GMA gets support for SONA projects

President Arroyo received support yesterday for the projects spelled in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) from the Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran Inc. (KPKI), a Filipino-Chinese socio-civic group.

In a courtesy call on President Arroyo at Malacañang, the Kaisa officers and members said that they hope to coordinate with her on how they could assist in the implementation of projects under her SONA last July 23.

"We’re offering to be your bridge," anti-crime crusader Teresita Ang-See, founding president of KPKI, informed the President.

The group briefed the President on their present projects, which involves teaching Aetas in Bataan and the Mangyans in Oriental Mindoro so that they could achieve higher functional literacy.

The President assured the group that her administration would cooperate in reaching out to the cultural minorities.

John Ong, a KPKI member and a Jesuit volunteer involved in teaching the Mangyans in Paitan, Oriental Mindoro, asked the President if she could discourage mining in the province as this would disturb the ancestral lands of the minorities.

Mrs. Arroyo, in response, assured Ong that the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro had recently announced its "no-mining" policy.

Ong also said a certain portion of the Mangyan reservation in Paitan is being claimed by an agricultural college, to which the President replied that "this is not a problem."

The President explained that she has spelled out her policy of distributing 100,000 hectares each of public and private lands to the poor masses, including cultural minorities.

She told Teresita Quintos-Deles, chairwoman of the National Anti-Poverty Commission who was present during the call, to inquire into the status of that Mangyan land from the Commission on Higher Education.