INTRODUCTION
At the outset, let me thank the representatives of the 19 provinces present here today for your participation in this event. I also thank our donors — old and new — for their continuing support to a cause that is of special concern to all of us — countryside development.
THE CHALLENGE OF DEVELOPING THE COUNTRYSIDE
The lack of tools and skills necessary to initiate income-generating activities in the countryside has left a good portion of the natural resources and the wealth of our provinces to remain unutilized or underutilized. They remain untapped because many of our provincial folks have taken off and sought other opportunities in urban centers. For years, our people have been migrating to the cities to earn their livelihood. But we are now at a point where even our urban centers cannot take the influx of people anymore. Our cities are hard put to make ends meet and provide basic services for their growing population.

Today, the need to develop our countryside is more apparent. The countryside is where the willing hands and the bountiful seeds of development can be found. From the countryside comes most of our food and our raw materials for manufacturing or for producing export products.

The countryside is our last frontier for progress. To keep pace with our fast-changing society and our fast-growing neighbor-countries, we must utilize its resources to the fullest.
GOVERNMENT’S INITIATIVES TOWARD COUNTRYSIDE DEVELOPMENT
Early on in this administration through the Presidential Council on Countryside Development (PCCD), we identified the nineteen (19) poorest provinces. We prioritized a program to help them not only in hastening their march to progress but also in bringing them back to the mainstream of development. Workshops have been conducted to properly identify what their immediate needs are. Last September, I sought to speed up the process to address the needs of our people in these areas by allocating a substantial portion of the President’s Social Fund for the National Economic Enterprise Development Program.

This program focuses on handicraft production for export development. We have initiated this program in ten of the nineteen provinces. With the help of our new supporters, we will soon extend this program to all the 19 provinces.

The productive and creative agro-technology program has also taken off. I am pleased to hear of its brisk progress. I am happy to hear that our leading feed millers have signified keen interest in pouring investments in specific provinces.

It is also encouraging to hear that a number of corporations have committed themselves to transfer various technologies for livelihood purposes in these areas.

Let me therefore urge you to renew this spirit of pakikisama — and generosity — that we have forged, and to gather our forces to pursue more determinedly our goals to develop our economy, especially in our poorest provinces.
EXPERIENCING THE COUNTRYSIDE
From the beginning, I have regularly visited our provinces to see the needs of our people and what can be done to address them with dispatch. It is clear that most places have more or less the same needs: basic services such as power, potable water, irrigation, livelihood, health services, credit, and education, to name a few.

This administration will continue to forcefully address these problems. The pledges from various national agencies for the 19 provinces will only be until the end of 1994. But if the leaders and executives in these areas perform over and above our expectations, I assure you that we will continue to support your endeavors. We will also convince the private sector to take part in your efforts. We do this today, but remember, the key word is performance, effective performance, results-producing performance.
CLOSING
If we really want to get out of our current poverty, we must now demonstrate our ability to effectively address the challenges before us. Our collective efforts should be directed at policies and programs that will have the highest impact on countryside development.

We have taken the first steps. The creation of the presidential council for countryside development is among them. It is time to ensure that we can gather the resources to move on. That is why we are all here today.

I expect local government leaders, without further prodding, to intensify and achieve unity, social cohesion and teamwork. I expect all to foment from among your constituents a civic revolution — an explosion of social energy that will enable the entire nation to catch up with our more vigorous neighbors and become a newly industrializing economy by the year 2000.

Mabuhay ang PCCD!

Mabuhay tayong lahat!

A joyful Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all!

Thank you and good day.