 Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome. We're delighted to have you here. I was saying to Vice President Bene, I'm glad he could come after the monsoon left. Gosh, yesterday was Manila weather, wasn't it? Except it was a little too cold. But the sun is shining and we'll give him credit for bringing a very, very nice day for all of us. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. We're delighted to have you here. This is a really important opportunity for us to be able to host Vice President Bene. Let me just first say what he's decided to bring up a family of politicians. So his daughter, Abby, who's a member of Congress, his son, Jay Jamar, who is the mayor, Makati asked him, how big is your constituency? He said, well, during the night, it's 800,000. During the day, it's four and a half million, you know? Gives you a sense of what he has to cope with as a mayor. And that's where politics is very real, isn't it? You know, that's where it really matters, however everybody lives. This is a wonderful opportunity. Vice President Bene, of course, was side by side with President Obama during the last visit. So very important in talking with Ambassador Kuisha that, you know, we signed this agreement. It was not easy. It was not easy. And I think Ambassador Kuisha, I think you said it was something like eight working sessions before we got, yes. Rounds, not sessions, rounds. There were probably multiples sessions in each round. I mean, so it was tough, but it was an important visit, very important visit. Because, you know, Philippines is one of our five treaty allies. And I mean treaty allies. We have obligations with each other. And in, Philippines has been facing some big challenges, especially. There are challenges, you know, because we are an allied partner. So I think it was extremely important the President could be there. And I would say to Vice President Bene, on behalf of all Americans, thank you for being such a wonderful host for our President and making it such a good visit. And I think what we're going to, he's not going to tell us the secret stuff they talked about, but I do think he's going to give us insights. You know, we're going to flesh out more of the content of how our two countries are looking at this very complex theater. It's becoming much more important. And we're lucky to have such a strong partner to anchor us in Asia. So we say welcome to all of our Philippine friends, and especially welcome to you, Vice President Bene. Are you going to, Ernie, you want to say some words of introduction and welcome, and otherwise we'll turn it over to the Vice President. What would you all with your applause, please welcome Vice President Ernie. Thank you for the introduction. I'm Dr. John Hamre, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Philippine Ambassador to the United States, Ambassador Sequicia, Mr. Ernest Bauer, Senior Advisor and Sumitra Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS, Ambassador John Meister. John, you're now a President. I'm still a Vice President. John is a good friend of ours. He was leaking a lot of information from the U.S. Embassy to the opposition. Those were the days, John. To the Academy, other distinguished guests, friends from media, ladies and gentlemen, a pleasant afternoon to all of you. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. And I'm greatly honored to be invited to the CSIS Sumitra Jojo Hadikuzumo Banyan III Leadership Forum. The long-standing kinship between the Philippines and the United States began in the early 20th century. But it was the crucible of the Second World War that forged and strengthened our bond. The recent visit of President Barack Obama is a testament to the vitality and dynamism of our spatial relationship as friends and allies in peace and in war. And the visit was an opportunity to exchange views on our strategic vision and our mutual aspirations for the 21st century. President Obama and our own President Benigno Esaquino III discussed new avenues for strengthening our partnership across the board, including the intensification of political and security cooperation, expansion of trade and investment, tourism and development cooperation, as well as deepening people-to-people ties. They also discussed continued cooperation in responding to calamities and disasters and increased assistance in the rehabilitation of the typhoon-highland affected areas. By the way, our condolences to the victims of natural disasters in the United States. The most recent quits happened in the central and southern parts of the United States while President Obama was in the Philippines. The presidential visit kept a series of present high-level exchange agreements between our two countries. Last year, United States Secretary of State John F. Kerry and United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hegel visited the Philippines. And early this year, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and U.S. Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, did so as well. It is easy to dwell on the military and defense facet of the Obama visit, particularly the signing of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA. Can never forget EDCA. It's nearer to EDCA, between the Philippines and the United States. It comes after all on the heels of heightened tension between China and its neighbors, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, and the Philippines. Over maritime and territorial control of one of the world's most important sea lines of communications, the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea, as we now refer to it in the Philippines. But the military element is just one dimension, albeit an important and strategic one of the disruptively changed political, economic, and social makeup of the power structure in the region, indeed, of the world as well. The major change is this, that China. China is the new kid on the block. In latest estimates from the International Comparison Program hosted by the World Bank, and just released yesterday, China is poised to overtake the United States as the world's largest economy later this year. Tapping it from the perch it has held since 1872, and this changed environment has, in fact, also driven the new United States initiatives in Asia, its pilot, or the now rebranded rebalancing strategy in Asia, which, very clearly, is not just a military initiative, but an economic and diplomatic trust as well. We in the Philippines are very much a part of the changed environment. We are unlike any other country in the region in that we are a permanent neighbor and an old trading partner of China, and at the same time, America's oldest Asian ally. And necessarily, as China and the United States move to redefine the relationships with each other, we in the Philippines must also move to redefine our relationships with each one of them. And so today, as I share with you our views of the future, of our relations with a resurgent China and a rebalancing America, I have to tell you about the Philippine development agenda, as this is the only context that must shape our new relationships with our neighbor China and our ally America. Our economic trajectory parallels and even exceeds that of China. Under the Aquino Administration, the GDP of the Philippines expanded to 6.6 percent in 2012, grew further to 7.2 percent in 2013, and is forecasted to be between 6.5 percent and 7.5 percent in 2014. The Philippines credit rating was likewise upgraded by Moody's investor service, standard and poor and fixed ratings, and therefore boosting our country's ascent to investment ramp. And given this growth rates, Hong Kong Shanghai Bank projects that by 2050, by 2050, the Philippines will be the 15th largest economy in the world, moving up 27 notches from its current position. But this is only the macroeconomic picture. On the ground, the situation is starkly different. The economic expansion has not resulted in commensurate inclusion at the bottom of the economy pyramid. Despite dramatic macroeconomic gains, poverty and unemployment is still humble about a fifth of all Filipinas. The other issue confronting the Philippine economy narrative is that our growth has been fueled by massive increases in the contribution of the services sector, principally in the business process, outsourcing industry, or BPO, and in the remittances of the Filipino overseas workforce. The manufacturing and agricultural sector, the major drivers of employment and economic sustainability, remain relatively dormant. Moving forward, our economic agenda is therefore very clear. We must make sure that our economic gains are felt by the greater mass of our people, and we must energize the manufacturing, agricultural, and other sectors of our economy. Inclusion and diversification must be the key elements of our strategy. My thoughts on inclusion have been hewn by my nearly two decades of experience as the Chief Executive of the Philippines Financial District, and this is the city of Makati. I became mayor of Makati as early as 1986 as the first local government appointee of President Corazon Siakino. I assumed leadership of a broken town with yearly budget deficits that ended with a 200-person budget debt. I transformed the town to a city, made it the financial and commercial capital of the country, and when I left after 21 years for higher offers in 2010, Makati had a surplus account of two billion pesos, even as it reached an annual expenditure budget of ten billion pesos. In my years as Chief Executive of Makati, the city never incurred a budget deficit, never. Even as Makati was transforming into the financial center of the Philippines, its public services were no better than those of a fourth-class municipality. Makati hosted the top domestic and multinational corporations and was home to the country's wealthiest families, but it was also where some of the poorest in the country lived, in the hovels of the illicit men's barrios known as EMBO and in many informal settled communities. Having been born to poverty and having risen from it, my bias as a political leader has always been for the poor. When I became mayor, I was armed only with academic credentials and had no political experience nor formal managerial training, but it only took common sense to determine that there would be nothing to share with our needy constituents from an empty path. Thus, from the outset, revenue generation has been one of the key elements of the Makati narrative. The city government had to rationalize