Official Gazette for June 29, 1973: THE PRESIDENT ordered that appropriate “severe measures” be taken against all rural banks found to be imperilling the success of Masagana 99. The Chief Executive gave the directive to Agriculture Secretary Arturo Tanco on receiving reports that “the rural banks have not kept pace with the Philippine National Bank in the release of farm loans.” Secretary Tanco said that the management committee of Masagana 99 was monitoring loan operations and is pinpointing all loan bottlenecks needing “corrective” measures. The President is keeping close watch on Masagana 99 which he had dubbed the “nation’s program of survival.”
THE GOVERNMENT’S policy to hire government employes displaced by the reorganization plan and the ratification of the new Constitution will not cover those personnel separated without civil service eligibilities and whose services had been terminated under letters of instructions on courtesy resignation. Malacañang clarified this even as it emphasized that this system of rehiring preference will not apply in the filling of positions in the non-competitive service, and contractual, promotional and transfer appointments. The preference, Malacañang said, will be subject to the condition that the civil service eligibilities, experience and other qualifications of the separated personnel are consistent with the job requirements of the position vacancies. Special attention will focus on the special and technical qualifications needed in such positions as doctors, engineers, economists and the like, the clarification further stated.
DEPARTMENT of Tourism acted to stop the tampering and destruction of the country’s natural beauty and relics. Secretary of Tourism Jose D. Aspiras said old churches, old forts and landmarks in some towns and cities are being, torn down or altered without proper planning and supervision. He called on the nation’s planners and builders to prevent the destruction of the country’s natural beauty and the relics of its past heritage in their efforts to build new tourism plants and facilities. To ensure proper planning of new tourism establishments, the tourism department has adopted the following policies: 1) no tourism-oriented project will be approved for financial and technical assistance by the department unless it conforms to certain standards of function and beauty to be determined by a panel of experts; 2) no hotel taller than a coconut tree will be allowed to be built in the provinces. He also urged that new physical facilities for tourism be designed to project a distinct Filipino image.
SECRETARY of Information Francisco S. Tatad said that the recognition being given today to a kind of technocracy in government which gives real promise of success in the government’s reorganization efforts may well be the hallmark of current efforts to transform the bureaucracy The secretary spoke on the “Transformation of the Bureaucracy: Problems and Prospects” after inducting the officers of the Bureau Directors Association Inc., at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati, Rizal. Secretary Tatad stressed that this recognition of technocracy in government is perceptible in the general recognition given by the Presidency to management techniques that make government work. He said that it is also evident in fact that the government today requires what it can learn from the operation of corporate organization and the infusions of these new ideas into the lifeblood of the government.
THE COUNTRY’S public and private lending institutions met to fashion out ways to facilitate the granting of loans for small scale industries. The meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines building under the auspices of the Small Business Assistance Bureau of the CCP, made the observation that although there are sufficient funds to be loaned out to small business entrepreneurs, there are only few takers. The private sector has unlimited funds to finance these small scale industries while on the government side, the Social Security System has allocated P10 million for the same purpose. But only P1.3 million of this SSS fund had been borrowed by the small businessmen. The reasons why small businessmen do not avail themselves of the financing scheme were pointed out during the discussions. The greatest obstacle why businessmen do not borrow money from this lending institution is the complicated forms to be filled up by the borrowers.
INFORMATION Secretary Francisco S. Tatad said that the measures taken by the New Society to cure the affliction in the press have succeeded in giving the country for the first time a more accurate and favorable image in the foreign press. In a situation report on the local press, the secretary told diplomatic officials gathered in a seminar on Philippine affairs at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, that “the initial success we might claim in information might perhaps be credited to the recognition that information today is development.” However, he said, what has so far grown out of the effort to reform the press is not yet the model that is expected of print media. “Our ideal,” he said, “is a press that will be an effective instrument in the transformation of the society.”
Spent the whole day in Talaga. We are now on our way back to Manila. The guests attend a dinner tonight at Charlie Palanca’s house.
Started skiing at 8:00 AM as I went to bed at 3:00 AM.
Unbelievably calm. Wind started to rise at 10:30 AM. Calmer at 12:00 AM up to the time we left at 5:30 PM.
Neling [Manuel] Nieto [Jr.] had a bad fall being bulled by the cigarette boat. He was helicoptered to the Veterans Memorial Hospital for an X-Ray which turned up to be negative for fracture.
The guests (Columbus McDonnell and Luigi Laureola) tried pelota with Monching [Ramon] Cojuangco [Sr.] and Pocholo Razon.
And the guests helicoptered to Corregidor and Mt. Samat while I tried to take a nap.
500,000 out of 1,400,000 inhabitants of Leyte are sick of Schistozomiasis Philipinonais. We must emphasize research on a specific drug. 90% of the people of Tacloban are ill of it. 100% of the farmers of Puro ______ Leyte are too.
NATIONAL Economic and Development Authority and the United States Assistance for International Development (USAID) signed a P32.2 million allocation for the rehabilitation of Philippine irrigation systems. The fund grant is expected to help boost the country’s rice production program since many national gravity irrigation and communal irrigation system destroyed by last year’s floods would be rehabilitated. The P32.2 million allocation is part of the $50-million US assistance grant for the rehabilitation of damages suffered by the Philippines in last year’s floods.
FOUR COUNTRIES participating in the Taxation and Customs Co operation Conference currently held in Manila reaffirmed their pledge to cooperate in stopping customs frauds and smuggling. The four—the Republic of Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines—pledged to bind themselves in suppressing customs frauds and smuggling through a ready exchange of correct information on import valuation and tariff matters. In this connection, the four countries agreed to set up a central secretariat to facilitate the free flow of tax and tariff information among the four states. The Philippines was chosen the site of the secretariat, with the National Tax Research Center coordinating the program.