Daghang salamat. Daghang salamat Secretary Jess Dureza, ang atong Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process ug ang atong Cabinet Officer for Regional Development sa Region 11.

I’d like to greet also his fellow cabinet member, Bayani Fernando, our MMDA Chairman;(Applause) And I’m very happy to be able to sign the law on the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund whose principal sponsor is Senator Edgardo Angara; (Applause) And Congressman Baja Mitra; (Applause) may I greet our host congressmen here in Davao City: Congressman Vince Garcia (Applause) and Congressman Sid Ungab; (applause) And of course our host for this affair, the Mayors’ League of the Philippines headed by Mayor Monching Guico, president. (Applause) And Mayor Mon Abalos, President LMP Mindanao; (Applause) I would also like to greet our soldiers headed by General Ding Luna, our East Mindanao Commander; (Applause) and our policemen headed by General Andy Karo. (Applause) And governor Cora Malanyaon of Davao Oriental. (Applause) I’d like to greet also DILG Assistant Secretary Panadero; (Applause) And all of you tanang atong mga mayors na nakaanhi din... Mga taga-Mindanao, maayong hapon kaninyong tanan.

Una sa tanan, daghang salamat sa inyong padayon nga pagsuporta kanako. (Applause) Salamat sa resolusyon gihatag ninyo agikan Mayor Abalos, thank you very much. (Applause) Salamat Sab sa tema: “Unity Amidst Diversity Towards Genuine Peace, Progress and Countryside Development.”

And that’s why I’m very happy to be here to sign the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund extension because that is a key to peace, process and countryside development. We’ve decided to do the signing here even if it’s a session day and most of the other congressmen... Oh! May I also, I’m sorry. I’d like to thank OIC Mayor Ortis for your kind words of welcome. (Applause) Okay. And well, we decided to have the signing of this bill into law here in the League of Municipalities Convention for Mindanao even if it’s a session day and most of the congressmen are in Manila for the session because our Super Region creates five major regions and two of them are agri-business regions. The Northern Luzon and Mindanao which is agribusiness. And we wanted to sign this bill here in front of you so that our mayors from all over Mindanao will be able to witness yet another means of helping your constituents, the farmers in your municipal list become competitive. Of course, the northern islands of Mindanao are tourism islands, that’s their part of another Super Region. But that will be another way of helping them. The agricultural competitiveness enhancement fund is to help our agricultural sector and also it is a means to spread development away from an inequitable concentration in metro manila.

I’m very happy to be here also to have included in your program and thank you for allowing us to include in your program our honoring our soldiers -- the soldiers and our policemen. The soldiers who are able to have a very important victories in our battle against terrorism, like our soldiers who caught the Jemaah Islamiyah international terrorists and this has made this island even more peaceful. The soldiers who have been wounded, the soldiers who have died or the soldiers who have won in the battles against the NPA and the civilians who helped them do it. It only stresses that we have advanced the process of peace in Mindanao to a new level of engagement, and many of you are involved in this new level of engagement. It’s focused not only on fighting but on interfaith dialogue on economic development and mutual security. And we have been able to focus on this new level of development with the largest possible international involvement and many of the mayors of Mindanao are witnesses to this new level of engagement. I was looking at the mayor of Barira here where Camp Abubakar is located and I just want to let you know, Mayor, that there is, right now a Singaporean group here in Davao and they are looking for 3,000 hectares of land for banana plantations. (Applause) and maybe Camp Abubakar will be a beautiful place to host them. (Applause)In any case, they are here because we have such a big market for bananas now in the world. We’re number one in Japan, number one in China, number one in the Middle East and these are huge markets. And that is all part of Agribusiness Mindanao. We thank Mindanao for your contribution to our strong and growing economy.

