GMA makes 26th visit to Pampanga

FLORIDABLANCA, Pampanga , Philippines  – President Arroyo visited yesterday Pampanga’s Second District for the 26th time this year and inspected projects in five barangays. 

Gov. Ed Panlilio, who vowed to support another candidate if Mrs. Arroyo runs for congresswoman in the province’s second district, said the President seems to be extending help to Kapampangan constituents during her frequent sorties to the district, which is apparently another way to campaign for her congressional bid.

“The projects for the second district help, but why only there?” Panlilio added.

Local supporters of the President, however, have kept mum on the congressional issue.

Former provincial board member Lilia Pineda and Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, spokesman of the Pampanga Mayors’ League, said Mrs. Arroyo could be merely showing her affection for her “cabalens” by visiting them frequently in the last months of her presidency.

Mrs. Arroyo distributed relief goods last Thursday in the flooded areas of Guagua.

The Philippine Information Agency (PIA) regional office sent text messages to members of the local media at an unusually early 5:30 a.m. on the day of visit, unlike in past visits of the President when the media are informed at least 24 hours before the presidential sortie. 

Mrs. Arroyo arrived at about 10 a.m. in Barangay Anon in Guagua to inaugurate a P3.3-million potable water pumping station.

After she opened a “butterfly valve” to let water flow to some 485 households, the President took time out to talk to two beneficiaries, including teacher Imelda Rivera and widowed grandmother Cely Rivera.

The presidential convoy then proceeded to the Sta. Monica Elementary School to inspect the new Kalayaan school building, which was constructed by the 355th Engineering Wing of the Philippine Air Force.

Mrs. Arroyo also talked with Grade 5 pupils Mikaela Angela Bundalian and Joselle Ann Sotto, as well as some beneficiaries of the Kalayaan barangay farm-to-market road in Barangay Solib, before a “private lunch” with members of the Pampanga Mayors’ Responsible Spouses (MRS) at the Pasumil Inn in Barangay del Carmen.

She later graced the groundbreaking of the P10-million Pabanlag-San Ramon potable water system project at Macapagal Village in Barangay Pabanlag where she again chatted with beneficiaries housewife Eloisa Paballa and driver Ramil Palad.

The project will benefit 115 households in Pabanlag and another 333 households in San Ramon.

The President also inspected a damaged portion of the banks of the Caulaman River in Barangay Bodega from where 60 families had been evacuated.