and expand our tax base in terms of real property and business taxes. And I distinctly recall meeting with a group of businessmen early in my term, where I made one simple promise to them. I will focus only on governance and I will work to provide the environment for business to grow. But you must do your share in supporting the government by paying your taxes, among other civic responsibilities. I kept my promise and so did the businessmen. And the rapid growth of Makati's revenue base was the result of our efforts to raise taxes and collect them more efficiently. But just as importantly, it was the direct result of the improved performance of the business enterprises and the appreciation of the value of their real estate assets. As Makati gained its economic footing, we worked to ensure the continued expansion and stability of the city's economic fundamentals. We further improved revenue collection efficiency by introducing technology that made tax payments less burdensome to our taxpayers. We adapted progressive land use and zoning policies adjusted to the changing needs of Makati's enterprises, therefore dramatically raising real estate values. We also granted incentives to preferred emerging industries to set up shop in our city. This made Makati the center of the country's vibrant business process outsourcing industry. But we knew that we could not just continue expanding the city's economy. I knew by simple common sense that expansion must necessarily precede inclusion. And so in Makati we defined inclusion not only to mean more money in the pockets of our citizens but likewise greater access to opportunities for social and economic advancement and to services that are quality of life enhancing. And as revenues grew, we carefully focused the deployment of these resources on areas that would directly and sustainably benefit the city's residents who needed them most. Since 1986, Makati's public investments have consistently focused on three domains. First, raising the standards and quality of the city's infrastructure to ensure the sustainability and continued expansion of its economy. Second, a comprehensive education agenda to ensure access of the city's shoot to the rapidly evolving economic opportunities. Entered the access of the citizenry to programs that would improve quality of life, such as healthcare, senior citizen programs, and enhancement of the environment. In 2010, my last year as mayor, more than 40 percent of our annual budget was allocated to education, 16 percent. Health, 16 percent. Environment, 6.6 percent. And social welfare, 2.8 percent. Plus, a very big chunk of our 22.2 percent went to the infrastructure budget, which went to school buildings and other educational assets as well as health services and infrastructure. In the Philippines, education is the greatest social equalizer. It rescued me from a life of poverty and hardship. It has become an integral part of our agenda of inclusion. And to sustain our economic growth, we need to ensure that our children grow up to be truly productive. And today, about 85,000 students populate Makati's state of the art. Technology enabled elementary and regular secondary schools and science high school benefiting from free snacks, books and notebooks, uniforms and allowances. Another 9,000 are in the country's pilot senior high school program being run by the University of Makati. And another 15,000 Makati college students are enrolled at our university paying only a subsidized token fee of 1,000 pesos or approximately 23 United States dollars a semester with another 1,500 non-Makati resident but academically qualified students paying 3,000 pesos per semester or 67 United States dollars less than the cost of a Wagyu steak and lobster meal. What do all of this mean? What have my long years of experience as Chief Executive of Makati taught me about poverty alleviation and inclusive growth? Very simply that the alleviation of poverty must accrue to the poor. One Filipino at a time. Inclusion is not just statistics, it must have a name, a face and an address. Now as a national official, I understand what we need to do to achieve the full cycle of expansion and inclusion. First, we must enhance and strengthen the economic fundamentals that have been achieved. Continuing to expand our tax base not by raising taxes but by improving compliance and collection. Second, we must raise the infrastructure spending from the current 2 percent of our GDP to a truly progressive 5 percent of GDP. Investing in infrastructure that raise the quality of the lives of our people and also enhance the country's economic climate. Third, simultaneously we must expand and enhance the delivery of social services particularly in education, health, environment and social welfare. Fourth, we must improve intrapreneurship development particularly in the grassroots to provide livelihood opportunities beyond mere employment. And finally, we need a new execution paradigm that is aligned with sectoral, geographic and ground level realities. It means that we must understand the unique requirements of each economic, geographic or political sector and adjust our executional strategies accordingly. The Philippine economic miracle is the tale of two economic sectors, the booming