Press Briefing by Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda and Budget and Management Secretary Butch Abad:

On the first year of the Aquino administration, the 2012 budget, the ARMM postponement of elections bill, the displacement of laborers in the Saudi Arabia, and other topics

Briefing Room, 2/F New Executive Building, Malacañang, Manila

June 30, 2011

SECRETARY EDWIN LACIERDA: I would like to read the statement on the President’s first year in office.

[Reads the statement on President Aquino’s first year in office]

Yesterday, we had a full cabinet meeting for the 2012 budget. So, we have asked and it is our privilege to ask the “senior” political adviser of the President Secretary [Butch] Abad of DBM [Department of Budget and Management] to give us a briefing on the 2012 budget.

May I call on Secretary Abad?

SECRETARY BUTCH ABAD: My official appointment as my appointment shows, I’m Secretary of Budget. [laughter]

Good morning to our friends the media. Let me thank Secretary Lacierda for giving us the opportunity to report to you on almost the five-hour meeting we had yesterday discussing the budget. Let me begin by saying that the proposed budget 2012 seeks to escalate public expenditure reform by ensuring focus on the President’s 16-point social contract. Nasimulan na nating tahakin ang daan tungo sa  paggugol na matuwid. Ngayon naman, pinag-iibayo natin ang reporma sa pagsiguro na ang benepisyo ng paggastos ng gobyerno ay diretso sa tao. With this, I wish to announce that last night, [Reads his statement]

Q: We have a deficit target of P286 billion at 2012. Is that correct?

SECRETARY BUTCH ABAD: That’s correct. Two hundred eighty-six, or 2.6 percent of gross domestic product.

Q: What are the revenue and expenditure assumptions for this? And second question, regarding the deficit of 286, how are you going to fund that? In particular, what will happen to your particular borrowing plan for next year?

ABAD: In line with the medium term fiscal consolidation strategy, we are committing to reduce the budget gap in 2012 to 2.6 percent of GDP, or, as I earlier stated, 286 billion, 14 billion or 4.7 percent lower than the 2011 projected deficit of 300 billion, or three percent of GDP.

The Department of Finance projects to raise 11.1 percent more revenues to P1.568 trillion, or 14.2 percent of GDP compared to the 2011 program of 1.411 trillion. This projection does not consider the impact of any new revenue measures. And with this, government spending is projected to correspond to 16.8 percent of GDP, or 1.854 trillion in nominal terms, expanding by 8.4 percent from the 2011 outlook. Now, we hope to be able to finance the deficit through borrowings, but this time, we are aiming at securing financing mostly from the domestic commercial sector, at about 75 percent, and the balance, 25 percent, from foreign borrowings.

Mia Gonzales [Busisness Mirror]: What would be the most significant reform that you were introducing in the 2012 budget?

ABAD: First of all, it’s results-based because we required all departments and agencies to show outputs for the amounts of money they were proposing for their departments. For example, DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development], we wanted to make sure—working with DepEd [Department of Education] and DOH [Department of Health]—that they are going to make a significant impact on poverty incidence. That’s why the target of the government is to reduce poverty incidence by the end of the President’s term to 16.6 percent. And along that line, they have their own contribution to that. That’s why DSWD, for example, by the end of the President’s term, should have been able to cover all the 5.2 million indigent households that have been identified under the national household targeting survey.

For example, the economic managers’ group, they have their own deficit and debt management targets, which I already presented before you. Therefore, they have yearly targets to be able to achieve, for example, a two percent deficit GDP by the end of the President’s term.

For example, in the case of DPWH, it has committed that by the end of 2014, all arterial roads would have been rehabilitated or paved by the end of 2014. So it’s a results oriented and results-based budget. But secondly, which is also as important because we want to be able to put our money where mouth is, is ensuring that the benefits of better-selected projects, better-costed projects, and better-managed projects will translate into immediate, direct, and substantial benefits to the poor.

That’s why, as you will note, the budgets for basic education, the budgets for public health, and the budgets for social protection, or the 4Ps, have received significant increases, and will continue to receive significant increases in the coming budget cycles.

Same way for industries or sectors that will generate employment. For example, agriculture, fisheries, tourism and business process outsourcing, we have made sure that we have provided them with enough of the economic services support to be able to help them generate employment that is needed by our people. That’s the other important change, plus, of course, a deeper, broader transparency and accountability measures that you will see in all the departments and agencies.

