PGMA inspects P500M QC underpass
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Leaving nothing to chance in the implementation of her pet projects, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo saw for
herself the progress of civil works on the P500-million underpass in Novaliches, Quezon City.
The President also presided over a Cabinet meeting in the area, specifically at the Novaliches Barangay Hall, to
underscore the need to complete government infrastructure projects on schedule.
During the meeting, Public Works and Highways Secretary Victor Domingo briefed the President and her
Cabinet on the status of the ongoing construction of the underpass, located at the intersection of Mindanao
Avenue and Quirino Highway in Barangay Talipapa in Sauyo, Novaliches.
The underpass forms part of a larger project. It connects to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Valenzuela
City to Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City, to Circumferential Road 5, and eventually to the South Luzon
Expressway (SLEX) in Bicutan, Taguig City.
The NLEX-Mindanao Avenue linkup embodies the NLEX Phase II project currently implemented by the Manila
North Tollways Corp. (MNTC). It is designed to provide wide access to the 84-kilometer tollway spanning
Balintawak in Caloocan City and Sta. Ines in Mabalacat, Pampanga.
Once completed, the NLEX-Mindanao Avenue-C-5-SLEX interconnection will provide motorists hassle-free travel
to South Luzon and North Luzon since they will be spared the perennial traffic jams in several Metro Manila
chokepoints.
All this is part of the current administration’s flagship project, the Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB), which is meant to
make the country a major logistics and services hub in Asia-Pacific. The region accounts for $1 trillion of the
estimated global logistics value of $3.5 trillion.
Other key components of the ULB project are the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), which provides
seamless travel from Sto. Tomas town in Batangas to Batangas City.
STAR will be made to link up with SLEX, NLEX, and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), a 93.7-
kilometer modern tollway connecting Subic Freeport Zone in Olongapo City, the Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles
City, and the Central Techno Park in Tarlac City.
The road networks facilitate travel between and among the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark,
Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Metro Manila, and other international seaports in Subic Bay and
Batangas City.
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PGMA doubles education budget to P180B a year
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CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – Investment in education has doubled under the current administration.
In a speech delivered this morning at the Real Elementary School in Calamba City, President Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo noted that in 2001, when she assumed office, the budget for state colleges, the Department of Education
(DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
(TESDA) was only P90 billion.
The budget for education this year is P180 billion.
The President was in the school to underscore the thrust of her administration to improve the educational
system and to attain zero drop-out rate in the primary grades.
According to the President, the government, since 2001, has built 100,000 school buildings, hired 60,000
teachers, and increased their monthly salary from P9, 000 to P14,000 a month. It has also allocated P1.5 billion
for teacher’s training in English proficiency.
Largely because of this improvement in the educational system, the President said, test scores went up in the
last four years from 44 percent to 65 percent in elementary schools and 36 percent to 47 percent in secondary
schools.
Still, she pointed out, the quality of education has to improve further. And at no other stage is this needed than in
early childhood.
It is for this reason that the President signed Executive Order 685 in 2008 in compliance with RA 8980, which
mandates state-sponsored childhood care for five-year-olds up to pre-schoolers.
She said research has it “that pre-school is a determinant factor in the performance of Grade I pupils in the
formal education system.”
In her State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last year, the President said that as a teacher herself, she is biased
in favor of the teaching profession. That’s why she has since then allocated more and more funds for education
and skills training.
The President admitted that universal education is one of the most difficult objectives of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDG), saying that almost no country has attained it.
“But we are doing our best,” she stressed, adding that of the total number of classrooms built during her term,
1,000 of them went to remote barangays.
“We also removed miscellaneous fees in the primary school, and made the wearing of student uniforms
optional in public schools,” President Arroyo said.
The President has directed DepEd to coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD) to implement the Early Childhood Care and Development program.
To ensure that even children of the poor stay in school, the President initiated the food-for-school program,
which so far benefited 95,440 children. She also established the 4Ps or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program, with at least a million poor families getting cash assistance for health and education.
“The youth are our hope and inspiration,” the President said. “The government thus works hard to give them a
bright future.”
The government has also provided scholarship to 600,000 students taking under- graduate and post-graduate
courses in private colleges and universities. It has also spend P36 billion in technical education and skills
training.
“I will continue to be a hands-on President until the day I leave office,” she said. “I will work to promote
education, improve the economy, and protect the environment.”
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PGMA: ‘No regrets’ for taking bold economic steps
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President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo maintains that she does not regret being unpopular, stressing that it is the
price to pay for the bold steps she has taken to turn the economy around after assuming the presidency in 2001.
“We never shied away from taking on tough issues. Most notably, my unpopularity dipped when I went against
the grain and championed the passage of the expanded value added tax (E-vat),” the President said in a speech
at the University of Batangas in Batangas City on Monday.