business process outsourcing industry and the record high remittances of our overseas Filipino workers. This however underscores the soft underbelly of the Philippine economic boom. To provide sustainability as well as greater employment opportunities, the Philippine economic portfolio must diversify equally into the manufacturing, agricultural, tourism and other sectors of the economy. Our internal agenda is all cut out for us. We must further liberalize the economy to improve competitiveness and attract investments both local and foreign into manufacturing and the other stagnant sectors of the economy. We must harmonize local and national laws to ensure investors of orderly business operations as in misalignment of national and local mining laws and ordinances. We must cure the policy and infrastructure misalignments that emerge as we cascade our gains to the grassroots. In tourism for example, a true open skies policy with an aggressive airport development program has to be undertaken. Reforms in the electric power industry to lower our high cost of power and will address the energy shortages in the southern regions of the Philippines. We must modernize our agriculture to raise our farmers productivity, one of the lowest in the region and correct the insufficiencies of the agriculture supply chain that allow as many as eight layers of middlemen to deprive the Filipino farmer the full value of their produce. And we must keep our promise to maintain a clean and transparent government with a stable policy regime into 2016 and beyond. But the opportunities for the further expansion and diversification of the Philippine economy increase exponentially with the emerging regional economic integration problems. The ASEAN Economic Community or AEC is set to achieve full integration in designated sectors by next year, 2015. This should answer and improve trade facilitation and liberalization in the region. A stronger investment influence under the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement. A well integrated and smoothly functioning financial system with more liberalized capital account regimes and internally capital markets. Eliminates substantial barriers to and liberalized trade and services with the ASEAN framework agreement on services which expand the depth and scope of liberalization beyond those undertaken under the general agreement on trade and services of DWTO. The United States has been a key partner of the Philippines and ASEAN in the regions trade liberalization efforts along with parallel efforts through APEC. The ASEAN plus partners framework of regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP and the ongoing negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP with certain ASEAN countries. These regional economic agreements provide rare business opportunities not only for regional companies but likewise for U.S. firms seeking a large integrating market and more economic resources to enhance their global competitiveness. It also gives local entrepreneurs especially those in border provinces a business edge over bigger competitors that are just beginning to understand the needs of customers in neighboring economies. And with the looming integration of the ASEAN economies greater economic engagement with countries in the region becomes a major component of the United States rebalancing strategy. And given its long history and diversity of its economic partnerships with U.S. firms the Philippines expects a greater share of its benefits. In particular we want to raise the inflow of job generating U.S. foreign direct investments or FDIs. The flow of which into the Philippines is the lowest in ASEAN. At the same time I must stress that development and progress in the Philippines and in our region also depend on the maintenance of peace and stability both internally and externally. On the local front we have recently signed a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF thereby ending the remaining large-scale insurgency in southern Philippines. Only small packets of unrest remain like the communists new people's army forces and the small band aligned Abu Sayyaf terrorist group remain. But even as we add surely into an era of domestic peace the heightened tensions in the South China Sea loom as a potential downer for economic strides on two counts. First threat of war creates these incentives for long-term investments as well as shifts precious resources into unproductive defense spending. We therefore view the recently signed enhanced defense cooperation agreements or EDGA as an important pillar of our regional security policy as well as an important response mechanism to humanitarian and natural disasters. A stronger American military presence in the Philippines and greater interoperability between our respective armed forces dramatically increases our individual and collective defense capabilities providing an effective deterrent against external aggression and this in turn will soothe and calm the investment climate in the Philippines. In other words through the EDGA we have effectively upgraded our own security platform without shifting a significant portion of our limited resources to support an arms race and produce weapons systems that exceed our normal defense