GMA visits Nueva Vizcaya

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – President Arroyo is scheduled to crisscross this landlocked province today in what could be her first post-Holy Week official function, which includes a medical outreach mission for tribal communities.

During her one-day sortie here, the President will visit the remote mountain village of Belance in southern Dupax del Norte town, where she will grace an outreach medical mission sponsored by the Catholic Church’s Social Action Center as a post-Lenten thanksgiving of Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena, one of the President’s closest allies in the Catholic hierarchy.

The President’s attendance at the medical mission was apparently to make up for her failure to attend Villena’s birthday last March 16, the first time she did since she became a senator.

The Belance village is the base of the Bayombong diocese’s St. Joseph the Worker parish that covers most of upland Dupax del Norte town and caters mostly to indigenous groups like Ifugaos, Ibalois, Kankanais and Bugkalots.

From Belance, the President and her entourage are meeting with provincial officials led by Rep. Carlos Padilla, Gov. Luisa Lloren-Cuaresma and Vice Gov. Jose Gambito at the Dupax del Norte town hall.

If earlier plans push through, the President would fly to Maddiangat village in northern Quezon town for the groundbreaking of the P68.478-million, 10.74-kilometer Solano-Quezon road project, part of the Solano-Quezon-Kasibu-Bambang circumferential road.