A review of the various government agencies tasked with communication and information dissemination reveals some overlapping of functions, duplication of responsibilities, and uncoordinated use of resources. There is, therefore, much room for streamlining to allow these agencies to collectively work more efficiently and use the available resources rationally and without waste. What is sinister about that?

Some columnists, including Business Mirror’s Marvin Tort, have expressed concern that EO 511 "may just all be about the money." In a sense, he is correct, because one of the objectives of EO 511 is to save the government money by eliminating unnecessary advertising expenses.

Viewing the glass half empty, one may see the EO as a means of assigning blame for any shortcomings in the government’s media strategy. The better view, of seeing the glass half full, would be of a valuable and challenging opportunity to make all those involved in the communications effort more accountable and responsible.

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With a recent executive order declaring the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) as development route for passengers and cargo, passenger flights at the DMIA jumped from only 5 per week to 46 flights per week in March. Clark Development Corporation President Tony Ng, said this is expected to increase to 75 flights per week by December 2006, with a corresponding increase in passenger volume of 450 percent. Cargo flights have experienced a similar increase.

Two new hotels, Raffles Hotel and Ft. Stotsenberg Hotel, will be completed by June this year, adding a total of 500 new hotel rooms.

Meanwhile, Clark Shogee Studio will soon start full-scale Hollywood studio movie operations, a first in the Philippines. Shogee, a technology leader in creating effects used in movies like King Kong, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, is partnering with Cybercity Philippines.

The project, with a startup -million investment (expected to grow to million) will initially generate 400-500 jobs.

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Due to the fiscal reforms initiated by the President, the government’s debt is expected to ease to 68 percent of gross domestic product at the end of this year, from the 72 percent in 2005. If this trend continues, and we are confident it will, then we are well on our way to achieving a balanced budget on or before 2010.

Our efforts at biting the bullet in putting our fiscal house in order have not passed unnoticed in the international market. Philippine five-year bonds rallied, pushing yields to their lowest in more than seven years. Since the market expects the government’s borrowing requirement to be less as the deficit narrows, there is room for further decline in the yields. What this all means, is that we can anticipate more savings because we will be paying less for our international obligations. For the first time in many administrations, we will have internally generated money to pay for our basic social services.

On the local scene, share prices closed last week at a fresh six-and-a-half year high. To be sure, recent positive economic data, earnings reports, the government’s better-than-target budget deficit and strong remittances from Filipinos overseas contributed to the markets very strong performance.

Here are other bits of good news: The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that the current account surplus last year hit .354 billion, up 45 percent from .626 billion in 2004.

Dell, the world’s largest personal computer maker, said it will hire 1,400 employees for its Philippine call center.

Note: Past articles may be viewed at http://www.news.ops.gov.ph/palace_bunye.htm