Mindanao projects to receive priority

The Arroyo administration will give priority to critical projects that will help restore peace and development in troubled parts of Mindanao.

President Arroyo stressed this thrust as she spoke last Saturday before over 400 local government executives, congressmen and officials of regional line agencies from all over Mindanao during the Second Mindanao Budget Summit at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

Mindanao officials staged the summit to press the national government to increase its budgetary allocation for the island.

Mrs. Arroyo said it was vital to complete projects especially in conflict-stricken areas and in communities where communist insurgents thrive.

For instance, she mentioned the Zamboanga-Pagadian Road which she described as the "longest road in the world" in terms of its construction delays.

"That road was started when I was even still with (the Department of Trade and Industry)... Now we have to have it completed by next year," she said.

The President also ordered the immediate completion of key infrastructure projects such as the Basilan and Lake Lanao circumferential roads, Magsaysay Bridge in Butuan City and the Cotabato Diversion Road.

She said that had the Basilan Circumferential Road been constructed and immediately completed, the Abu Sayyaf problem could not have worsened.

She added that key transport facilities in Mindanao such as the airports in Tawi-Tawi, Dipolog, Butuan, Pagadian, Cagayan de Oro and Cotabato should be modernized.

Public Works and Highways Secretary Simeon Datumanong gave assurance that funding for other vital projects in Mindanao will be made possible with the expected increase in the island’s infrastructure budget from the existing 27 percent to 30 percent next year, and to 33 and 34 percent in 2004 and 2005, respectively.