菲律宾新任总统小马科斯的第一场新闻发布会（英文版）

7月2日小马科斯一家及亲近的亲朋好友们在马拉坎南宫为93岁的第一母亲、前第一夫人伊梅尔达低调地庆祝生日。
　　BBM:

　　Good afternoon everyone. Pleasetake your seats. So the since today we had our first cabinet meeting. I wouldlike to report to you more or less what were discussed. As can be expected I thinkwe were upon there until one o’clock, we were there for 4 hours. But we stillweren’t able to cover everything. We had the discussions where the economicteam, who were able to put out the general principles that they would like todo then follow by. Inday sara who gave her ideas on how we will return slowlyto face to face education in the next semester. After whick we talked with thedepartment of transportation at great length about some of the plants that wehave for to support the return of our students to face to face.

　　So that’s generally what wasspoken about simply because there was somuch to talk about. So I am planning perhaps for the next two or three weeks toaccelerate the number of cabinet meetings. It’s important to me that the entirecabinet understands what it is we are trying to do how we are going to do itwhat timetable is, and how it al fits together, and that’s what we made a goodstart on today.

　　Before that yesterday as I’msure as you have reported I went to the department of agriculture so that I couldalso get a good idea of exactly what needs to be done. Because as I have statedso many times the problems in the agricultural sector are primary to all thatwe are hoping to do. We cannot do many of the things unless we can see that theagricultural sector has strengthened. Food supply is such an important part, itis existential part of our work, and so that is something that we have to verycareful with, and attend to properly as has been reported. Essentially what wespoke about where the immediately concerns that we are facing and I’m talkingabout the next 6 months the next two or three quarters. You know I want to assoon as possible immediately.

与低调的生日晚宴不同，大马尼拉某大楼上悬挂的伊梅尔达巨幅海报相当高调。估计是有人在拍马屁。
　　And that off course when Iwas in the department of agriculture that was mostly concerned with the foodsupply in the next two quarters. I’m sure you are all aware of what’s happeningaround the world. You have all seen the effects of the increasing food pricesto all consumers everywhere. And this is what we are anticipating could happenif we are not well prepared. Many of the elements and many of the variablesthat have caused this food price crisis. There is enough food but the price istoo high and it’s criticising.

　　All many of the elements ifnot all have been variables that over which we have no control. But nonethelesswe still have to feed our people and so we still to find out strategies to makesure that those who are in need and supported by the government as best as wecan do. Then there is of course the long term. In the department of agriculturewhere I talk about rebuilding the value chain from the research and developmentall the way to the retail. I think I’ve been talking about ad nauseam already. Idon’t know if you need for me to explain it all again. But it really is just toensure food supply in the Philippines at the price that is actually affordable.Because we always have to remember it’s all very well having food supply but ifno one can afford it’s totally means nothing to Filipino.

　　So those are the things thatwe discussed.

　　In the cabinet meeting todaywe talked about immediate concerns and then we had to talk about long-term concerns.Because we are trying as we attend to immediate concerns. We are also trying tostreamline the government so its function is more efficient and much easier forthe public as they have to do business whatever business the have with thegovernment that it is easier simpler safer and more secure to do. So these arethe different things that of course we spoke to it in much greater detail. As Isaid I think we want to make sure that the plan every department every agencyhas already made.

　　That’s the general gist ofour yesterday’s meeting in the department of agriculture and the cabinetmeeting that we had earlier today. So I think I will now open the floor to afew questions.

记者会上的小马科斯
　　Reporter: Sir can you tell us which is the most important matching orderfor the all cabinet secretaries following the first cabinet meeting earlier ?

