OTHER PHILIPPINE NEWSPAPERS NEWS

CALIFORNIA GOVERNATOR COMES TO RP

MANILA — Expect some “heavy lifting” in the post-“Ondoy” recovery efforts. For the “Governator” is coming.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to arrive in Manila on Feb. 7 to look into Philippine rebuilding efforts after the onslaughts of Storms Ondoy (international codename: Ketsana) and “Pepeng” (Parma) last year.

During his one-week stay, Schwarzenegger will visit areas devastated by the calamities, according to Butch Meily, executive director of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation (PDRF).

“We will be talking to him about the disaster recovery plan,” Meily said. He said the governor would be accompanied by former California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and a group of Filipino-Americans.

‘Heavy lifting’

President Macapagal-Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson, Gary Olivar, joked that Schwarzenegger would “assist in heavy lifting.” The actor-turned-politician is a former bodybuilding titlist who popularized the “Terminator” movie franchise before joining the Republican Party.

Meily said Schwarzenegger might also have an audience with the President, who earlier formed a private-public sector commission to facilitate recovery efforts.

The PDRF represents that private sector in the initiative, in partnership with the Special National Public Reconstruction Commission.

3-year rebuilding

In a media presentation at Malacañang Thursday, Ricardo Saludo, secretary general of the commission, said a total of P208 billion would be needed for the three-year rebuilding program.

Fifty-five percent of the budget or P114.5 billion will come from the government, while the remainder of P93.4 billion will be shouldered by the private sector.

This year alone, Saludo said, recovery efforts would need a total of $877.58 million to cover housing, agriculture, and flood control and other areas.

“We really need our taxpayers to come forward this year,” he told reporters. We need to boost tax collection.”

To ensure that recovery would remain on track, Saludo said the commission had asked the Commission on Elections to exempt its infrastructure projects from the election ban.

“We need to repair classrooms before school resumes and we need to restore irrigation facilities and distribute farm inputs for the wet season planting,” he said in a statement.