A strong and growing economy is the central pillar that together you -- the mayors, our legislators and I have labored to create, to help guarantee peace and order and stability in our country especially in Mindanao. That’s what the new level of engagement or peace is all about. If we want peace, we have to have development. This is our motive for getting up every day to work hard and focus like a laser beam to fix our economy. We have made tough and unpopular decisions, tax reforms to raise revenues and crack down on tax cheats so that we could invest in our physical infrastructure and in our people. I am glad that our speakers earlier recognize that the more value added tax we collect, the more the internal revenue allotment becomes bigger. (Applause)

Of course, we are in a world where there is a lot of economic uncertainty. The high price of gasoline and everyday commodities hits our poor the hardest. This hits Mindanao because seven of the ten poorest provinces in the country are in Mindanao. While the high price of oil is a global issue outside the control of government, we have nevertheless taken and will continue to take actions to reduce the pain on the people of these high prices. We have cut tariffs on oil. We have begun providing targeted cash payments to the poorest of our poor, especially in the seven poorest provinces in Mindanao to help them cope. For instance, we started this conditional cash transfer in the province of Misamis Occidental in the town of Lopez Jaena. And we also have extended this to Agusan Del Sur in the town of Esperanza. We started 2007 with 7,000 families, we hope to reach at least 150,000 families this year the poorest of the poor. And I hope that the seven of the ten provinces in the country who are the poorest, the seven here in Mindanao will soon begin to feel this assistance from the tax revenues that we have all worked to be able to pass into law.

And today, we signed the law to extend the agricultural competitiveness enhancement fund up to the year 2015 to help the farmers and the agribusinessmen especially the small agribusinessmen, many of whom are in Mindanao, become more competitive and improve their lives.

Paagi sa ACEF, ang mga kaayuhan gikan sa atong paglambo mubalik sa katawhan pinaagi sa pagpadaghan sa higayon aron modako ang ani ang makabutang ang katawhan ug igong pagkaon sa ilang mga mesa.

Paagi sa ACEF, ang buot ipasabot sa pagpamuhunan sa katawhan mao nga makakita ug makagamit ang mga Pilipino labi ng mga taga-Mindanao ug mga proyekto ug serbisyo nga maoy mo-ayo sa inyong kinabuhi, labi na gayod ang kinabuhi sa labing kabos nga daghan nga mang-uuma. Bu-ot sab ipasabot niini nga padaghanon ug siguruhong mahuman ang labing kinahanglanong imprastraktura sa agrikultura nga maoy modani ug mga inbestor sa agribusiness, sama sa mga investor sa gikan sa Singapore, nagingkon kanina kay sila ang mogama ug mga bag-ong trabaho alang sa mga ordinaryong lumulupyo.

Ang ACEF mahatabang sa pagdaghan sa pondo sa nasod, and earlier, when we we’re having an interview in the airport, we were asked by Edith Regalao of Philstar, how much is this going to be? Well, it depends on what is the difference between the way it works is, when we use to have quantitative restrictions, that only so much of a particular product can come in. Beyond that, it cannot come in. Now what we’ve done is beyond that amount, it can come in but at a higher tariff and that higher tariff is the source of the agricultural competitiveness enhancement fund. And so it depends therefore on how much we can collect. But the estimated Baja was giving me earlier in the plane is about 6 billion pesos. And of the 6 billion pesos tuod kay sa adta nga trenta porsiyento sa atong mga lumpsum, labi na sa agrikutura muadto sa Mindanao of the 6 billion pesos (applause) we will be able to put 2 billion pesos here in Mindanao. Kining 2 billion pesos, kining tibuok nga 6 billion pesos makatabang sa alokasyon nga 200 billion sa imprastraktura, ug apil sa pondohan niining kantidad mao ang farm to market roads, irigasyon alang sa mga probinsiya sa Mindanao nga mo-abot sa 2,000 ka kilometro ang gusto nato nga mahuman sa farm to market road and irrigation, we would like to make sure that we have about 200 million a month times twelve months, that would be for irrigation here in Mindanao.

Pondohan sab niini ang mga importanteng kalsada, pantalan ug airport, agricultural airports aron moabot ang mga produkto sa agrikultura nga paspas ug barato.

Senator Angara has always been telling me about the need for no frills agricultural cargo airports and this ACEF fund hopefully will be able to provide also for that.

