LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD PLATFORM: RENEWING THE FILIPINO SPIRIT

Background

As Leaders and Members of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD and as Filipinos seeking to propose, initiate and
implement progress and positive change in the Philippines, in order to secure for our country and for our
posterity a better future, to improve the well-being of each and every citizen, and to renew the hopes,
aspirations and the true goodness and spirit of the Filipino, we propose the following commitments,
principles and actions that our Party, its members, and its standard bearers are committed to promote, to
fight for, and to advance:

Basic Principles

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD, all its members and party standard bearers, under the guidance of the Supreme
Being, stand on the following core beliefs and principles:

• Centrist Humanist Agenda

“MAN is made in the image and likeness of God” is the core principle of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD Party
and the Centrist Democrat International, from the very start. Politics and government policies should serve
the greater good of the greatest number of people in the society. We recognize the family as the basic unit
of our society; therefore, all our efforts should be directed towards upholding and protecting to further
strengthen the dignity and integrity of the individuals comprising it.

• Service as the Essence of Leadership

Service is the essence of political representation. Leadership must therefore be deployed only to ensure
that services are secured to improve the well-being of the Filipino citizenry. The progress of nation must
be for the greatest benefit of the greatest number of Filipinos. The achievement of better socio-economic
and political conditions comes mainly from working hard, from the determination of leaders to imbibe the
right values and beliefs. We pledge a return to core moral principles like stewardship, service to others,
personal responsibility, shared sacrifice and a fair chance for all – values that emanate from the integrity
and optimism of our heroes, founders and preceding generations of Filipinos.

• Character and Integrity

A good leader must be of strong character and integrity. More than anything else, he or she must
embrace the true essence of public service as a calling. He should also have a clear grasp of the ideals and
obligations of the Office one is elected to – which goes beyond the personal self. One must always be
guided by what is best for his country or constituents even if this entails great personal sacrifices on his
part. In the end, his strength of character and integrity would give him the will to resist temptation. This
strength of character and integrity does not come with the office – these traits are nurtured through years of
public service.

• Transparency and Accountability as Means to Building Public Trust

We commit to continue the good legacies of our forbearers in achieving sustainable economic and social
development for our country, and thus, regain OUR high stature in the international community as virtually
found on the values of respect and utmost confidence. We must emphasize that the value of “Utang ng
Loob” is only about returning goodness with goodness. But when the requested return of kindness is
morally wrong, nothing is worth the reputation of any leader that he or she, together with his family and
forebears, have painstakingly nurtured over time.

• People Empowerment as the Basic Requirement in the Advancement of Democracy

 We advocate the principles of a democratic system for which our institutions are built as cornerstones to
safeguard the basic rights of our people. We believe in the power of ballot through the capacity of our
people to make informed and responsive decisions.

• Social Market Economy as Key Strategy Towards Sustainable Development

We believe in private property, competition, free price formation, and freedom of movement of work,
capital, goods and services as the key features of a Social Market Economy which aims to improve the
social balancing of economic outcomes by way of inclusive and sustainable development policies.

Vision and Goals for the Nation

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD envisions a thriving and dynamic Philippine society that is able to lift its people
from deprivation, support the freedoms and responsibilities of a democratic social order, provide the
opportunities for advancement in the social ladder, and offer the joys of living in secure, pleasant
communities – where poverty is minimized if not totally eradicated, conflicts are resolved peacefully, the
national culture and heritage is continually enriched and the government is an effective enabler of the
human capacities and basic services.

The Lakas-Kampi-CMD shall therefore exert utmost efforts to provide for a social, economic and
political order that promotes greater access to education, human capital and social services, greater
investment in enterprises and the creation of good paying jobs, the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and the
empowerment of local communities to afford themselves the necessities of rising standards of living and
improvement of the well-being of each and every Filipino.

Strategies for Change

In order to advance the positive changes that we seek to institute, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD shall foster and
promote:

1. 1. Economic Sustainability and Enhancing Competitiveness

Economic growth is anchored on Wealth Creation, and is the primary objective of our economic
platform.

