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4 % GDP RISE: AQUINO The President is mum about concessions gained from the Obama government. By Diony C. Grava and Rene Villaroman LOS ANGELES President Benigno Aquino III, on the last leg of a 7-day official visits to the United Kingdom and the United States, told a large gathering of Filipino Americans at LAX Hilton Hotel, that the Philippines has achieved a 6.4 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the first quarter of 2012, the highest in the entire ASEAN region and the second highest in Asia. From my understanding, this is the second highest in Asia and the highest in Southeast Asia, and this was because of good management, Aquino said in Pilipino. He said this growth was achieved despite the problem in Japan, Thailand, and the Arab Spring. He said that the growth is expected to accelerate in the coming months. The President also mentioned accelerated infrastructure development, including the construction of 30,000 classrooms this year, and low-cost housing units for Philippine soldiers and police personnel. The reason our troops and policemen are having a hard time surviving with their present salaries is because 3000 to 5000 pesos of their monthly salary of 15,000 pesos go to housing expenses. Paano na yung pagkain ng pamilya, tubig, medicine pag maysakit at iba pa? Aquino announced that the government is beginning to alleviate this condition by constructing low-cost housing units for the soldiers and policemen. Our administration has erected 21,800 housing units, initially for these military personnel in Luzon. The next year, the low-cost housing project will be extended to the Visayas and Mindanao areas. We are going to construct 31,200 units for the second phase of this project. Aquino revealed that these housing units will be amortized at 200 pesos a month for the first 25 years. On the 25th year, the amortization is expected to be 1000 pesos. I think that it is still a very good and very reasonable deal, he said. The Philippine president lamented that his administration is being hobbled by the excesses of the past administration, citing, for instance, the importation of pre-fabricated bridges costing 11.7 billion pesos, even before they have established which rivers the bridges would be built on. He revealed that the past administration signed the contract authorizing the importation of those bridges on June 28, 2010, oneand-a-half days before he took over as the 15th President. Tulay ng Pangulo, ang sarap pakinggan, he said, mocking the past administrations importation of the pre-fabricated bridges. kukuha sila ng mga pre-fabricated bridges mula sa mga dayuhang kumpanya. Ang problema, bahala na pagdating ng mga tulay kung saan isasalpak na ilog iyan. Wala talagang awa.

Speaking about the Philippines perennial rice shortage, Aquino said that the countrys agricultural school-- University of the Philippines, Los Banos, and the Central Luzon Agricultural School, and the International Rice Research Institute -- have produced the best foreign students in agriculture. Yet we are still importing rice from those countries that we have educated in developing high-yielding varieties of rice. Now these countries are the ones exporting rice to our country. Aquino said that if the weather conditions cooperate, the government will be able to solve the rice shortage before 2013. This shouldnt have been a problem. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is in Laguna. It is a well-known agricultural school. These foreign, highly-educated agricultural specialists studied rice production at IRRI and the Central Luzon Agricultural School; it is shameful that we are the ones importing rice from their countries, Aquino lamented. Pinipilit na may kakayahan daw tayo taon-taon ng 1.3 metric tons ng bigas. Bakit ba nuong 2010 nagimport sila ng 2 million metric tons. Saan itinambak yung .7 metric tons na excess? Itinambak sa mga warehouse. On infrastructure, Aquino talked about the his governments planned construction of a highway that would cut travel time from Clark Air Base to Calamaba, Laguna province in one hour and 30 minutes by skipping the traffic-choked EDSA. Now two construction companies are trying t o outbid each other to win the right to construct that project. Aquino said this highway would solve the gridlock on the EDSA corridor. Speaking about the results of his two-nation, 7-day trip to the UK and the United States, Aquino was proud about successfully inviting the Prime Minister of England to visit the Philippines. David Cameron will be the first prime minister from England to schedule a visit to the Philippines. The President was mum about the concessions gained from his official trip to Washington. His meeting with President Obama was planned around asking for US assistance to the strengthen the Philippines military capabilities in light of its territorial disputes with China. However, he was silent about those concessions. The US government, a former colonial ruler of the Philippines, as well as a treaty ally since 1951, has embraced the Philippines as part of a policy that makes the Asia-Pacific region the center of US security and economic strategy. The meeting between Aquino and Obama was expected to lay the groundwork for the future of the strategic partnership between the Philippines and the United States, said Jose L. Cuisia, Ambassador to Washington. The US has started helping the Philippines upgrade its notoriously antiquated military hardware and Aquino has agreed to allow greater troop rotations but not set up basesin the archipelago. Manila was seeking to procure more warships, jet fighters and radar surveillance technology to beef up its military.

Aquino also touched on the reasons why the impeachment of Chief Justice Corona became a necessity. Aquino said that the root of the trouble was that Coronas appointment by former President Gloria Arroyo was not only a midnight appointment; its past midnight. It was one week after election. We were not looking for a fight; we were looking for a solution to the problem. Hanapin at tapalan ang mga butas. They were bitter pills, but we had to swallow them. Aquino even jokingly said that Filipinos could be excused if they believed that it was Corona himself that booked the Arroyos flight, and he was also the pilot.