　　BBM: I don’t think we can say one. Essentially is we got into muchmore details so there are no generalizations anymore because we’ve been talkinganyway for two months. So no general concepts and general principles. The thingsalready what we are going to do when we are going to do how we are going to doetc. so each department has got a very different instructions the only thingthat it’s looks like is that we have to realize how interconnected all thegovernment is, everything that’s done on one hand effects the government in anotherplace, sometimes not to its advantage so we have to be careful about doing allof that properly. So there isn’t single one I suppose if there’s one let’s getour bureaucracy streamlined. I said I will not give you a relatively free handin deciding who you want to hire and how you want to change the structure ofyour department if you indeed that’s what you want to do, but do it soonbecause we have work to do and we have to get to work immediately. I thinkthere are some things that are immediately accessible in the sense that we canstart doing something about it already. The first thing , for example of thatwas Inday Sara’s announcement that we have a plan for full face to face by Novemberof this year. September we will start a phased face to face schooling. We haveto also talk about vaccination etc. Because  there are going to be some issues that will beraised. So if I’m going to single out man in such a set quickly let’s get thisdone quickly. Of course we’re careful but we’re always in a hurry because wehave to get much done in very little time.   

　　Reporter: Sir, on other issue are you going to have a meeting with Chineseforeign minister Wangyi? And if you’re going to meet with him what till be theagenda what will be the talking points?  

　　BBM:

　　Yes I will meet with him， and the agenda, I\'m sure, will be to strengthen tiesbetween China and the Philippines. And of course, to find ways to work-toresolve the conflicts that we have. One of the ways that I have consistently suggestedis that we have our relationship not only on one dimension, not just thePhilippine Sea.

　　Lets add to that cultural exchanges, education exchanges and evenmilitary if that would be useful. Of course the GTG has always been there. Theprivate sector joined ventures has always been there. But I think that the morewe do that the more it will help resolve the issues.

　　I will also mention that it is an important player or actor in terms ofthe regional geopolitics will be ASEAN and even APEC because they have aninterest. They are stakeholders in this, so I think we can say that we need forthem, the ASEAN to be active for their member countries.

　　It\'s essentially always trying to find ways to improve relationships andwe have many proposals to them. In a sense that as I\'ve said we would like forus to increase the scope. We will not just talk about the West Philippine Sea.Lets do other things too. That will normalize our relationship.

小马科斯与王毅会面时的情形

　　Reporter: When will be the meeting sir?

　　BBM: I\'m not sure when she will be...I think there\'s no schedule yet.

　　Reporter: Lets keep it down to one question each so that we can cater alot. Mr. Neil Mercado of the Inquirer.net? If you\'re not here, so the questionwas, "Inflation rate soared to 6.1 %, the highest since October 2018. Doesthe president have a concrete plan to address this? How can the government helpevery Filipino suffering from the high price of commodities?

　　BBM: Yes, of course. The inflation rate is really a problem not onlyin the Philippines but everywhere. How did he quote the inflation rate?

　　Reporter: 6.1%

　　BBM: I think I have to disagree with that number. We are not thathigh. Our targets were less 4% or less. Unfortunately, it looks like we maycross that threshold. We are crossing the 4 %. That\'s why we have to thinkabout interest rate levels. But there is a conflicting force in that exchangerate levels. The dollar(US) has gained against all currencies. It\'s specificeffect actually will start to be part of one of the components of theinflation. We are having to be careful, because our monetary policy right nowmust essentially use interest rate to take hold or control the inflation rate.We are not looking specifically on the exchange rate. What we are targeting isthe inflation rate. That\'s what we are doing. The increasing commodity issomething that happens. The forces that have pushed the commodity prices up arebeyond our control. Much of our inflations are imported inflation. It isimported because it is the inflation of the products that we import. When weanalyze, we have to make those categorical differences, so that we may betterunderstand what really the situation is.

小马科斯日前和能源部官员会面
　　Reporter: Mr. President, what support can the  transport sector expect from theadministration? Do we expect more our continued fuel subsidy? And for thecommuters, what can they expect? Will the free ride be continued and beexpanded? Thank you.

