Economic managers to hold TV forum on Aquino's pre-SONA

MANILA, Philippines -  The economic team of President Aquino will have its own State of the Nation Address (SONA) today on live television on the administration’s success in steering the economy to growth and in attracting more investments.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisma, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga, and Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo will discuss the administration’s gains on the economic front at 10 a.m. on NBN-4 television and over radio dzRB.

The three will tackle the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, which the President is expected to take up in his July 25 SONA before a joint session of Congress.

Purisima, Paderanga and Domingo belong to the Cabinet Economic Development Cluster. Purisma heads the cluster.

The forum is the first of five forums on TV and radio in the run-up to Aquino’s SONA.

Each of the five Cabinet clusters will discuss in separate forums its accomplishments in the past 12 months and what it hopes to achieve in the coming years.

The Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster, chaired by Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, will hold the next forum on July 8.

The Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Cluster will have its forum on July 13; Security, Justice and Peace Cluster on July 18; and Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster on July 19.

Lawyer Marc Castrodes is the moderator in today’s forum, with Albay Gov. Joey Salceda as resource person.

The panelists will answer questions from media representatives and stakeholders invited to the NBN-4 studio. Questions will also be fielded from Baguio, Cebu and Davao.

Purisima’s report will center on economic growth, fiscal sustainability, inflation and revenues. Paderanga will take up the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, the Gross Domestic Product target, employment and investments, inflation, and Public-Private Partnership projects. Domingo’s report will dwell on investments, competitiveness, prices and inflation.

The July 8 human development and poverty reduction forum will have Soliman, Education Secretary Armin Luistro and Health Secretary Enrique Ona as panelists.

SONA security

With less than three weeks to go before President Aquino’s SONA, the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) is not taking any chances in its security preparations.

NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Alan Purisima vowed to make Aquino’s second SONA “the most peaceful in recent years” as he belittled the capability of militant groups to stage large protest actions.

“The number of militant groups attending protest rallies is dwindling by the day. There were several instances that the deployed policemen outnumbered them,” said Purisima.

He said the NCRPO and representatives of Congress have met twice already to map out security preparations for the SONA. – With Non Alquitran