-There must be more income opportunities for the countryside if we are to raise economic growth on a
more inclusive and equitable basis. This means that we must improve the government’s support for higher
agricultural productivity and for creating more off-farm employment. Under a Lakas-Kampi-CMD
administration, we shall pour more resources to programs and projects that will increase farm yields,
enhance the shelf life of farm produce, improve marketing capabilities and provide the needed livelihood
funding support to our farmers and fisherfolks. We must utilize the Agriculture and Fisheries
Modernization Act (AFMA) and Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Funds (ACEF) to create
maximum benefits to our small struggling farmers in the countryside.

-The country’s public sector debt can only be reduced with better fiscal management. We must collect
more taxes – not by imposing new ones, but with dramatic improvements in the administration of taxes.
Over the long term, the reduction of tax rates, including the Value Added Tax and income tax, will help
spur more demand in the domestic economy. However, this must come with a better collection record from
the business sectors and may be adopted on a sector by sector basis as the government is able to reduce its
fiscal deficit.

-Given the current problems of the economy, the most important priority is to make it grow by
encouraging more investments in agriculture, in manufacturing. The resulting increase in production and
incomes will definitely help improve our tax effort.
 1. 2. Inclusiveness and Social Justice

Health, Education, Housing and the Protection of our Worker shall be on top the party’s social
development agenda:

Education – The talents and minds of our countrymen is our greatest resource. Government should do its
utmost to pro-actively provide for quality universal primary and secondary education that is accessible to
all. Tertiary education must also be supported by way of providing for a massive student loan program to
enable all qualified students to fulfill their dreams of gaining more knowledge to improve their life-
chances.

Students shall also be given the option to receive technical-vocational education in order to allow them
to enter productive employment and contribute at an earlier stage to their families’ earnings and to national
production. What needs to be changed is the bias of Filipino parents and Filipino public against technical
education. We have to prove that there is value in technical education, technically educated people can
lead, and they can be engines of change in the community so as for the younger people to aspire to have
technical education.

Health – A universal participative health care system shall serve health and well-being of the Filipinos to
afford quality health care for all. This shall be a cooperative undertaking between and among the national
government, local government units, public and private institutions and the Philippine Health Insurance
Corporation (PhilHealth).

Housing – Shelter is one of the most basic needs of people. The prosperity of any society will be
measured by its capacity to provide each and every family a roof over their heads. Mass housing should be
a mandatory item in the BOI IPP list to ensure automatic access of socialized and low-cost mass housing to
fiscal incentives.

OFWs – The protection of our migrant workers actually begins with protecting them at the point of
recruitment. We must install more safeguards so that recruiters can provide more assurances of safety for
our OFW’s. There should be a more active network of support systems to monitor the conditions of each
and every Filipino worker abroad. Government must help establish a system of mutual assistance in every
country where Filipino communities are present, to help them cope with emergency problems such as
illness, legal issues and repatriation support.

1. 3. Higher Standards of Governance

-The Lakas-Kampi-CMD shall institutionalize the concept of performance audits for each and every
agency of the government, including the local government units. The government should adopt the best
practices, such as performance score cards and oversight reporting and monitoring in order to exact
accountability from national government officials as well as local government executives.

-Transparency and accountability would be stronger with the help of a non-state force – the free media
and public opinion. We shall to seek to institute community governance groups and multi-sectoral
watchdogsover each agency, district, province and city to as partners in performance-based monitoring and
oversight to directly provide information on how well or how badly government projects are implemented.

-To deal with corruption we must have no tolerance for it and give less temptation to people by
providing adequate compensation for public sector employees. Government processes should be more
transparent and should have strict timelines that are client-oriented.

-At the same time, there must effort to improve the standard of living of government officials, to make
rules more reasonable and transparent and to reduce the incentives to corruption by removing the
institutional impediments to the discovery of the fruits of corruption, such as bank secrecy and tax
confidentiality. We support the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, and to computerize land
registration.

