GMA sorry for not playing favorites in using government funds

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — Returning yesterday to her Pampanga home province for the fourth time in less than a month, President Arroyo virtually apologized to her Cabalens for her not playing favorites to them in terms of allocation of government resources.

Speaking in Capampangan before government employees in front of the provincial capitol here yesterday morning, the President said that a leader "during difficult times should serve the entire country, and not only her province."

She noted that while the late former President Ferdinand Marcos funneled "big resources" of the government to his Ilocos Norte home province, this was "because, first, he was a dictator".

"And secondly, he was also 20 years in office’" the President said.

But the President did not run out of other presidents who did not play favorites to their homeprovinces. She cited Aurora province, birthplace of the late Commonwealth President Manuel Quezon, which "has remained one of the poorest in the country".

She also said that Capiz, the home province of President Manuel Roxas " remains lacking in progress up to now."

"President (Carlos) Garcia’s Bohol is taking off only now after so many decades, and this is only because of the launching of a massive irrigation project there," the President said.

She asked her Cabalens to "sacrifice a bit" but promised to allocate government funds for their needs even if the funds do not come big. She cited funds used to upgrade the capitol grounds which used to be prone to flooding.

The President also said she had already instructed Public Works Secretary Florante Soriquez to look for funds for the upgrading of a road in front of the Pampanga High School which used to be known as the Jose Abad Santos High School, named after the former Chief Justice who was martyred during the Japanese occupation.

Mrs. Arroyo also led at the capitol the wreath laying before the bust of Abad Santos who was made a national hero by her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

The President later motored to Arayat town where she inspected the P5.7- billion irrigation component of the Pampanga Delta Development Project.

The project is supposed to irrigate 10,270 hectares of farmlands in seven Pampanga towns but could not yet be fully operationalized arising from some P508 million still needed to rehabilitate irrigation canals in the lowlands. — Ding Cervantes