Francis Escudero Quotes

And why the need for a tightrope balancing act in the execution of the FY 2015 national budget, particularly with respect to the Supreme Court decision on the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program?

It is accepted fact that the world has been moving from an economy of goods to an economy of knowledge. And knowledge is the single most important resource to any advanced society.

• Special Provision on the Provision and Maintenance of Basic Educational Facilities was amended to reflect changes in the distribution of the appropriations and the inclusion of an amount for the annual payment of school buildings constructed by the NHA. Likewise, the said provision also allows the DepEd to deduct a 0.5% engineering and administrative overhead (EAO) on the project cost.

Aside from pump priming our economy, we would be bringing down the cost of transportation and opening up those areas of our country which have not been developed.

In victory and more especially in defeat, we should stand behind and be proud of Pacquiao. He has nothing to be ashamed of. Pacquiao gave it his all. It just so happened that Marquez was the better boxer, at least for today. My congratulations to him.

Mr. President, distinguish colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.

In this highly competitive world, there is a crying need for the government to assure that schools in the country, for one, are able to produce graduates who have the capability to find quality work that mostly requires a sufficient level of technology skills.

We need then to pull together, like the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and take stock of the situation. For, today is not business as usual. The times demand that we set aside personal agendas for the urgent task at hand: that of leading our people in overcoming the difficult times in the days ahead.

Like the late former president Cory Aquino, whose recent demise we mourn, Suu Kyi has fearlessly demonstrated her steely resolve not to be intimidated by those who seek to snuff out the light of freedom, and have chosen instead to wage war rather than promote peace.

This is where I would like to bring up the subject of equity. Economic statistics show that although there has been GDP growth over the past 23 years, the number of families living in poverty has increased - up to about 5 million families or 27.6 million people. This demonstrates that benefits of that growth have accrued to the wealthy. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. This is clearly unacceptable to all of us.

We must give our children the equal opportunity to develop their minds and bodies to the fullest. We will continue, even expand, the conditional cash transfers (or CCT's) to the poorest families so that their children will have the means to get to school and the nutrition to support a healthy brain - and body. We must cut down drastically that 34% drop-out rate in primary grades.

We received Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War. We are even prepared to receive the Rohingyans who were stranded in the seas this year. No nation should just be a bystander in the face of this human emergency crisis

The President’s proposed budget for FY 2015 under the N.E.P. or the National Expenditure Program amounts to P2.606 trillion, reflecting an increase of P341.372 billion or 15.07% higher than the Fiscal Year 2014 budget. It is anchored on a real GDP projection of 7-8%, an inflation rate of 2-4%, 364-day T-Bill rate of 2-4%, and a foreign exchange rate of P42-45 to the dollar.

Tourism is an economic activity that leverages on the beauty that our Creator willed to us. It will also encourage development of the far reaches of our country. And it would complement efforts to protect the environment.

• Special Provisions on unfilled positions, which provide that the unexpended amount for unfilled positions will revert to the unappropriated surplus for those agencies with fiscal autonomy, were deleted.