Negros Oriental Convention Center, Dumaguete City, 29 October

Ipa-abot nato tanan ang pag-abi sa mga opisyal sa Oriental Negros!

Kining Integrated Taxation System usa ka dako nga kontribusyon sa atong padayon na paningkamot nga motaas ang atong koleksyon sa nasod ug sa probinsiya.

Our economic strength is largely attributed to the various financial reforms, including strong revenue measures.

The single biggest act that led to the surge in our economy was the passage of our value added tax, salamat sa atong mga congressmen sa niaging Congress, kauban si Dodong Macias ug Tio Miniong Teves. In one bold stroke it raised enormous amounts of new revenue. That act also sent an unmistakable signal that we are serious about moving the nation forward. That isn't all, though. Our complete focus on the economy, fiscal discipline, a balanced budget and the need for long overdue human and physical infrastructure improvements help round out our economic gains.

Our efforts are paying off in a strong peso, low inflation, a robust stock market, rapid inflows of foreign investment and over 6 million new jobs created in the last six years. Our unemployment rate is the lowest in a generation. So is our poverty rate.

We have confidence sa anak sa Oriental Negros, Secretary Gary Teves that we will be able to meet our targets this year. We are committed to our budget balancing milestone and we will meet it. Our budget deficit so far is significantly lower than the ceiling. We are on track to achieve our target.

We have demonstrated that we have the ability to keep our budget under control; we have lowered our deficit and raised unprecedented amounts of revenue. While we faced some challenges in generating revenues from the BIR and the BOC earlier this year, we took major steps to address the early revenue shortfalls. These steps included such things as the appointment of our new BIR Commissioner Lilian Hefti, and more aggressive pursuit of tax evasion and corruption cases that will yield additional revenues. We are committed to increasing tax revenues through a range of administrative and legal actions. These efforts are already paying off with July to September revenue collections exceeding our target for the period. We expect collections to get back on track in the second half of the year.

For the first time in a generation, our budget is under control; we are lowering our deficit and raising unprecedented amounts of revenue. We do not want to and will not go back to the days of unbridled deficit spending. Our commitment to economic reform has proven effective. We are both comfortable and confident that our discipline will allow us to continue on a balanced path of targeted investment and overall restraint. We moved the target to balance the budget from 2010 to 2008. We will do this while investing in infrastructure sama sa RORO system ug social services sa PhilHealth.

There is no need for new taxes. We have plenty of room to increase revenues by enhancing tax administration.

Atong pag-abi-abi gihapon sa gobyerno sa Oriental Negros ug ang iyang mga dakbayan ug lunsod, sa ilang liderato ni-ining proyekto.