1. 4. Decentralization and Autonomy

-We believe that there is no strong state in the world where basic services are done by the national
government. Our goal for the local government units is really to build their capacity to take the lead role in
the delivery of public services. The local government units must take the lead in keeping peace in their
communities, disaster relief and relief operations, and in shepherding the provision basic health and
education services, in community infrastructure as well as in revenue generation.

-The national administration should utilize policy and program funds as a means to create national-local
partnerships in the implementation of government programs, by augmenting the limited funds of the
LGUs. Good performing local government units, in accordance with the performance governance
scorecards, should be rewarded. However, our poorer municipalities that have been newly formed have to
function. They should be given preferential attention in terms building up their capacities. Reward is in one
setting. Capacity building is in another.

-But the most crucial thing is alignment between national and local government incentives and
directions – an alignment which must consider the fact the we are multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-
lingual, and multi-conditional.

1. 5. Genuine Peace and Development

-The Lakas-Kampi-CMD believes that peace and security is a pre-condition to the onset of sustainable
development in the country. By expanding the country’s economic infrastructure, and enhancing peace and
security through the 3D strategy of development, dialogue, and deterrence, major investors will be
encouraged to invest in industries that will pave the way for sustainable job creation.

-The multi-faceted problems in Mindanao, such as land disputes, religious conflict, specter of terrorism,
should be addressed separately in partnership with the local government units. There really should be an
honest to goodness disarmament effort for all non-governmental armed groups.

1. 6. Constitutional Amendments

-We recognize that the 1987 Constitution is a reactive constitution, partly with the purpose to remove all
vestiges of a dictatorial regime – a transient goal that it has already performed. Nonetheless, it has much
room for enhancements to reduce its ambiguities that have hampered the creation of synergies among our
government institutions and to remove its restrictive provisions, which have adversely affected the pace of
the country’s economic development.

-The Lakas-Kampi-CMD espouses the call for a constitutional convention where various proposals
advocacies and issues shall be discussed openly, by delegates freely chosen by the people. This convention
shall, among others:

• tackle the need to evolve whole concept of local autonomy with the end in view of increasing the
capacity of the LGUs to serve the people, granting the flexibility for Congress to decide on
increasing to regional and local autonomy, such as the creation of a separate Palawan region on its
own.

• review the present structure of government with the end in view of moving towards a presidential
unicameral system, where members of the cabinet can be taken from the assembly or the congress.

• amend the overly restrictive economic provisions not merely for foreign investment but also for
domestic investment. The proposal to allow foreigners to own land in the country must be
 tempered by limitations as to the size of the lands they can own for residential as well as industrial
purposes and only during the course of their doing business here. Certain types of land ownership
should be acceptable such as commercial, industrial, tourist and residential lands above certain
values. Agricultural lands and low cost housing should not be adversely affected.

-We all recognize that the 1987 Constitution is not perfect. Charter change should not be assailed before
it even begins. That being said, it is also the responsibility of our political leaders to ensure that our people
will not cast any doubt about possible personal gains on the part of those conducting the process. If we
must go through it, we should: (1) proceed early in the term of the new administration, (2) use the least
controversial mode of a constitutional convention, and (3) make sure that each amendment shall be
itemized in the ensuing referendum process.

Priority Policy and Legislative Agenda

Our policy agenda covers the above thrusts and strategies for change, and the will to continue to the good
programs of the current administration in the areas of social and economic reform, to enhance the country’s
competitiveness as an investment location and as tourist destination, to reduce inefficiencies in the
operations of the government, to foster stewardship of the environment and our natural wealth, and to
remove the practices and processes in every government agency that are unfavorable to the citizenry at
large. The following shall comprise our initial policy and legislative agenda, to wit:

1. A. SOCIAL POLICY AGENDA

Universal Participative Health Care

To provide 100% health care for the Philippine population, especially for the poorest among our poor,
we should establish a universal participative health care system that shall be cooperatively undertaken
between and among local and national government, public and private institutions and the Philippine
Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth). The program may adopt the principles of micro-insurance,
which some companies and non-governmental organizations are already offering on a limited scale. This
should provide the widest health insurance coverage to all our people at the least cost.

