SEN. GRACE POE's MANIFESTATION

I would like to thank my dear colleagues for your support for our franchise bills, not only for the San Miguel Airport but to the other franchise bills that we passed earlier, both broadcast and telco.

In the past, maybe we weren't really paying attention to the importance of franchise agreement. But this time, especially with a lot of our countrymen in need of more jobs, I am glad that this body has recognized that we really needed to pass these franchises, more than anything, to provide employment.

As I mentioned in our deliberations, the San Miguel Airport alone will provide 450,000 jobs during the construction phase alone. And then after that, upwards of a million people will be able to benefit from this undertaking; not to mention the hundreds of thousands of passengers that will fly in and out of the country everyday.

But not only that, we also have Aboitiz Tower, Davao Light that have actually shown exemplary service in the Davao area; and now, even our Majority Leader would want them to move on to provide service to Bukidnon.

And we also had other radio stations like 94.7 etc. that we actually grew up listening to. These are franchises that have actually proven themselves or have been run by companies that have proven consistencies in delivering service.

I would like to thank also the Senate President for mentioning that this airport was a dream 17 or how many years ago. That is true. That was really the priority when FPJ ran, to provide livelihood and especially support for the poorest of the poor of our countrymen.

So again, thank you for keeping his memory alive and his legacy. So with that, again, my appreciation to our colleagues. Maraming salamat po.