Aurea Calica [Philippine Star]: How are you going to defend an increased budget amidst criticisms by lawmakers that you’re quite slow in spending?

ABAD: There is an explanation for the initial and gradual spending. The first one has to do with, you know, we are sorting out problems that we have inherited from the past—for example, the cost structure of infrastructure projects. According to Secretary Singson, on the average, he found many projects, 40 percent of the cost is attributable to indirect costs, while direct costs only amount to 60 percent. You all know that the direct cost is the amount of money that goes to building the road. And the indirect cost is, what doesn’t go into cementing the road. So what Secretary Singson did was to limit the amount of indirect costs to make sure that much of those funds go into actual projects. And he had to do that across the board. But now, that is already set, and the policy is in place.

That’s why even at the end of March, he had saved the government something like
2.1 billion. And by the end of the exercise, he should be able to save us the end of this year about six to seven billion pesos.

We also have to make sure that the capacity of agencies to absorb are better improved. And this we are going to do by engaging in innovative partnership with local government units, with civil society and the private sector. And you know the negotiation, for example, with the league of leagues, in the co-financing program to build classrooms, took a little while.  But now, it’s in place. So that is going to proceed.

We also have to make sure that projects are able to synergize with each other. For example, the conditional cash transfer requires that beneficiaries should be able to go to health centers for their immunization and prenatal care, and at the same time, have classrooms where they can go and make sure that they are there present 85 percent of the time. So we had to build the synergy among the departments. But now, those are ongoing. So, we expect greater speed in the implementation of projects.

For example, innovation in execution of infrastructure projects—for example, classrooms and health centers, we have asked the private sector to come in and help build the classrooms and the health centers. And we can build them close by each other. And we can do this by adopting technologies like prefabricated typhoon and earthquake-proof materials, and, at the same time, clustering the project so that projects are bid out not as individual schools or individual health centers, but clusters of schools and health centers so that you achieve a certain degree of scale.

So we had those things in order to be able to accelerate. And as latest figures show at the end of May, we are succeeding in moving the funds faster now.

Joel Guinto [Bloomberg]: Sir, the allocation for the Defense Department this year, does that include iyong modernization fund for the military?

ABAD: Yes, they have five billion pesos modernization fund and on top of that an additional, if I’m not mistaken, over three billion pesos to help them secure the perimeter around Malampaya. So, that’s about over eight billion pesos.

Guinto: Sir, anything specific on security needs natin with the South China Sea?

ABAD: Well, I will have to refer that to the Secretary of National Defense for a more extensive discussion on that. But that is not to say that the government is not preparing for that.  In fact, there have been a series of discussions and even before discussing this budget, they have already made provisions to increase this year’s budget of the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] by about 11 billion pesos to provide for those requirements of the AFP.

Joana Poblete [Business World]: Sir, I noticed po that your CCT [Conditional Cash Transfer] you added 700,000 people. Last time, it was 500,000. This budget is 21.9. Now, it’s almost 35. How do you intend to justify this po, sir? Kasi dati … the opposition in increasing iyong CCT lang para sa DSWD?

ABAD: Well, that was from the minority. So that is to be expected. But if you go around the country and ask people about the benefits of the CCT, you will hear overwhelming support for it.  In fact, in the last report that Secretary [Dinky] Soliman made to the Senate before Secretary [Frank] Drilon in its exercise of its oversight functions, Secretary Drilon and the Senators were satisfied with the report given by Secretary Soliman.  In fact, by September this year Secretary Soliman would have been able to reach about 2.3 million hectares of the CCT beneficiaries already. And around that time, they would have been able to register practically all of them because they had achieved a registration rate at the end of May of about 82 percent.  So the program despite the initial skepticism expressed by legislators is proving to be doing very well. The reason for that is we are also implementing CCT, for example, not in the traditional way but we are tapping technology to make sure that the cash subsidies get to the beneficiaries in a timely manner.  For example, not a single centavo of this money goes through the Department of Social Welfare and Development.  That money goes from the Landbank of the Philippines direct to either the beneficiaries who have cards or to financial intermediaries in places that are hard to reach.

Poblete: Sir, where is the money coming from exactly kasi last time you borrowed part of the money for the CCT budget? Ngayon po, sir, that’s what they’re also criticizing kasi inuutang pa natin tapos baka lumaki pa iyong debt service.

