Arroyo sets yet another visit to Pampanga

Less than 24 hours after returning from a foreign trip to Thailand Sunday night, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has scheduled yet another visit to her home province of Pampanga on Monday. Mrs. Arroyo, who attended an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Thailand during the weekend, would visit Porac town in Pampanga to inspect government projects, Malacañang said. Porac is part of the province’s second legislative district, where Mrs. Arroyo allegedly plans to run for congresswoman in the 2010 elections. The President’s critics had repeatedly claimed she would run for congresswoman while her allies in Congress push for a shift to a parliamentary form of government by amending the 1987 Constitution. Government projects? The parliamentary form of government will allow Mrs. Arroyo to run for prime minister. Mrs. Arroyo, who has visited Pampanga more than 30 times so far this year, has kept mum on her political plans. Last week alone, she visited Pampanga thrice. In a text message to GMANews.TV, deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo dispelled speculations that Mrs. Arroyo’s frequent visits to her home province had something to do with her purported plans to seek a congressional seat in the coming elections. “The President oversees government projects in poverty-stricken areas in the country, not in Pampanga alone. Ensuring the delivery of government services is the President’s job," Fajardo said. She added that last week, Mrs. Arroyo went to the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, and Iloilo to inspect government projects and to "intensify the government’s campaign against poverty." Monday’s itinerary Fajardo said Mrs. Arroyo will visit Porac, Pampanga on Monday to inspect government projects under the Kalayaan Barangay Project (KBP). “The President will be inspecting government projects under the KBP, a local initiative to end communist insurgency by introducing development in the countryside," Fajardo said in a text message to GMANews.TV. Fajardo said that the President would inspect an elevated water tank in Barangay (village) Mancatian and the completed KBP farm-to-market road in Barangay (village) Sapang Uwak, constructed by the Philippine Air Force (PAF) 355th Aviation Engineering Wing. Also, Mrs. Arroyo would award the 300,000th Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Scholarship Program grant under the Technical Education and Skills Development Administration (TESDA). After the event, she would proceed to Barangay San Jose Mitla for the inspection of the road improvement project there. She would then visit Barangay Salu to inspect the completed KBP potable water system project. From Salu, Mrs. Arroyo would meet with regional officers of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Barangay Sindalan in San Fernando, Pampanga, to discuss the flooding problem in the province. - with a report from Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV