GMA backs Eastern Visayas action plan

TACLOBAN CITY – President Arroyo expressed her full support yesterday for the action agenda for peace and development for Eastern Visayas drafted by local government units, agencies and stake­holders in the region and presented to her during the closing ceremony of the two-day Local Peace and Security Assembly held here.

This, as she congratulated the officials and residents of Eastern Visayas for “making more than half of the region insurgency-free” and recovering most of their barangays from the clutches of the communist rebels.

“And I also see and feel that we can make Eastern Visayas totally free from insurgency in 2010,” she said in her speech at the assembly held at the Leyte Park Hotel.

The President also expressed her full support for the long-term plan of more world-class infrastructure, more job opportunities, better healthcare and housing to address poverty in the country.

Calbayog City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento, chairman of the Regional Development Council, presented the consolidated action plan for Eastern Visayas that cites the need to address peace and security by harnessing the region’s potentials in tourism, power generation, biofuel production, marine products and business process outsourcing.