PGMA to reaffirm RP participation in UN negotiations for new climate change protocol
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is expected to reaffirm the Philippines participation in and commitments to
the on-going United Nations negotiations for a new climate change protocol.
The President is scheduled to meet this afternoon with Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) who is expected to brief her on the progress of the
climate change negotiations.
Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change and Philippines’ delegation head to the
UNFCCC Secretary Heherson Alvarez said Yvo de Boer will arrive today in Manila.
Alvarez said the UN climate change chief will also discuss with the President how a new climate change
protocol will affect the Philippines.
With only three months to go, world leaders from more than 180 nations will forge an agreement that will
contain what may be mankind’s largest challenge in the 21st century--a new global treaty on climate change.
The United Nations climate-change conference is scheduled to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in
December. A potential successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, it will attempt to hammer
out a new international treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, .
At the Bonn meeting in June, developing nations demanded that rich countries agree to deeper emissions
cuts and pledge fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change and pay for clean-energy technology.
Alvarez noted that member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have agreed in
principle to make in a common stand to fight climate change, and have called for bold and significant cuts in
greenhouse-gas emissions by developed countries.
“Science tells us clearly that we must stabilize global emissions within the next 10 to 15 years,” Alvarez said.
After that “any remedy will become very, very expensive.”
The Philippines had earlier submitted a position paper asking industrialized countries to cut their CO2
emissions by more than 30 percent to 40 percent from 2013 to 2017 and by more than 50 percent from 2018
to 2022, using the 1990 levels as jump off point.
“The deep and early cut will moderate, if not avert, the increasing number of destructive storms brought about
by global warming,” Alvarez added.
Alvarez also said the Philippines proposed two five-year commitment periods, from 2013-2017 and 2018-
2022, and expressed flexibility and willingness to consider the proposal by the Alliance of Small Island States
or AOSIS for a single five-year commitment period, but objected to an eight-year commitment period as being
too long.
The Kyoto protocol, which took effect on February 16, 2005, is an international agreement that sets a target
reduction of GHG emissions for 37 industrialized countries and European communities from 2008 to 2012.
Specifically, it requires an average reduction of five percent from the GHG emission recorded in 1990. To aid
the countries in achieving their targets, the Kyoto Protocol allows “emissions trading” or the selling of excess
allowable emission of carbon dioxide of a country to another country that is still behind its target reduction of
GHG emission.
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Record 1.25-M Filipinos get free medical treatment in a day from PCSO
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The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) reported to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today that a
record 1.25 million Filipinos were given free medical treatment in just one day.
The President was the guest of honor at the 75th anniversary celebration of the PCSO at its main office on E.
Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City this morning.
PCSO general manager Rosario Uriarte attributed the success of last Sunday’s “100 Percent in One Day” free
feeding and medical and dental mission to the thousands of volunteers who trooped to medical mission sites
nationwide.
Uriarte said thousands of doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and health workers from both the public and
private sectors responded to the President’s call for volunteers.
In her call, the President said there is a pressing need for the private sector to join the government in the effort
to cushion the impact of the financial crisis on the poor and the needy.
Uriarte said the 1.25 million figure represents only 60 percent of the one-day health services program
accomplishment.
She told the President PCSO is still awaiting the reports from Western Visayas, Northern and Central Luzon,
Southern Tagalog and Bicol areas.
“I am very confident, Madam President, that the beneficiaries from your project may reach more than two
million,” Uriarte said.
The beneficiaries in the one-day mission even surpassed the total number of patient/beneficiaries of the
medical, dental and special missions under the Community Outreach Program of the PCSO from 1995-2008
recorded at 1,026,719. Eighty three percent of these patients, or 851,254, were served in 2001 to 2008.
At the PCSO grounds, the President then conferred the President Medal of Merit on Uriarte for her outstanding
service since she became vice chairman and general manager of the PCSO.
The President, assisted by Vice President Noli de Castro and PCSO Chairman Sergio Valencia, also
distributed certificates of lot allocation (CELAs) to the 624 qualified employee-beneficiaries of the PCSO
housing sites in Taytay, Rizal and Antipolo City.
The President also awarded three ambulances to Escalante City Mayor Melecio Yap; Bulacan 1st District
Representative Ma. Victoria Alvarado; and Kalayaan, Laguna, Mayor Teodoro Adao Jr.
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PGMA orders 4% hike of 2010 GDP growth target
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the Development Budget Coordinating Council (DBCC) to upgrade
the country’s 2010 gross domestic product (GDP) growth target to four percent from the initial growth range of
2.6 percent to 3.6 percent. (GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced in the country. It does not
include overseas remittances by Filipino workers).
The Presidential directive was reported by Augusto Santos, director general of the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA), during a recess in the Cabinet meeting held at the newly renovated Bureau of
Immigration and Deportation (BID) Building in Intramuros. He said the President found the initial growth range
very conservative.
“Considering that 2010 is a presidential election year, political spending will trigger bigger growth,” Santos
disclosed, citing the 0.34 percent contribution of political spending to GDP during the 2007 non-presidential
election. Pump-priming gains significance since the President wants to complete all the pending
infrastructure projects initiated by her administration before her term ends in mid-2010.
Santos was so confident in the ability of the economy to grow that he recommended a downscaled stimulus
package for next year. Such confidence runs contrary to the position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
which cautions emerging countries such as the Philippines not to pull the stimulus plug too early.
To achieve faster GDP growth, Santos said “we must encourage consumers to spend more, in as much as
global indications point to improving economic conditions in major markets.”
Santos added the global scenario has improved, explaining the global economic condition is not a “U” or “V”
kind of recovery from recession but a “W” or double increase or double decrease type of recovery path.
“The IMF says the global economy is improving. An astute investor, billionaire Warren Buffet, says the US
economy is now out of the emergency room and is on the path to recovery. Japan has posted positive growth
after five consecutive quarters of decline. India and China are also growing,” he said.
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Govt pushes passage of LPG Law
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The government is accelerating the passage of the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) Law which aims to protect
consumers from unscrupulous traders.
The measure is one of the most keenly anticipated by consumers as LPG is a common household good
whose price affects every Filipino family.
LPG accounts for six percent of refinery products. The imported supply of the country’s LPG still occupies a
sizable 60 percent of market volume.
Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the LPG Law now pending in Congress, will strengthen the Energy
Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) police powers against the illegal supply of LPG, mainly involving the
underfilling of cylinders.
At present, companies supplying LPG are only required to inform government of their registration.
The underfilling rate of unscrupulous suppliers reach as much as 30 percent. Government also wants to crack
down on the unsafe supply of LPG cylinders. Leakage in LPG tanks accounts for 30 percent of causes of fire,
according to Reyes.
The LPG Law is preceded by the Biofuels Act, which seeks to promote the use of environment-friendly fuels
like bio-ethanol and bio-diesel. Over the long term, this will displace imported fuel, thereby enhancing job
generation from the supply of local biofuel feedstocks and reducing foreign exchange consumption.
To further protect customers, Reyes said government is carrying out an information campaign on the effective
use of bioethanol. Bioethanol, he said, is used only on vehicles that use fuel injection (system for mixing fuel
with air in internal combustion engine used in gasoline engines beginning the 1980s). It should not be used
on vehicles using carburetors, an older fuel injection system that are still used in older vehicles.
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