“We knew that E-vat would be unpopular, but someone had to get the nation’s fiscal house in order and bring in
fresh revenues to invest in the people,” the Chief Executive said.
“It was the right thing to do. It has served the people well. We have no regrets,” she stressed.
President Arroyo indicated that the fiscal initiatives “formed the building blocks of change that delivered 36
quarters of continuing economic growth, created nine million jobs, expanded healthcare to cover 52 million
more Filipinos, and bring about financial stability in the country.”
She also dared the cynics and political critics to look at the skyline of Metro Manila, Clark in Pampanga, or Sta.
Rosa, Laguna to see the progress that she was talking about.
“It is a skyline with new, modern buildings, construction cranes, better roads, hotels, shopping malls, and small
businesses. This is part of the Philippines we have helped nurture and create,” the President pointed out.
President Arroyo’s visit to the state-run university was the second leg of her Super Regions tour which started
last week with sorties in the Cyber Corridor, the growth region for information and communication technology
(ICT) and business process outsourcing (BPO).
This week’s swing will cover the Urban Luzon Beltway (ULB), which will be transformed into a globally
competitive logistics and services hub in the Asia-Pacific Region. These areas principally cover the
CALABARZON region composed of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon provinces; Marinduque and
Mindoro provinces; Metro Manila and southern Central Luzon.
To attain this objective, the Arroyo administration embarked on massive infrastructure development program to
provide efficient support services to investors in the ULB areas. This involved the implementation of ambitious
road-building projects, seaport and airport facilities, creation of qualified workforce, modernized mass transport
systems, and sustainable power supply.
The ULB is one of five growth areas called “Super Regions” mapped out under an aggressive development
program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as laid out in Executive EO 561 issued in 2006. ULB is referred
to as the base of the national industries, manufacturing, and trade and commerce and accounts for 55.86
percent of the Philippine economy.
The goal is to transform the ULB into a globally-competitive industrial and services logistics hub, at par with
Singapore and Hong Kong, and tap the potentials of the $3.5 trillion global logistics market of which Asia-Pacific
accounts for about $ 1 trillion.
The major infrastructure investments and initiatives in ULB are:
• Upgrade and development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark with enhanced
capabilities. Since 2003, passenger traffic of 7,880 in 44 international flights have increased to 589,507 in 550
international and 560 local flights.
• The P792-million improvement of the NAIA Terminal 3 Expansion Project with a potential of 13 million
passenger capacity and now serving 170 domestic and international flights and 16,500 passengers daily. The
project eased congestion at NAIA Terminal 1.
• The P8.04-billion Subic Bay Port rehabilitation and expansion, completed in February 2008, which expanded
the ports’ capability to accommodate an additional 600,000 twenty foot-equivalent units (TEUs) and boosted its
competitive advantage against other Asia-Pacific international ports.
• The P6-billion Batangas Port Project, completed in December 2007, which now accommodates Panamax and
post Panamax-size vessels and boosted the port’s capability to 400,000 TEUs and its capacity to service ships
passing through the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
• Two Ro-Ro (roll on-roll off) ports were developed: the P63.37-million Lucena Port completed in November
2007 and the P32.8-million Cawit Port in Boac Marinduque completed in Sept. 2007 to provide access to and
from the capital town of Boac.
• The P20.9-billion Subic-Tarlac Expressway Project completed in April 2008, to include the Floridablanca and
Porac Interchanges, which greatly shortened travel time to Subic, Tarlac and Metro Manila and gave greater
access to movements of people and logistics.
• The ongoing NLEX-Pres. C.P. Garcia (C-5)-SLEX Link Project to promote seamless travel between northern
and southern Metro Manila.
• The SLEX Toll Roads 1 and 2, which widened the expressway from South Manila to Calamba and Toll Road 3
or the Hidden Link which will connect SLEX Calamba to the Sto. Tomas portion of the STAR tollway in Batangas.
Toll Road 3 will connect five expressways spanning Subic, Clark, Metro Manila and the CALABAR industrial
zones and the two main seaports of Batangas and Subic.
• The southbound lane of the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) completed in April 2008, which eased
traffic between Lipa and other Batangas cities
• The P1.57-billion Tarlac-Nueva Ecija-Aurora-Dingalan Port Road completed in December 2009, which
connects SCTEX to Dingalan, Aurora to boost economic activities there.
• The P2.32-billion Marikina-Infanta Road slated for completion in March 2010 to provide economic access to the
potentials of Rizal, Quezon and Laguna provinces.
• The P199.5-million EDSA rehabilitation project completed in May 2009, which improved travel time and safety
conditions along EDSA.
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