　　BBM: I\'m glad you asked. We just discussed that we are going to trynot only to continue the fuel subsidy but to expand it to the tricycles, whichup to now have not been included. We talked in the Cabinet meeting, the fundingwhere it can come from and how we are going to manage the additional fuelsubsidies. We have enough budget I think that would last for this year and alittle bit beyond. But we still need to find that money that we need for it tocontinue. We will continue the free ride but we will stop the free ride withMRT 3. We will transfer it to students...I\'m sorry, I think I am doing thiswrong. The free ride continues as is. But we will be making a program for thestudents. We will subsidize first their fare. We\'ll face it out because wecannot afford to keep that going but students will ride for free on LRT 2 whichis going to the university belt. We extended the fuel subsidy and moved thatextended subsidy for riders to LRT for the students who are coming back thisSeptember.

　　Reporter: Is there an immediate directed from the president after theDOH reported more that 7 thousand cases of Covid-19 in the past week.

　　BBM: If we are looking at where we started, we still have thecapability to handle the new covid cases. We should not look at the number ofcovid cases in the same way as we look at them in 2020 and 2021, because thisis Omicron. It is very different. It is a little contagious but it does not hitus hard. In fact, the general experience has been, people are down maybe for2-3 days. That\'s like flue. We are getting to that point where we are learningto live with the corona virus specifically with the Omicron virus and otherother viruses that are coming. The science has come back to us that for theoriginal variance, the alphas, it\'s is fine to have 2 shots but for Omicron weneed the booster. So we will be encouraging that, especially for younger peoplebecause again we have to be concerned with their return to school. That\'s thegeneral policy that we will institute again a vaccination drive so that we canat least feel safer when the children go back to school.

小马科斯与其头号亲信维克·罗德里格斯讨论问题　　Reporter: Good afternoon Mr. President. Let\'s talk about agriculture. Iunderstand that your desire is to lower prices of food. Are you inclined toimprove additional import volumes for rice, chicken, sugar to bring downprices. Do you have an indicative volume that you are looking at?

　　BBM: Importation has been used as a price stabilization measure. Idon\'t think that is the primary reason for importation that we do now. As amatter of fact, in the Agriculture department, we are going to boost theproduction of rice and corn in the coming 2 quarters until after Christmas.There are several reasons for that. We would prefer not to import. We wouldprefer to import as little as possible, so we should increase our ownproduction of rice and corn. Corns became especially important because the feedwheat that we are importing, our supply has been cut off, so we have tosubstitute it with corn. This season, the corn growers were able come togetherand provided sufficient supply of feed for the broiler production. But we stillhave to increase the production of corn to ensure supply. Because there is cornfor food and corn for feeds. If we are able to increase productionsufficiently, then hopefully the importations--it is not really an importsubstitution measure but a strategic food supply measure. But if there aretendencies of import substitution, it is really not a bad thing. So that\'s theplan. On the protein side, we are a quite not well, when it comes to pork, wereally are having a difficulty controlling the ASF for various reasons. Westill have to import a lot of the pork products. Even on the broiler side, westill have to import because of feed shortage. We encountered problems in foodsupply this past. Our production is not sufficient, in rice, corn, livestock,fisheries. That\'s why I made agriculture a single, the highest priority ineverything that we are doing. Because you can not build a strong economy unlessyou have a foundation of a robust agriculture sector which assures food supplyeven in emergencies. That\'s what we\'re working. Those are the long terms. Theshort term is the one I\'ve mentioned, to increase production for the rest ofthe year. Lets try to make it to the last planting season of this year. They\'llharvest soon, like towards the end of the year. Perhaps we can make up to thefood supply problem. Still it\'s a short term solution. We need long termsolution.

小马科斯日前和农业巨头会面时的情形
　　 Solutions that can take care of these problems. We no longer takecare of the symptoms, we take care of the disease. and that\'s what we\'re tryingto do in Agriculture. We have our ways to go. There are elements of the valuechain that are there but are not part of the process. The stand alone on theirown. What we want to do is to have them come together so that they have savingsthat when you vertically integrate, you can find a lot of savings all along theline. That hopefully, gets to the point that we can retail these agriculturalproducts at a good price that is affordable to the people.
　　Thank you all very much. Ihope we were able to answer at least some of your questions.

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