PRESIDENT Arroyo on Wednesday expressed hope that government efforts to shield the country from the world financial crisis would lead to a more prosperous Philippines in 2009, even with the global downturn expected to be hardest felt in the first half of the year.
“For 2009, first and foremost, I wish for peace, progress and prosperity for the people of the nation. . . I hope that the efforts we are making to eliminate poverty and to improve the lives of our people will continue to bear fruit and that these efforts will pave the way to the creation of a more prosperous Philippines,” the President said in her New Year message.
She said that 2008 “was tumultuous for the world due to the global economic recession that, thankfully, has not become a crisis in the Philippines.”
So, she added, “I pray for greater peace and stability. I hope that we can all work together as a global community to weather these storms.”
On New Year’s Eve, the President distributed Christmas gift baskets to Baguio City’s urban poor at the Mansion House grounds after an interview with the local media.
She also inaugurated the newly rehabilitated Baguio-Aritao Road linking the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Cagayan Valley via the provinces of Benguet in the CAR and Nueva Vizcaya in Region II.
A Palace press statement said the 104-kilometer Baguio-Aritao Road is the shortest alternative route between the provinces of Isabela, Quirino, and Nueva Vizcaya in the east, and the provinces of Benguet, La Union, and Ilocos Sur in the west.
In an interview with the media in Baguio City, the President said the Philippines was fortunate as the government had “worked hard” enough to need only an economic-resiliency plan and not a contingency plan to help it weather the global financial crisis next year.
Before the Christmas holidays, the economic team presented to the President an “economic sustainability plan” or an operational plan that would help the Philippines attain the higher end of its 3.7-4.7 percent target growth in 2009.
The country’s economic managers had earlier said that the Philippines does not need a contingency plan or a recovery plan as so far, all it needs to do is to sustain and improve its economic gains.
The plan involves fast-tracking easy-to-implement, job-generating infrastructure projects, especially in the crucial first six months of 2009.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement that 2008 tested the “tenacity” of the government and the public to meet the challenges posed by high food and fuel prices, among others.
Note:
They better pray hard for the crisis not to hit the Philippines which is a US dependent economy.
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