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Strong willed woman

Obviously aiming to save her sagging popularity as consistently reported by survey groups, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had well covered media activities during the Christmas break. It could have been effective as observers claimed: “She’s a busy president working even during the holiday period.”

Among the said activities was her visit to Sagada, Mountain Province early this week. There, she promised 35 billion pesos for several projects, including farm to market roads, agriculture, poverty alleviation among others.

A few years ago in Mountain Province, provincial officials named GMA as Kaplaan, which means strong willed woman. Of course, it is understandable that the purpose of the local officials is favor from national officials - to grant more projects for the province as it belongs to the poorest provinces in the country. They are politicians. That is their game, anyway.

But I am more interested in the billions of pesos she promised. While she mentioned about the P35 billion, her secretary from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) claimed there is limited fund available for the mentioned programs. She however claimed that the budget saved from the local governments’ Internal Revenue allotment would be the source of the funds. Clearly, the fund is to be taken from one department and given to another. It is like transferring money from one pocket to another.

I observed that her promise failed to answer basic programs for the farmers, as most of the residents in Sagada and the whole province are farmers. She failed to mention irrigation projects for a better yield of their fields – both for rice and vegetables. She failed to mention programs that would ensure the market for their agricultural products. She failed to mention programs that would eliminate vegetable importation in favor of local produce. She failed to mention projects that would ensure the proper management of indigenous forests to sustain more water for the agriculture industry.

She did not mention that her mining programs facilitated the mining applications that included the mountains serving as the watershed of these northern indigenous communities extending to the lowlands.

I also did not hear provincial officials talk about the indigenous communities’ position against large-scale mining. Yet they named her Kaplaan, the strong willed woman.

The budget she promised for her mentioned programs may have served her concerns for the moment but it would cause her problems in the future.

Her actions also exposed her weakness at this period that her mandate is under question. While her administration can source funds for these projects from their IRA savings, the biggest bulk of their proposed budget is already committed for debt servicing. It is the same policy of past leaders where the biggest budget supposedly appropriated for its people is set aside instead for the sake of profit hungry creditors.

And they call her Kaplaan, the strong willed woman. #

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