requirements. It enables us to focus better on developing a solid economic base to combat poverty unemployment, illiteracy and disease. Our support for EDSA does not signal a shift in our core strategy for regional security. We have always believed and will continue to hold ourselves to the principle that the future of mankind lies not in conflict nor war but in dialogue, cooperation, development and peace. For our current disagreements in the South China Sea we will continue to pursue a solution based on international law by going for arbitration as provided for in the United Nations Convention on the Law of Disease or UNCLUS. In a parallel effort the Philippines fully supports the conclusion of a binding code of conduct on the South China Sea or the COC between ASEAN and China. We also seek to gain understanding of this issue in such regional forum as the ASEAN Regional Forum or ARF and the East Asian Summit or EAS and the Philippines and its partners including the United States will continue these discussions. Let me stress nonetheless that our support for EDGA does not reflect a freezing of ties with China nor do we view the disputes in the South China Sea as the totality of our bilateral relations with China. Philippine trade with China continues to rise at a dramatic pace. In 2013 China has become the Philippines' largest trading partner, a distinction previously held alternately by the United States and Japan. Trade is not the only time that binds the Philippines and China. Many of our countrymen trace their ancestry to China. The Chinese Filipinos constitute an important sector of our population. They are in almost every sector of the economy from agriculture to the knowledge industry and they dominate the annual Forbes magazine listing of dollar billionaires in the country. Many of them are now in local government and Congress and form part of the nation's governing elite and therefore in the end trade as well as deep filial ties that bind our peoples will prevail over the issues of territory and boundaries that are currently threatening our relationship. In conclusion, let me assure you that the Philippines will stay the course for good government and inclusive development at home and for peace and progress for mutual benefit abroad. My friends, I am committed to these strategies as a member of President Aquinas Administration and God and the Filipino people willing even beyond. Wow, you're looking forward to that. To end, let me call it one of baseball's greatest pictures. Mr. Bob Feller who said, every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. Every day is a new game. That's the way baseball is and that's the way life is. Ladies and gentlemen, as we move on to the next inning, the Philippines and the United States must strive to bring our long-standing partnership to new heights and fulfill the aspirations of our people for peace, progress and prosperity. Together, let us march boldly to build deeper understanding and greater respect among the ancients in the region and the world. Thank you and good afternoon to all of you. So, Mr. Vice President, I'd like to thank you for that comprehensive speech. When we met about a month ago in Manila, I knew that you had great ideas to share with us in the United States and I'm really pleased that you were able to come and share them at CSIS. Ladies and gentlemen, the vice president is here in the United States for about five days. He's got an incredible set of meetings with the administration, Congress, business leaders, and the think tank community. So, I'm really thrilled that he could spend some time here with us at CSIS. I'd like to take the honor of the prerogative, I guess, I should say, of the chair and ask the first question. And I was intrigued by your focus on competitiveness and where the Philippine economy is going, including the idea of inclusive growth. I wondered, do you think the Philippines or would you support the constitutional change of the economic provisions in the Philippine Constitution to promote more foreign direct investment in the Philippines? Actually, that is part of what I'd mentioned, liberality in dealing with foreign investment particularly. And so, specifically, personally, I'm in favor of revisiting the constitution of the Philippines, particularly that portion on the 64th requirement of investors in the Philippines. Let's open the floor to some questions. I see Ambassador John Meister on the front here, John. Thank you, Ernie. Mr. Vice President, to continue your baseball analogy, I think you just hit a home run this afternoon. Seriously. To me, it shows how important it is when you're a political leader and a lawyer to pay attention to detail the way you did in the Babini days and the way you did in the 21st of August movement. You're opening up on our secrets already. My question kind of links to Ernie's. I was intrigued by the number of times you used the word liberalize. You talked about the need to liberalize the entry of capital. You talked about when you were mayor of Makati, you offered the business community good governance and atmosphere, and they in turn pledged to you paying their taxes. An observation is that countries like the Philippines in a competitive world have to seduce capital to come in to