Improving Public Health Services

In order to remedy the continuing deterioration of our health delivery systems, we shall rationalize our
regional hospital system and make private ventures into health care attractive to investors. In the early
1990s, public hospitals were hastily devolved to local governments. However, local governments were not
ready to operate public hospitals and had neither the financial means nor the trained personnel to deliver
health services. The hospitals were reverted to the national government but large portions of their budgets
were devolved to local governments. The Health Department had little means to improve medical services.

Basic Education Sector Reform

We will invest heavily in the knowledge and education of our young, to make them capable and
responsible players in an evolving economy as productive workers or as entrepreneurs. We shall work to
close the classroom deficit, reduce the teacher to pupil ration in public schools and support the continuous
improvements of all schools, enhance teacher quality, and raise learning outcomes by aligning our
curriculum design with those of the rest of the world. We will support the development of educational kits
that may be digitally delivered to all public schools to build a uniform base of quality learning for our
children. These shall involve adopting competency-based standards for hiring and deployment of teachers,
further developing the basic education curriculum linked to desired learning outcomes, a multi-year budget
format for basic education, school based management wherein every school would come up with their
specific school improvement plans with the active involvement of local stakeholders, among others.

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps)

 The Lakas-Kampi-CMD initiated the implementation of the 4P’s program of the Department of Social
Welfare and Development in order to ensure that no poor child’s education gets left behind because of
extreme poverty. The only way pupils and their families can get out of poverty is by making them
productive agents and contributors to the national economy.

Student Loan Program

We will pursue the establishment of a student loan mechanism to help poor but deserving individuals
enter into college and finish their education. This program will provide our high school graduates the
opportunity to study in college with the least worries of repaying its financial obligations right away. This
provides them the vehicle to study with convenience, and without the burden of discontinuing studies in the
middle of tertiary education because of lack of finances. This will allow our young people to repay their
loans once they already have a job, through their SSS contributions. Students who are interested in this
program must apply for an SSS number, as an assurance from our government’s part that they will be
repaying their loans. Complementary to this, scholarships shall be given to important yet unpopular courses
that the country needs in development, such as international relations, public policy and planning and
highly specialized science courses.

Technical and Vocational Trainings

The Lakas Kampi CMD shall vigorously pursue the expansion of technical and vocational education in
order to address the requirements of local industries as well as the demand of employers overseas for
improved technical skills. This will enhance industrial productivity within the domestic economy and boost
the competitiveness of Filipino workers abroad. The current Jobs-directed Scholarship Program of the
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) aims to extend financial assistance thru
scholarship grants to poor but deserving students to pursue TVET and equip them with skills for wage
employment, self-employment and/or entrepreneurship. It will allow eligible TVET providers to participate
in the grant system for courses responsive to the needs of the communities in terms of job generation and
employment facilitation.

Protection of Migrant Workers

We shall pursue a balanced approach towards overseas employment by seeking to provide adequate job
opportunities in the country while at the same time aiming to protect those who able to acquire overseas
jobs. The protection of our migrant workers actually begins with protecting them at the point of
recruitment. We shall seek to develop and tap into the entrepreneurial potential of the people within the
country to provide more income opportunities to returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). We must
install more safeguards so that recruiters can provide more assurances of safety for our OFW’s. There
should be a more active network of support systems to monitor the conditions of each and every Filipino
worker abroad. Government must help establish a system of mutual assistance in every country where
Filipino communities are present, to help them cope with emergency problems such as illness, legal issues
and repatriation support.

1. B. HASTENING ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Creating Agri-Entrepreneurs

Our agriculture has remained largely stagnant because of sheer neglect. Most of our farmers have been
using 19th century technology with little success in improving their yields and harvests. We will refocus
agriculture and agrarian reform support systems towards improving farm productivity, more trainings on
better farm technology, improving access to credit, more post harvest facilities and support for farm
marketing that to ensure that the gains of farming will be most concentrated on the farmers. The only way
to liberate the rural poor is from misery to create a new generation of farmer-entrepreneurs armed with the
new knowledge that our own scientists and technicians have developed over the last few decades, who can
raise the productive potential of every unit of land.
Tapping OFW Remittances for Direct Investments

Our financial and capital markets must likewise adopt more innovative responses to address the low
savings rate in our country. Our overseas workers send back to us around $18 billion dollars yearly – but
we have yet to harness these as job-creating investments. If we must double the level of investments within
the economy, we must aim to convert even just ten percent of this immense wealth into our direct
productive investments.

