Reviewed the basic economic policies and implementation.
- In infrastructure—not enough projects in the pipeline.
- Financial Institutions—No aggressiveness in credit extension and guarranties [sic] for investors borrowing from abroad.
Official Gazette for February 11, 1973: PRESIDENT MARCOS concentrated his efforts on government projects and asked the different heads of government agencies assigned to undertake various works to submit reports on the progress of the jobs given to them. The President directed Presidential Executive Assistant Jacobo C. Clave and other executive assistants to prod agency heads to expedite completion of the projects assigned to them. He told these assistants to call for progress reports and inquire into the status of the projects periodically. At the same time, the President directed National Irrigation Administrator Alfredo Juinio to submit a new list of irrigation projects, giving priorities to those in the Muslim areas. He is scheduled to release additional funds for irrigation, but told Mr. Clave to check first with the NIA on the status on the rehabilitation of major irrigation systems in rice producing areas, as well as to secure a listing of new communal irrigation projects. He also directed Secretary Jose Roño of the Department of Local Government and Community Development and Undersecretary Rosendo Marquez to check on the various immunity projects, particularly those in the barrios which he wants finished as soon as possible.
PRESIDENT MARCOS ordered the establishment and expansion of shipping points for specialized export products, like copra, sugar, ore, logs, and the organization of an authority to supervise and control the export of these products. The President’s order was conveyed to Secretary David Consunji of the Department of Public Works, Transportation and Communications and Secretary Troadio T. Quiazon Jr. of the Department of Trade and Tourism. They were required to submit their studies on how best to develop these specialized shipping points another directive issued to Director General Gerardo Sicat of the National Economic and Development Authority, the President ordered the organization of an authority to supervise and control the export of the country’s principal products, which to the present do not have any agency to guide and direct their exportation or expansion.
“KILUSAN NG WASTONG PAGKAIN SA BAGONG LIPUNAN”, a rice conservation through nutrition improvement movement, revealed that the Filipino people can be self-sufficient in rice again by saving ten per cent of the national rice production through wise consumption of the staple food. The Philippines had been self-sufficient in rice and even exported it in modest amounts from 1968 to 1970. However, typhoons, floods, and other calamities in 1971 and 1972 caused a drastic drop in rice production. Traditional methods of harvesting also reduce palay yield. Modern machines may be used but this involves additional investments and a number of people who rely on the harvest for jobs will be unemployed. The Philippines can regain self-sufficiency if production and marketing is improved and rice wastage minimized. Also, the rain stimulation program of the government coupled with the policy of utilizing only high-yielding rice varieties will boost the nation’s rice self-sufficiency program.
DR. PACIFICO MARCOS, Chairman of the Philippine Medical Care Commission, told student nurses recently that Medicare program has provided Filipino nurses with greater opportunities and higher income in their country. Speaking on “The Role of the Nurses in the Medical Program,” at the University of Sto. Tomas, he noted that with the increased volume of paying patients occasioned by the Medicare program, private hospitals can now afford higher salaries for nurses. In government hospitals, staff nurses, can be given allowance out of the hospital’s income from Medicare. The government hospitals are supposed to put their Medicare income on a revolving fund for expansion, improvement of facilities, and other legitimate purposes. The student nurses were also advised to work in rural areas after their graduation because hospitals are mushrooming in the provinces to serve Medicare patients. The Medicare Commission alone has programmed the construction of 81 hospitals in medically depressed rural communities.
3. Irrigation—Dean [Alfredo] Juinio and NIA [National Irrigation Administration] still stuck to the old habits of following the politics-oriented public works laws.
4. Export Processing Zone—Not enough drive for its development.
The PROD’s do not seem to be working.
I go to Clark Air Force Base to inspect our 6th Fighter Wing tomorrow at 8:30 AM.