their country. You are in an area of the world that has a bunch of tigers and pumas and a bunch of other things. In addition to the point that Ernie just touched, are there some other ideas that you have about how to make the Philippines even more attractive than just it's more fun in the Philippines, but beyond that. You're up to date. I suppose you've been going to Boracay of late. Well, at the end of the day, the issue of liberality basically is directed to FDIs, the foreign direct investments, because it's our feeling that we do need a lot of investments so that we can attain that objective of overcoming the problems of unemployment and poverty among others. So, more investments, more employment particularly. Thank you. Question right here. Thanks. You got in line next time. I will tell if you will be allowed in the Philippines wearing that kind of a next time. My name is Eric Luchica with the U.S. Filipinos for good governance. Our chair met with you I think at the state dinner in Malacanyang on Monday. Lloyd and Nicholas Lewis and our counsel, Mr. Ted Laguatan, the classmates of yours, and they raised the issue of the temporary protective status, which was a request of President Aquino to President Obama. During your stay here in Washington, will you be following up the request for temporary protective status for our out of status Filipinos in America, about 200,000 of them? That's my question. I understand our government through Ambassador Quiche had appealed and made a request at the United States government to consider this particular request. Whatever would be the reaction, we are still awaiting, because you know this would involve people, Filipinos, particularly who are undocumented, who would come from disaster areas. But whether it will be taken in a case to case basis or whatever, I think we'll just wait for the decision of the U.S. government. But the fact is we did apply already for the extension of such a service. Thank you, Ernie, and thank you, Vice President. You've made a major, major point of the lack of industrial development and that the energy crisis is perhaps one of the major causes of that and the worst energy costs in the entire region. I would say that you're not going to solve that unless you can return the Philippines to the leadership and nuclear power which you once were, potentially, and that the disaster of the shutdown of that plant and the lack of any of that kind of advanced development has not really taken place. Do you support that and will you support returning the Philippines for that kind of leadership and advanced science and energy flux density? A former congressman, I don't think he's a member of Congress already, Congressman Kowanko, he was advocating for nuclear power. But in the light of what had happened in Japan and the reaction in Europe particularly, or I think it was made unconstitutional already, we just have to be careful, we have to study a lot whether or not we will venture to nuclear power. Not at the moment I suppose. After all, incidentally, after all, there are a lot of alternative power sources. So far as the Philippines is concerned, we do have a lot of natural resources. It is really a pleasure to see you. My name is Rita Herona-Adkins. My question is very intriguing about your miraculous job in Makati and I think that is a model to follow. But if I may raise the question while of course there's been such a success in the Makati miracle economically, financially, et cetera. But right outside Makati there is the poor. But my question to you is that if you have this economic development of policies, but what is the impact of that in the rural areas when the miracles that are happening in Makati also draws the labor force from the rest of the country. So I want you to sort of pose that. And the other question is that the ADB Economic Keeper Economist also had- Ma'am, could we just, ma'am, could we just keep it to one question please? Thank you. Oh yes. But this is related also is that if I may finish is that it said that what is a sort of a problem so far as the significant increase in growth in economic growth is the population increase which has not been successfully, as we all know, policy-wise been endorsed or rather been effectively managed by the Philippines. Thank you so much. Ah well. I don't know if you're aware of the fact that the Supreme Court of the Philippines has considered the RH Bill to be constitutional. And that is one way of facing that problem on population growth. Although there were some portions of the law that were declared unconstitutional, but nonetheless the law itself was declared to be constitutional. I ask your question on whether the miracles we had in Makati could be replicated in our places. That's what I had mentioned, inclusive growth. We just have to face the fact that while we say that there is an economic growth so far, we are now a rising star and one of the fastest growing country in the region. Nonetheless, that's still the problem of poverty and unemployment. And it is because of the failure of an inclusive growth. This is now being directed. It is now being worked out on how we can produce more employees to work. And that's why I said FDI, among other things, which would bring a lot of investment, creating