ABAD: We’re not borrowing additional money to increase the CCT allocation this year.  We’re just continuing with the existing donor funded programs from World Bank and the ADB [Asian Development Bank] but there is no additional loan.
This is purely the government setting its priorities right this time and allocating the funds to where we feel they are most oriented towards the President’s priorities.

Poblete: Kailan po ita-transmit to the [off mic]

ABAD: We are targeting to submit the budget on July 26 which is the day after the President delivers his SONA [State of the Nation Address] and we are doing this because we want to be able to give the legislature enough time to deliberate on the budget so that, hopefully again, for the first time in so many years, this
budget can be approve before Christmas.

Q: Sir, may we have the budget for the GOCCs, the assistance, and for those that are debt ridden?

ABAD: I may have to give you that in another press briefing so that we can go into the support details of the budget but…

Q: Just the general stuff, sir…

ABAD: Well, as it is right now, we have made some—because of the transparency measures that we have adopted, we have allocated some of the budgets that normally go to the Departments when they should have gone to GOCCs or for example where they should—in the interest of promoting transparency we separated—I’ll give you an example just to be clear about it. Because in 2011 the GOCCs received 10.8 billion peso subsidy. In 2012, it’s going to be 23.6 and the biggest allocation there will be for example National Irrigation Administration. Because before, NIA does not receive PS allocation from the budget so what it does is it cuts about five-plus-three percent, PS allocation of five percent and MOE allocation of three percent from the projects that they are implementing.  But you know, sometimes it’s hard to figure out whether really five-plus-three percent is in fact being deducted or more. So what we did this year is we took out five-plus-three percent from the irrigation projects which they estimated to be, which they computed to be the equivalent of their PS and the MOE allocations and put that money with the NIA so that all irrigation funds will be directly and exclusively utilized for the restoration, rehabilitation, or the construction of new irrigation projects.

We have also provided the NFA [National Food Authority] with an additional 1.5 billion this year to enable them to increase their Palay Procurement Program to about five percent next year.  So those are the kinds of increases that we made.

Gonzales: Sir, you said that the revenue estimates don’t include new tax measures. Don’t you foresee the administration pursuing tax measures next year since you’ve said earlier that the President’s commitment ends on December 31, 2011?

ABAD: You know, the President is quite satisfied right now with the efforts to—first of all—eliminate the leakages in the budget as well as being able to set correct priorities and therefore choose the right projects which is allowing his administration now to invest huge amount of money in his priorities without necessarily having to add burden to our people. And for as long as that is going to happen in the cycles to come he will always feel that he’d rather move in that direction than impose new taxes. Of course, his commitment originally was not to impose taxes within the first 18 months of his administration and that expires in December so that the option is there to that after December. But in his latest statement, he said that he’s satisfied that because of our prudent spending and improvements in tax collection, he’s not looking kindly at this time imposing new burdens on our people.

Gonzales: Sir, the country managed to secure four credit rating upgrades without having to raise taxes. Do you think an investment grade is doable without having to raise taxes as credit rating agency has said?

ABAD: Well, if you will note, the credit rating agency is particularly been happy with the stability of the macro economic situation of the country and more particularly about the direction of the fiscals consolidation program, they are seeing increases in tax revenue collections, because of improvement in the tax efforts and tax administrations. At the same time, they are seeing prudence in the spending pattern of the government.

So, I think for those four upgrades, they have been consistently being stated and restated as reasons or basis for upgrading the country’s rating.  So we feel that there is more room for improvements in those areas in the coming cycles. So, I think we can continue to impress them with the continued stability with the macro economic position of the government as well as the fiscal consolidation program of the government right now. I think what many of the foreign investments are missing is the dramatic impact of having a leadership that is vigorous in pursuing its anticorruption efforts as well as in promoting transparency and accountability.

If you note the first quarter investments of  about a hundred and sixty billion pesos, hundred forty billion of that was actually investments made by domestic investors. And, I think the reason for that is they are the first to know what the impact is if national leadership is a government that can eventually promote consistent, predictable and stable policy as well as a level playing field for business. And I’m sure, as they are doing right now, especially with the fourth upgrade, the foreign investors will see the light and will begin to bring investments into the country.

In fact, if you note, the recent portfolio investments, they have grown dramatically at the end of May. So, that is the sign that they are looking at the same picture as Filipino investors are right now.

