin on July 1,
2009. Local government workers, on the other hand, will have to wait for six (6) months, on January 1, 2010, to
enjoy the initial benefits.
Funds to be used for national government workers will be charged against specific allocations under the
2009 Appropriations Act, while those for local government workers will be sourced from their respective local
funds, based on their income class and subject to limitations on personnel services as provided under the
Local Government Code.
Similarly, GOCCs and GFIs shall tap their corporate funds under their approved corporate operating budgets
to implement the program. If funds are insufficient, GOCCs and GFIs will have to partially implement the
established rates of increase for the year.
Allowances under the new compensation program are to be rationalized and categorized as follows: Standard
Allowances and Benefits (i.e., PERA, and year-end bonus and cash gifts); Specific Purpose Allowances and
Benefits (i.e., representation and transportation allowance; subsistence allowance, hazard pay); and
Incentives (i.e., loyalty incentive, anniversary bonus, and productivity enhance incentive).
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