Support for Macro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)

Our government must also look into ways of providing financial and technical support for Macro, Small
and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), in terms of loan grants and the upgrading of equipment and machinery.
All in all, research must be directed towards finding ways for the government to minimize bureaucratic
obstacles and ownership restrictions, provide adequate utility supplies, and allow for quick and easy access
to international markets geared towards enticing local and foreign investors to engage in manufacturing and
production in the country.

Competition Policy

We must establish a comprehensive competition policy that diffuses the control of a few players over
much of the economic assets in the country. We shall encourage private investments particularly in capital-
intensive industries. This policy should properly define monopolies and oligopolies and anti-competitive
behavior, clarify penalties and sanctions and establish a regulatory body that can efficiently implement the
competition policy. Considering the intricacies innate in developing a competition policy, government must
start the process.

Infrastructure Development

The lack of infrastructure has been a major constraint in attracting more investments. Years of
underinvestment and poor maintenance has resulted in inadequate in transport facilities such as airports,
ports and shipping, railways. The Lakas Kampi CMD shall seek to enhance the country’s system of
infrastructures by requiring the integration and convergence of various transport networks to develop
intermodal systems that can support efficient transport of people and goods across regions and across the
major island groups. We intend to encourage LGUs to plan together for their regional development for
which they should be able to access Official Development Assistance funds. It is important that
infrastructure in the Philippines has to keep pace with our goal of hastening the growth of the economy.

Public-Private Partnerships in Infrastructure

Given its very narrow fiscal space, the national government is only able to finance an infrastructure
spending of 2-3% of GDP, compared to the 7% that the World Bank suggests for developing nations. The
Lakas Kampi CMD shall promote public-private partnerships in infrastructure build up, especially in
critical growth areas and in helping to capacitate lagging regions and provinces. We will encourage Build-
Operate-Transfer projects to be implemented at the local level, provided that these are not redundant and
they will complement inter-regional integration.

Inter-Island Logistical System

We shall continue expanding the Strong Republic Nautical Highway system initiated during a Lakas
Kampi CMD administration. This has been a most solid response to the uneven development of the island
economies, where much of the rural poverty happens because they are cut off from the mainstream of
commerce. Unless we rapidly develop our inter-island logistical system, we will remain an economy with
wide regional disparities, which create second-generation problems such as massive internal migration
leading to the expansion of the urban poor, insurgency and separatism, continued economic marginalization
of cultural communities. There is also a need to further liberalize our shipping, ports, air transportation and
cargo service, and telecommunication services.

One Town, One Project

Complementing the opportunities opened by the nautical highway system is the One Town, One Product
program initiated by the Department of Trade. This program has the potential of quickly creating hundreds
of thousands of jobs in small communities. We will expand financing programs for micro, small and
medium industries and link these enterprises with the rapidly modernizing retail sector. This will ensure a
pattern of development that creates jobs, brings the marginal communities to the mainstream and upgrade
the entrepreneurial skills of the population.

Improving Revenue Administration

We will continue to reform our taxation in order to achieve a broader tax base that will enable us to
lower tax rates to match global benchmarks. We push for reforms in our tax administration and establish
more efficient systems and procedures and benchmarking of tax collection. We shall vigorously implement
the attrition system on revenue generating agencies, which provides for the transfer or severance
fromgovernment service for failure to meet collection targets, provision of performance standards and
review mechanisms and provision of incentivesto our performing collection agency.

Rationalization of fiscal incentives

We shall reform the current system of fiscal incentives in the country which is complicated, fragmented,
inefficient, and costly in administrative and revenue terms. The vulnerability of the tax incentive system to
syndicated crimes of graft and corruption has resulted to substantial revenue losses and distortions in
resource allocation. Aside from the additional revenues that it will generate, rationalizing the current fiscal
incentives structure is ultimately concerned with implementing an incentive system that is easy to manage,
administer, and monitor, which will encourage a healthy business environment in our country.

