GMA: The best is yet to come

Emerging triumphant from several attempts to oust her, President Arroyo will unveil an ambitious economic recovery plan when she faces Filipinos tomorrow for her sixth State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress.

The plan, which she envisions as the foundation for a "First-World Philippines" that will emerge in the next two decades, calls for dividing the country into economic regions, each capitalizing on its strengths. Mrs. Arroyo believes this will spread economic development to remote areas.

"It is like I am going to do four or five mini-SONAs," she told a television interview late Friday. "I’ll talk about what has been done, what we are doing and what is yet to be done on our sub-economies."

Mrs. Arroyo’s address will be accompanied by a visual presentation to outline her economic agenda, Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said.

"You will be impressed with her knowledge and what she has in store for every town in the country. She can point out that a port should be in this and that place. She really has a plan," Defensor told reporters.

"This is where you will see her expertise. She knows the overall development of the country, how to connect (economic areas) to each other and create one super economy," Defensor added.

Mrs. Arroyo also will have so-called "people’s champions" as special guests to highlight the potential of the Filipino, Defensor said. He hinted that they could be the recent recipients of the Order of Lakandula award with the rank of Champion for Life, of which boxing champion Manny Pacquiao was the first awardee. Defensor refused to give details, except telling reporters to "just wait and see."

Mrs. Arroyo’s economic development plan calls for grouping the country’s 16 regions into four economic regions or "sub-economies" that she said "goes beyond political boundaries and goes toward the direction of economic boundaries."

These four economic regions were designated as North Luzon, Metro Luzon, Central Philippines and Mindanao.

North Luzon will be comprised of the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley and Cordillera Administrative Region, and the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Aurora.

Metro Luzon will be made up of Central Luzon, Metro Manila and Calabarzon, while the regions of Bicol, Mimaropa, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas and Western Visayas will make up the Central Philippines.

Mindanao will have all the regions in the country’s second-largest island.

Further, Mrs. Arroyo has identified one more sub-economy, a "fifth region that cuts across the length of the four mega regions — from Baguio City in the north to Davao City in the south and that is the cyber corridor-like information and communications technology or ICT," which are composed of call centers and other business process outsourcings.

Mrs. Arroyo said the idea of grouping the regions into economies is to capitalize on the "natural competitive advantage" of each, all identified by local officials.

The national government will work closely with regional development councils, she said, giving recognition to their knowledge of local conditions.

Up to P100 billion in government funding will be allotted annually, to be divided equally among the four economic regions to be invested in education, infrastructure, industrial development and social services to tap each region’s market potentials and attract foreign investment.

Mrs. Arroyo envisions the North Luzon and Mindanao economic regions as the country’s agri-business centers in the north and south, respectively.

Metro Luzon will become a commercial and trade center while Central Philippines will lean on its tourism potential.

Mrs. Arroyo hopes that poor provinces will benefit from their developed neighbors in their economic groupings.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the economic plan will rely heavily on cooperation from local government units. "I think there’s a political undertone here. This is national-local partnership, and then you can see the trend also to distributing the powers more to the countryside."

Local officials also see the economic recovery plan as "empowerment" of local governments that have long complained of interference from "Imperial Manila," Bunye said.

Defensor said Mrs. Arroyo has been working late on her speech for the past nights. "We are there to provide the data and to provide the input but she’s doing everything. And if we continue like this for a month I will be part of the poverty threshold."

Mrs. Arroyo called it a day yesterday at 5 a.m. and went over her speech again after lunch.

"She’s not rehearsing yet. She wants to rehash and check the speech. She’s finishing it, she’s typing it, she does not want anyone to type it," Defensor said.

Defensor said he and Presidential Management Staff chief Arthur Yap have been on standby, ready to make calls when Mrs. Arroyo asks for information.

"It’s unbelievable," he said. "She was calling us up this (Saturday) afternoon because she needed more data. I have no idea how many hours she slept. We have problems with the data. She wants everything to be accurate. If you are a Cabinet secretary and you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re in trouble."

Cabinet officials were questioned several times by Mrs. Arroyo about data and lectured when information didn’t seem right. "You should know what you’re talking about," Defensor said.

Overall, Mrs. Arroyo seemed happy that her figures and data in her speech are accurate, he added.

"As an example, I am personally elated at the fact that 2.4 million families have been lifted from poverty," he said.

"The opposition, the only arguments they can have against us are emotional. As far as the numbers are concerned, we have solid foundation and basis to say that the economy and the social situation would show that somehow things are looking up."