Michael Fajatin [GMA 7]: Sir, sa mga tanong po—pababain lang po natin kaunti iyong diskusyon ano sa mga masa po na nanonood—sinasabi po kasi ng oposisyon na nakatutok po tayo sa paglaban sa korapsiyon pero not much on spending. Ang sinasabi pa ng oposisyon, if you do not spend, mas nakakasama po doon sa ekonomiya kaysa naman sa tayo daw ay hindi nag-i-spend. Ano pong reaksyon niyo?

ABAD: Well may koneksiyon iyong paglaban sa korapsiyon sa paghinay-hinay sa paggugol ng salapi ng ating bansa. Kasi ang gusto nila tuluy-tuloy ang gastos natin, pero nakikita natin, marami sa gastos natin hindi napupunta sa mahirap. Bigyan ko kayo ng halimbawa. Iyong NFA rice, sa aming pagsusuri, lumalabas pala na labing anim na porsiyento lamang doon sa murang bigas na ipinamumudmod noong nakaraan ay napupunta sa mahirap. At batay sa mismong ulat ng COA [Commission on Audit] ay ang kalakihan pala ng murang bigas ay napupunta sa traders.

Isa pang halimbawa, iyong TESDA. Iyong TESDA, lumobo iyong budget mula 700 million at umabot ng limang bilyong piso. Lumalabas doon sa pag-aaral ni Sec. Joel Villanueva na may mahigit na isang bilyong piso noong ipinamudmod sa mga sinasabing voctech institution ay naipamigay sa mga fly-by-night institution. Kaya tuloy ang employment generation capacity ng TESDA doon sa bilyong-bilyong salaping kanilang ginugol sa mga training ay nasa 28 percent  lamang.

O ‘di kaya tignan natin ang Philhealth. Iyong Philhealth sa ngayon, mayroong 4.9 million na enrolled beneficiaries. Noong aming sinuri kung gaano karaming mahihirap ang nakinabang doon sa 4.9 million na iyon, lumalabas na halos 900 thousand or 21 percent ang masasabi natin kabilang sa mga mahihirap dahil ito ang nakitang mga kabilang dito National Household Targeting Survey. So iyong kalakihan niyan ay maaring napamigay noong eleksiyon at  hindi napunta sa mga mahihirap. Kaya ho nag-iingat tayo para hindi natin maipagpatuloy iyong kalakihang pagkukulang na iyan at pagwawaldas ng pera na napakalaki pero hindi naman napupunta sa mga mahihirap.

Gonzales: Sir, you didn’t answer my earlier question. Sir, can the country achieve investment crate without having to raise taxes?

ABAD: Well you know, certainly, additional revenues as already being expressed by the credit rating agencies, can serve to secure further upgrades. In fact, we are just a notch below investment grade. But you know the President is more—for the President it’s more important at this stage not to add additional burden to our people. Tutal, nagagawa naman niya ng paraan na makinabang nang malaki ang ating mga mahihirap sa pamamagitan ng budget. Kaya iyon ho ang mas mahalaga sa ating Pangulo.

Gonzales: [To Secretary Lacierda] Sir, the President mentioned during the interview with reporters this morning that when he’s generally satisfied with most of his cabinet secretaries, there’s one in particular that he would be talking to, may we know who that person is?

LACIERDA: Well number one, he did not mention to us who that particular cabinet secretary is, but certainly, this is the approach that the President wants. He would speak to the cabinet secretary if he finds some level of unhappiness or dissatisfaction towards certain matters and he expresses it to that particular cabinet official concerned. If you noticed, he mentioned two or three he was able to meet—he already mentioned it a while ago—he is going to talk to one, just one more cabinet secretary. He’s a man conveying his thoughts on the performance of a particular cabinet secretary.

We would rather leave it to the President to meet with the particular cabinet secretary involved. Also, as a matter of informing the cabinet secretary, that you need to do something more about your performance. But in so far as identifying who that particular secretary is, the President would rather leave it between him and secretary concerned.

Gonzales: Sir, how does it go, the President will meet with that cabinet secretary and he will tell him to “shape up” and then give him a chance to perform before…

LACIERDA: The way that the President does it is to inform the cabinet secretary concerned of the nature of his dissatisfaction why he feels that he needs improvement. And from then, there will be an open discussion and he expects the cabinet secretary to improve further his performance. And again, he will give him time to see after the discussion or conversation if there’s any marked improvement and then he will talk to him again if there’s none.

Calica: Sir, do you feel na iyong statements na ganito ng Presidente ay isang way to—iyong in a way na parang i-shape na rin iyong cabinet into performing better without really telling kasi kung sino, parang ginigitla, parang na ano, na—hindi naman tinatakot pero parang ginugulat nang kaunti?