a lot of employment among others. Yes, sir. Mr. Vice President, thank you very much for that excellent summary and overview of the situation in the Philippines and your foreign policy today. There is a rumor, I don't know if it's true, but there's a wild rumor going around that maybe in 2016 you might run for president. No, it's not maybe anymore. Sorry. Assuming that rumor is partially true. No, it's not everywhere. Could you give us your top two or three priorities that you would have in your plank for running? Thank you very much. Well, you know, I said it's not a rumor anymore because the day after the election, because of the intimidations coming from media, they're no different from the United States after a rumor. Because of that intimidation, I had to admit, because they were asking, are you going to run by 2016? And I said, yes, I don't want to be a hypocrite. The usual political approaches. No, no, I'm still at the side. When I was still a boy, I always dreamed. I had that dream of being a president of our country. So all these problems, as you might have noted, I made mention of Makati because Makati was my laboratory. Makati gave me an opportunity to show that I'm a good administrator. I'm a good manager. And Makati being a city is part of the executive department. The main difference only in managing and administering the Philippines and Makati would be the magnitude of it. But basically it's the same. We do have the same departments. We have the department of police, we have accounting department, et cetera, et cetera, which you do find at the national level. So, the fact I was about to say, the coming election, it will be an issue of competence, experience and wisdom. That will be the issue in the coming 2016 election. Ladies and gentlemen, I think campaign season is open. Foreign funding allowed. John, do you hear that? Good afternoon, Mr. Vice President. My name is Bobby Federigan, and I live outside the Washington D.C. area, which is McLean. I remember when President Macan Pagal launched the very first strategic economic plan with his five-year economic plan. And then it was followed by another plan extending to the third president. I wonder, I haven't heard anything about the strategic economic plan being followed or formalized by the present administration. I wonder if there is such a strategic, economic strategic plan. How far does it look forward to and what are the projected goals? And if there is such a plan, could you give us some highlight of the plan? You know, I thought for several years in the college level, and I always told my class, you can always ask questions, but if I do not know the answer, I'll tell you I do not know. In this particular case, I'm sorry, but I do not know what are those five strategic plans under the administration of President Macan Pagal. But definitely, definitely every administration for that matter all over the world will have their strategic plans. So again, I say, I'm sorry, what are these strategic plans? Therefore, I could not answer what are being enforced or what are not being enforced. Gentlemen, right here. Good afternoon, Mr. President. I mean, Mr. Thank you very much. Mr. President, was that we done or what? My name is John Maleguida with the Philippine Inquirer. Today, some of us here in the audience attended the commemoration of Admiral Dewis' victory in Manila Bay that was made first more than a hundred years ago. And at this commemoration, we were reminded that the victory was a significant opening of U.S.-Philippine relations. How is that? A significant opening of U.S.-Philippine relations. Okay. Now, of course, some historians would disagree that instead of liberation, it actually betrayed the national aspirations of the Filipino people. Now, fast forward to today where you just described the threat of a resurgent China trying to control the China Sea. Your reflections or insights, sir, on what the historical relevance of the Dewi victory and today, particularly in light of questions about, you know, is this yet another betrayal, these enhanced agreements with the United States? Is this yet another example of betrayal of the Filipino aspirations for independence? Betrayal on the part of these according to some historians as well as, you know, Filipino nationalists who are questioning the significance of these enhanced agreements. And I want to see the historical relevance to the Dewi victory, which was viewed as a betrayal of Aguinaldo, who would have, you know, who would have led the Catipuneros to Philippine independence. I'm sorry. Well, everybody is entitled to their opinions. Yes, that was an opinion, sir. But I don't consider that a betrayal. It was good. One of the good things that resulted from President Obama's visit is the fact that at least we got an assurance where America would be in instances that might happen in the future. So, again, I think it's no betrayal. I am supporting it in fact, and I think it will be passed even if the matter will be brought. I suppose it will be brought to the Supreme Court of the Philippines on issues of constitutionality. But nonetheless, my feeling is it will be the great constitution. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in thanking Vice President Benai. Thank you very much.