GMA promises P500M for farm to market roads 06-01-08

	NORDIS WEEKLY January 8, 2006
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GMA promises P500M for farm to market roads
*Cordi groups urge more budget for social services* SAGADA, Mt. Province (Jan. 2) — Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) today ordered the release of P500 million for the construction of more farm-to-market roads (FMR) in the different parts of the country during the first quarter of 2006, after she cut the ceremonial ribbon opening the 6.7 kilometer Nangonogan-Aguid road here. However, a leader of a regional alliance doubts if GMA would fulfill her promises given her track record of lying. “In fact, I challenge the president to sincerely serve the people by appropriating the biggest budget for social services instead of foreign debt servicing,” stressed Windel Bolinget, secretary general of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA). The Sagada FMR, one of the country’s longest concrete roads, cost P17.3 million from the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The half billion FMR funds, according to Arroyo will be taken from the P35 billion anti-poverty funds she also ordered the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release to pump-prime the economy. Addressing a modest crowd of public officials at the St. Mary’s High School here, GMA boasted of having started the fight against poverty, hunger and unemployment, saying that the opening of the Nangonogan-Aguid road represents her administration’s basic unit of infrastructure that links national productivity. Aside from public works, GMA hopes to prioritize education, housing, health and food for the poor. She also announced the opening of Pinoy stores which would sell rice at P18 per kilo and noodles at P4.50 a pack instead of the regular P23 and P5, respectively. In the same occasion, GMA also awarded a P3 million check to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the delineation and titling of ancestral domain claims in Mt. Data in Bauko, also in Mt. Province; a P2.8 million Besao post-harvest facility and another P2 million for the establishment of the political boundaries of Sadanga town. Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) were also handed over to Mountain Province. GMA also witnessed the signing of two memoranda of agreement, one on the adoption of indigenous knowledge and practices in forest management in the government forestry programs; the other is the establishment of the political boundaries of Sadanga. GMA, however failed to satisfy a lobby for the restoration of government support for the Mt. Data Hotel, which closed down on January 1. Instead, she asked Mt. Province Governor Maximo Dalog if the province could take care of the devolved operations of the said hotel. Meanwhile, CPA’s Bolinget claimed that social services, basic infrastructure projects are among the projects that the present and past governments failed to deliver to the Filipino masses, including the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera. He pointed out that the past administrations, including GMA’s, adopted a policy of appropriating almost half of the national budget for debt servicing while measly amounts are appropriated for basic social services. GMA had been promising projects but these projects are hard to locate, added Bolinget, who urged the people to vigilantly monitor if these funds are delivered and utilized for the appropriate projects. While encouraging these kinds of projects, Bolinget criticized anti-people programs of the present adminstration like the large-scalle mining and mega-dams. “Else, they (projects) will just be part of her campaign to gain support for her lowly supported adminstration,” he added. The presidential family spent the Yuletide in the Mansion House in Baguio City but interspersed with the vacation were the president’s visits to tourist destinations in the Cordillera, among them were Batad, Hongduan and Banaue rice terraces in Ifugao, the Kabayan mummies in Benguet and the caves in Sagada. # Lyn V. Ramo with reports from Arthur L. Allad-iw for NORDIS Post your comments, reactions to this article
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	NORDIS WEEKLY January 8, 2006
Home \| To bottom	Previous \| Next
GMA promises P500M for farm to market roads
*Cordi groups urge more budget for social services* SAGADA, Mt. Province (Jan. 2) — Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) today ordered the release of P500 million for the construction of more farm-to-market roads (FMR) in the different parts of the country during the first quarter of 2006, after she cut the ceremonial ribbon opening the 6.7 kilometer Nangonogan-Aguid road here. However, a leader of a regional alliance doubts if GMA would fulfill her promises given her track record of lying. “In fact, I challenge the president to sincerely serve the people by appropriating the biggest budget for social services instead of foreign debt servicing,” stressed Windel Bolinget, secretary general of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA). The Sagada FMR, one of the country’s longest concrete roads, cost P17.3 million from the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). The half billion FMR funds, according to Arroyo will be taken from the P35 billion anti-poverty funds she also ordered the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release to pump-prime the economy. Addressing a modest crowd of public officials at the St. Mary’s High School here, GMA boasted of having started the fight against poverty, hunger and unemployment, saying that the opening of the Nangonogan-Aguid road represents her administration’s basic unit of infrastructure that links national productivity. Aside from public works, GMA hopes to prioritize education, housing, health and food for the poor. She also announced the opening of Pinoy stores which would sell rice at P18 per kilo and noodles at P4.50 a pack instead of the regular P23 and P5, respectively. In the same occasion, GMA also awarded a P3 million check to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) for the delineation and titling of ancestral domain claims in Mt. Data in Bauko, also in Mt. Province; a P2.8 million Besao post-harvest facility and another P2 million for the establishment of the political boundaries of Sadanga town. Certificates of Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) were also handed over to Mountain Province. GMA also witnessed the signing of two memoranda of agreement, one on the adoption of indigenous knowledge and practices in forest management in the government forestry programs; the other is the establishment of the political boundaries of Sadanga. GMA, however failed to satisfy a lobby for the restoration of government support for the Mt. Data Hotel, which closed down on January 1. Instead, she asked Mt. Province Governor Maximo Dalog if the province could take care of the devolved operations of the said hotel. Meanwhile, CPA’s Bolinget claimed that social services, basic infrastructure projects are among the projects that the present and past governments failed to deliver to the Filipino masses, including the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera. He pointed out that the past administrations, including GMA’s, adopted a policy of appropriating almost half of the national budget for debt servicing while measly amounts are appropriated for basic social services. GMA had been promising projects but these projects are hard to locate, added Bolinget, who urged the people to vigilantly monitor if these funds are delivered and utilized for the appropriate projects. While encouraging these kinds of projects, Bolinget criticized anti-people programs of the present adminstration like the large-scalle mining and mega-dams. “Else, they (projects) will just be part of her campaign to gain support for her lowly supported adminstration,” he added. The presidential family spent the Yuletide in the Mansion House in Baguio City but interspersed with the vacation were the president’s visits to tourist destinations in the Cordillera, among them were Batad, Hongduan and Banaue rice terraces in Ifugao, the Kabayan mummies in Benguet and the caves in Sagada. # Lyn V. Ramo with reports from Arthur L. Allad-iw for NORDIS Post your comments, reactions to this article
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