LACIERDA: Hindi naman Au. Alam ng mga cabinet secretaries kung ano ang kanilang pagkukulang. Alam nila kung ano ang expectations sa kanila tulad na nga ng sabi kanina ni Pangulong Aquino sa inyong briefing kanina, he mentioned Secretary Dinky Soliman. So, there are certain expectations that you’re supposed to observe or to comply with. So may measure of standards na, you know it’s very… line agencies are very quantifiable. Their performances are very quantifiable. May objective measures of evaluating a particular performance. So, hindi mahirap iyon gawin.

At sa—kung nakita mong may pagkukulang malalaman naman ng mga Kalihim na kung sila ang tinutukoy o hindi. So essentially sinabi ni Pangulong Aquino kanina na he was generally satisfied with the performance of the cabinet. May iilan lang na niyang kinausap—kakausapin at mayroon na siyang nakausap. So isa na lang ang kaniyang kakausapin.

Calica: So ito iyong tatlo ba, sir? Iyong tatlo naging dalawa o naging isa na lang?

LACIERDA: Ang alam ko dalawa ang sinabi niya kanina, hindi ba? Isa
nakausap niya. So isa na lang ang kakausapin niya.

Calica: Sir, hindi po niya kayo kinakausap?

LACIERDA: Ang ibig sabihin ng kakausapin ay masinsinang pag-uusap. Kasi remember, kapag nagmi-meeting si Pangulo, talagang it’s either in a cabinet or in a cluster meeting. Tulad kahapon, after ng cabinet meeting, he had the opportunity to speak to one cabinet official.

Calica: Sir, joke lang iyon ha. [laughs]

LACIERDA: It’s OK.

Calica: Pero kayo, sir, among yourselves, do you discuss that? Kasi sinasabi nila, it’s better to announce it once he had spoken with the cabinet secretary so that it won’t get embarrassed before the public?

LACIERDA: I don’t think it is—it is enough that the President has called the attention of the particular cabinet official and we don’t need to dwell on who the person is. Again, it’s the manner of the President informing—what is important is that the President has conveyed his evaluation on the particular cabinet official. And it is incumbent on the cabinet official after being spoken to, to make sure that the expectations are met.

Fajatin: So, iyong paraan po ng pakikipag-usap, sinasabi po ng ibang oposisyon na parang kung kakausapin po, puwede namang direkta na lang hindi na ipapaalam sa publiko o sa media.

LACIERDA: Well, I think na ito iyong—nakikita natin iyong pagka-honest ni Pangulong Aquino and he’s very transparent po so nasabi po niya ang kaniyang nasabi. At iyon naman ay isa namang mas nakakabuti. You would rather have these things threshed out at malaman ng publiko ang kaniyang sentiments sa isang issue. This is something that I think the public appreciates, the fact that our President is very transparent and honest. And he can share it with the Filipino people his sentiments on some matters. Mas mabuti ito kaysa may tinatago kami, hindi ba?

Aytch dela Cruz: Sir, just going back on the cabinet—would you know po kung iyong tinutukoy ni Pangulo sa statement niya kanina is the same person who he was referring to in his interview last month? Kasi noong nag-hint siya last month, all the while, akala namin si Secretary De Jesus na iyon and then, pero dineny [deny] niya. Tapos, ngayon naglabas na naman siya ng similar statement.

LACIERDA: Aytch, from the very start, we don’t know who he is referring to. Out of respect for our fellow cabinet members, we’d rather leave it to the President and the respect in the particular cabinet official concerned. We don’t want to dwell on speculations and ask ourselves, “sino ba iyon?” It’s something that we already—we would have to be satisfied with our own performance. We’d rather let the President deal with the cabinet secretary concerned.

Dela Cruz: On another issue lang po—the House Minority Leader, Rep. Lagman said he’s already going to challenge the ARMM postponement bill before the Supreme Court. He said in his press release that the petition of the further postponement of the ARMM election was based on partisan and contrived motives and not for patriot and judicious reasons? Your statement, sir?

