Refer to: Ms. Dale Zapata
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KABAYAN: BAYANIHAN SPIRIT AT WORK IN THE ATTAINMENT OF MDGs

07 September 2005

Vice President Noli ‘Kabayan’ De Castro underscored the importance of shared labor or collaborative effort --- more popularly known in local parlance as “bayanihan.”— of both national and local institutions in attaining the millennium development goals (MDG) and in pushing the country’s reform agenda forward in his speech at the launching of the regional MDG II report at the Asian Development Bank yesterday.    

In his speech, Vice President De Castro also emphasized that the second MDG report, which will be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly high-level millennium development summit to be held in New York in the middle of this month, is clearly a very important document. He explained that the report not only presents the region’s report card regarding the MDGs but also shows an analysis and assessment of the challenges that the region faces and proposals on critical actions toward their achievement.

The Vice President admitted that attaining the targets set forth in the MDGs has been very challenging to say the least considering that we grapple with the problems of the present:  poverty, hunger, injustice, despair. 

Vice President De Castro contended that we all have our own share of problems. He mentioned that even the most prosperous country on the other side of the Pacific, the United States of America, is distressed by the havoc brought about by hurricane Katrina. On our part of the planet, we are also concerned about the equally disastrous impact on the vulnerable sectors of unmitigated increases in the price of oil and economic uncertainty.

Despite these, however, the Vice President remains hopeful about the future as we have accepted the challenge of achieving the millenium development goals in the next decade.

Far from being deterred by sad events in the past days, today, as we come together to renew our commitment to the MDGs, we move a step closer to our common aspirations.

At the same time, Vice President De Castro assured that at the national level, the administration remain strongly committed to the MDGs realizing the critical need to bring about these very basic and rudimentary improvements in living conditions of the people. This inspite of estimates that about 2.8 trillion pesos will be needed in year 2002 to 2015 to be able to meet the MDGs by 2015.   

Our resources may be meager but I wish to assure you of the Philippine government’s unwavering commitment to provide the suitable and enabling environment for the attainment of the MDGs.

In line with this, the Vice President announced that the following components are already in place: a prepared development baselines and poverty profiles, the incorporation of the MDG targets in the development of local plans and programs, the adoption of the inter-localization of MDGs as an innovative approach to infrastructure delivery, a component on the formation of leaders-successors, the promotion of ownership of the process and community participation through creative quad-media campaign, involving both local and national media, and the development of the capacities of local resource institutions to respond to local government unit-led reforms.

Because of their deep dedication to alleviate the plight especially of the underprivileged, particularly those pertaining to poverty reduction and inclusive and sustainable growth Vice President De Castro commended the multilateral development institutions, particularly the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), for providing substantial and meaningful assistance to the countries in the Asia and the Pacific region in their efforts to meet the MDGs. 

Ref no. VPMEDIA 05-118