That is why I’m honored to sign the ACEF extension in Mindanao, because you are the nation’s food basket. With the ACEF, we can strengthen the infrastructure juggernaut of the P200 billion budget which comes partly from the appropriations act, the government corporations and you the local governments. Apil ining mga proyekto sa infrastructure juggernaut ang pagpatukod ug bag-ong bangkerohan bridge dinhi sa davao aron molu-ag ang trapiko ug aron mopaspas gihapon ang pagdala sa mga produkto sa uma ngadto sa merkado sa bangkerohan. Because this is an important bridge that was destroyed in a previous calamity and therefore we have to rebuild this and this is about P200 million plus. Gangina, gi-iinspect nato ang tulay and I’m glad to hear that this bridge will be finished by August 10.

Kauban sab sa infrastructure juggernaut magpatindog kita ug kapin sa diyes mil ka kwarto sa eskwelahan. Adunay bahin ang Davao City sa mga proyekto sa eskwelahan, ug ang labing bag-o dinhi mao upat ka classroom gigroundbreak naamo kanina sa Sirawan Beach Elementary School sa distrito ni Congressman Ungab dito sa Toril and that is a Muslim community and I’m very happy to hear that I’m one of the few presidents who have been able to visit such a far, far part of the City of Davao (applause) and that’s also the district of OIC mayor, Mayor Ortis.

Ang imprastraktura importante gayod aron masiguro nga igo kanunay ang atong pagkaon pinaagi sa pagpadaghan sa produksiyon ug sa paspas nga pagdala sa merkado. So ginapirmahan nato sa inyong tungod kining balaod sa Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement nga mosiguro nga kanunay mapundohan ang mga aktibidad alang sa agrikultura ug agribusiness. Siguradong dako murag ingong ko kanina ang madawat nga benepisyo sa mga lungsod, laing-laing lungsod sa Mindanao tungod kay ang tibuok isla ang kinadak-ang food producer sa atong nasod.

Gipadak-an nato ang budget sa internal revenue allocation. As Mayor abalos said, you have a bigger IRA because we have bigger value added tax, ug karun tuiga ang allocation P210 billion kini, wala’y labot ang budget sa mga ahensiyang dunay proyekto sa inyong mga lungsod.

Unta seguruhon nga ang 20% sa IRA sa matag LGU, sa matag lungsod gamiton sa mga proyektong direktang makahatag ug paglambo sa inyong lungsod labi na sa pag uswag sa atong mga mang-uuma.

Gisuportahan nato kanunay ang katungod sa LGU nga makadawat sa inyong tibuok IRA. Kun mahinumduman ninyo, wala nako gigamit ang katungod sa presidente nga ung nasa una, yung ...(audio cut).... (applause) usa ka bahin sa IRA isip Local Government Social Equalization Fund, diretso na tanan sa atong mga lungsod. Ug ako sab ang milihok aron mahimong automatic appropriation sa budget ang IRA. So dili na kinahanglan pa nga ma-submit ug laing-laing mga papeles sa dbm. Ug kumahog naman ninyo, gibayran ko sab ang utang nga IRA sa mga miaging administrasyon. Ug gisugo ko na si Secretary of the Budget Nonoy Andaya nga estudyuhan kung unsay paagi aron mabayran ang kulang nga IRA niadtong mga tuig nga re-enacted ang budget sa akong administrasyon. Duha ka tuig.

Gi-anunsyo nako sa Peace Assembly didto sa Tagum nga ihatag gayod sa Mindanao ang 30% sa budget, ug gisugo ko dayon ang DAR, DA ug DENR ug karon ang ACEF nga igahin ang 30% sa budget sa mga programa sa Mindanao.(Applause)

Muhangyo ko nga tumanon ninyo ang inyong saad nga alang sa malungtarong kalinaw sa Mindanao.

Kamo ug ako dunay katungdanan nga angay tumanon: kini mao ang paghatod ug mga serbisyo ug programang makapadayon sa atong pag-uswag. Gasalig ako nga manguna kamo aron kanunay nga sundon sa inyong katawhan ang dalan sa pag-uswag.

Congratulations sa tanang atong mga mayors sa Mindanao, maayong hapon kaninyong tanan.