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Saturday, March 15, 2008
Cabinet members told to do social service on Holy Week (2:16 p.m.)
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered her Cabinet officials to spend the Holy Week in their respective provinces, extending social services to the needy and preaching her administration's gospel of social payback.
Arroyo gave the orders through Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo, who presided over the Cabinet Assistance System meeting in Malacaņang.
Saludo said after a spiritual retreat at the San Miguel Church on Monday, the Cabinet members will conduct rice and relief distribution, conditional cash transfer and other needed services in their respective bailiwicks.
He said Arroyo's instruction is to assure the needy that food is always available to the ordinary Filipinos at low prices because government now has the resources to improve social services.
He said the poor should be told that the social payback is the results of their sacrifices in helping government address the country's fiscal imbalance particularly through the payment of higher value added taxes (VAT).
Saludo said the President has ordered the opening of more Bagsakan Centers, Barangay Food Terminals, and Tindahan Natin outlets in other needy areas in Rizal, Bulacan, and Laguna provinces to ensure adequate supply of low-priced rice and other basic commodities.
He said other programs that Arroyo approved include: improvement of rice and corn production, propagation of goats and native carabaos under the livestock expansion program, upland distribution of agro-forestry development projects, jobs creation through the promotion of government job placement programs in schools, and the improvement of revenue collection efforts to sustain the country's strong fiscal position.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said President Arroyo and her family would spend the Holy Week in Baguio City.
Arroyo will go up to Baguio City on Tuesday to attend the graduation ceremonies of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and stay there until Easter Sunday. Before the PMA graduation, the President would attend the Serbisyo Muna caravan at Malasiqui, Pangasinan. (JMR/Sunnex) |
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