LACIERDA: Apparently, he has not been listening to us for the whole nine yards. We have been talking about why we wanted to postpone the elections. Why the President wanted to postpone the elections—there are two things.  Number one, he wants to save on cost. Synchronizing the elections of the ARMM with  the national would save  tremendously on election expense. Number two, he wants to reform ARMM. Like what Jesse Robredo said, and I don’t know why Congressman Lagman would not even bother listening to this, we are putting in an OIC who is not going to run for the regular ARMM election. There is no political advantage for us to prohibit the incumbent from running. As you all know, whoevers the candidate of the administration in ARMM always wins. In fact, I was told, we were told by a  Senator na “Hawak n’yo ARMM. Bakit pa ninyo ibibigay iyon? Why you are giving it up?” Fr the simple reason, the President wants reform in that particular region. So, I don’t know why Congressman Lagman has been so myopic in his understanding or he infuses or be just so tone deaf in the reasons why we pushed for the postponement of the ARMM elections.

If you go through our explanations, time and again, through Jesse Robredo, by Sandra Sema, Senator Frank Drilon, you would notice that the purpose of our bill or the law is to reform ARMM and there  is nothing more than that.

And by the way, my understanding of the law, it becomes law after—not the signing— but 15 days after publication of a newspaper of general circulation or on Official Gazette. So, I don’t know if it is premature in his part to file a petition right now.

Amita Legaspi: Simula sa July 2, iyong Saudi Arabia, hindi na siya mag-i-issue ng work visas para sa mga Filipino Domestic Helpers. Ano  na ang gagawin ng gobyerno doon, kasi parang 180,000 domestic workers ang maapektuhan?

LACIERDA: Si Secretary [Linda] Baldoz nagkaroon kami ng pagkakataong makipag-usap sa kanya and I think maglalabas po siya ng press release. May mga host countries  na handang mag-absorb  sa mga hindi na po makapunta sa  Saudi Arabia. So, the Secretary of Labor already anticipated that. But Secretary Baldoz also mentioned to us that when they were in ILO [International Labour] Conference, the Saudi Labor Minister emphasized the importance of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Secretary Baldoz is verifying this policy that Saudi Arabia has right now. I don’t know if she has mentioned this already. She is sending a labor attache’—a labor official—to Saudi Arabia to verify these things.

But again, Secretary Baldoz has already prepared some host countries to, just in case, they fully implement the policy.

Ito’ng press release pala ni Secretary Baldoz. In the contrary  Minister Fakeih, “Mr.Fakeih who requested for the bilateral meeting  was very emphatic and unequivocal  in saying that the Saudi Labor market remains open for millions of foreign workers that also contribute side by side with national workers in achieving our various development goals and feel the temporary needs of the national economy in its various stages of development.”  This is Secretary Baldoz quoting the Saudi Labour Minister in the 100^th ILO conference in Geneva.

Q: Mayroon na bang example kung ano iyong mga countries na puwedeng puntahan ng mga domestic helpers?

LACIERDA: May sinabi si  Secretary Baldoz sa akin, pero siya nalang po ang magsasabi.

I would rather that she say it para mas authoritative ang pag-ano. But she already
mentioned some nations to me. So, she will be releasing those countries names sa inyo.

Guinto: Sir, ilan iyong projected namadi-displace o hindi makakabalik sa Saudi because of this development?

LACIERDA: Ang sabi kasi ni Secretary Baldoz, the Saudization program will have
minimal impact lang, precisely because, ang sinabi nga nito, sinabi nga ni Saudi Labor Minister, he emphasize the importance  of  the migrant workers  in Saudi Arabia.

Guinto: Wala tayong number, sir or by how many percent this will reduce our deployments to Saudi?

LACIERDA: Let me release nalang this. I think, I released already the Baldoz press release. It explains primarily all the statements made by both the Saudi Labor Minister as well as we have been doing. We sent this already the other day. Just to let you know Secretary Baldoz directed me the Labor Supervising Attache’  Arturo Sudusta who is stationed in Qatar to assist  the POLO in Riyadh headed by the Labor Attache’ Albert Valenciano in coordinating in Saudi’s competent authorities, recruitment agencies and various companies  to come up with a labor market assessment to determine what might be the full impact of  the Saudization program. So, they are going to make an assessment and they will report on us their findings or they will report to DOLE  [Department of Labor and Employment] their findings.

Gonzales: Sir, is the government prepared to provide livelihood or job opportunities for those who can’t be absorbed by other countries?

LACIERDA: My understanding from Secretary Baldoz is that there are host countries that can absorb the other migrant workers. She cited one particular country and let me just let her disclosed it, but this particular country still has the capacity to absorb more migrant workers in their country.

ENDS