Housing

The prosperity of any society will be measured by its capacity to provide each and every family a roof
over their heads. Mass housing shall be made a mandatory item in the BOI IPP list to ensure automatic
access of socialized and low-cost mass housing to fiscal incentives. Shelter is one of the most basic needs
of people. We will also encourage the growth of rental and lease-to-own housing projects by providing
them adequate credit flows and incentives.

Resettlement of Urban Poor

The issue with most of our urban poor is the lack of opportunities for housing security. They reside on
lands owned by other people or by the state. We shall institute a program of urban renewal that will provide
for medium rise housing, to be funded with ODA funds. This will allow for the recovery of 75% of the
occupied areas for commercial and other productive use, without driving current occupants away to far
flung localities. The on-going NHA projects show that medium rise housing units are very affordable
(P2500 per month) payable over 25-30 years. The recovered lands can be utilized for productive economic
projects that could eventually employ the medium rise housing beneficiaries.

Mining and Quarrying

As a matter of national policy, we should be able to cautiously utilize these resources to hasten the
development of the economy and the reduction of poverty in the country. However, mining projects must
respect the will of the local communities and provinces where they are situated. Sustainable development is
a major balancing act which must involve local communities in the decision making processes, especially
in the extraction of our natural resources. The issues over local revenue shares, and the disposal and
processing of pollutants and tailings, which could affect the social acceptability of such projects, must be
addressed. Mining is a major contributor to the growth of our economy because the Philippines is rich in
mineral resources such as natural gas, gold, nickel, copper, chromites as well as non-metallic elements. The
industry employs over a hundred thousand workers and has the potential to absorb much more. But we
have yet to make a dent on the total potential of our mineral resources which runs in the trillions of dollars.

1. C. IMPROVING GOVERNANCE

Anti-Red Tape

We will institute measures to simplify all government systems and procedures from the national
government departments down to the local government units. Information materials on the procedural
guidelines and timelines shall be explicitly posted in every office where transactions are made. All heads of
agencies as well as LGUs shall be held accountable for the implementation of this policy.

Reengineering the Bureaucracy

We will ask Congress to enact a 3-year program to reengineer the bureaucracy that at the same time
provides for incentives and safeguards for the welfare of our good civil servants. The mandates of each and
every government agency shall be reviewed. All government agencies and/or units within agencies must be
able to justify their existence in terms of the benefits and outcomes of their services to their respective
clients. Employees in non-essential offices and units shall be subjected to an early retirement program but
with attractive benefits, and training and assistance for alternative livelihood options, including possible
service outsourcing contracts with the agencies where they used to work.

National-Local Coordination on Agency Programs

We shall re-design the way national agencies work so that their services do not stop at the regional levels
– which have little perceptible impact to our local communities. We will encourage national-local
partnerships for the implementation of national programs and policies. We will encourage national
government will agencies to design their service delivery programs to complement LGU efforts on similar
services and to augment the meager resources of the LGUs.

Monitoring and Oversight

Special response teams parallel to every government department shall be established to receive
monitoring reports, complaints and discreet reports on any acts of graft and corruption. We shall also
encourage vigilance among our people in monitoring the way government agencies are implementing the
various government programs.

Use of Information Technologies

We will vigorously pursue e-governance to quickly enhance efficiency in the public sector, increase
transparency, widen citizen access to services and ensure accountability. The promise of new technologies
is immense. We must bring these technologies to bear on our systems of governance — from upgrading the
capacities of our local governments to making our national government more responsive to all
constituencies.

Disaster Response

We support the enactment of a National Disaster Law that would provide greater flexibility to local
government units in disaster risk management, allowing the use of more than the current limits (5% of
IRA), not just for disaster response but also for disaster preparedness. This will enable Local Government
Units to purchase more logistics in terms of rubber boats, trucks and all other live-support and life-saving
mechanisms, even before calamities arrive. More training should be conducted, especially at the local level
in terms of coordination, communications, and actual rescue and relief operations. We must also designate
specific open elevated areas as disaster evacuation points other than school buildings. We will ask our local
government units as well as civic organizations to establish joint action plans for securing their
communities and providing needed materials and supplies. At the national level, we shall channel resources
to improve the forecasting capabilities of our weather and geological agencies and also to establish more
detailed geo-hazard mapping to enhance our disaster preparedness.

Priority Development Assistance Funds

The Priority Development Assistance Funds of legislators is actually a form of equalization in the
geographic distribution of government resources. The issue arising from these funds is really in the way the
projects are chosen and implemented. However, there is a need for greater transparency in this regard. We
shall impose the condition that projects and programs to be funded under the PDAF should be the result of
public consultations and town hall meetings conducted with the LGUs and civil society.

1. D. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Climate Change and Global Warming / Reforestation

The Philippines can best contribute to anti-climate change efforts by way of a massive reforestation
program, which can help absorb significant amounts of greenhouse gasses. The first order of business is to
demarcate the forest lines of the country with visible boundaries on the ground and use assisted natural
regeneration (ANR) methods to re-vegetate our forests. A Lakas Kampi CMD administration shall set aside
at the least P 5 billion every year for forest dwelling communities that will provide regular income support
for families in forestry cooperatives. We shall leverage these projects against the carbon funds to be able to
provide better community services to the beneficiaries. We shall also encourage urban informal settlers to
be trained and be part of reforestation program because this could give them a better alternative to
improving their families’ futures as compared to remaining in blighted urban conditions.

Biofuels

We support the development of alternative sources of energy, especially because the Philippine economy
is highly dependent on fuel imports. The creation of a strong biofuels industry would not only provide
dollar savings from imported fuels, but also thousands of new jobs not only in the cities but more
importantly in the country-sides. Brazil has done this with their highly successful bio-ethanol program. We
have plenty of corn and sugar lands that can provide the needed inputs for biofuels. We shall also develop
jathropa as an alternative source of fuel that can provide jobs for our upland communities.

Solid Waste Management

At the policy level, the Solid Waste Act has the clear mandate for solid waste management, which
includes handling and final disposal of hazardous wastes. We must encourage as far as possible the
recycling of waste materials. LGUs must ensure that at their level, the support system in terms of
collection, recycling and disposal are made available. Waste management is principally local government
concern but it really begins in every home. We shall support more trainings and information drives on
waste management to inculcate the philosophy that every citizen has an obligation to help, especially in
waste segregation and composting. We shall also spearhead Environmental Compliance Audits with the
support of local communities, civil society, professionals as well as college students.

1. E. PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT

Peace and Order

Peace and order is a pre-requisite to any attempt at economic and socio-cultural development in any
society. We need to instill a culture of peace among our people. The Lakas Kampi CMD is set pursue peace
and order founded on the primacy of the Philippine constitution, which the Philippine government must
uphold at all times. There must always be government presence in the various conflict areas not only to our
protect villages but as a deterrent to any potential aggression on the part of insurgents and separatists.

Illegal Fishing

We all recognize that our fisher-folk are among the poorest and most neglected sectors in the
countryside. With little government support, they use very simple boats that allow them to fish not far from
the shores. Often, they employ unsound and unsustainable practices such as blasting and poisoning – which
have destroyed much of the country’s coastal resources, and which in turn further reduced their daily catch.
We shall provide them better options by way of a new program for cooperative fishing, providing them
village refrigeration, and assisting them to build their own marketing networks.

Illegal Drugs

Government must enlist the cooperation of every community in the fight against illegal drugs. Drug
trafficking has become a very serious problem in the Philippines. Reports show that the street value of
illegal drugs has reached tens of billions of pesos. This means that there is now a proliferation of this
problem in many parts of the country. We must review the strategies of law enforcement agencies with
respect to this malaise, especially in the areas of intelligence, deterrence and full prosecution of drug
offenders. The current programs of law enforcement agencies may no longer be adequate or their strategies
already compromised.

For all of these goals and action commitments, we seek the support of the Filipino electorate.