MPDF replaces SPDA

DAVAO CITY — Finally, a new agency is taking over the functions of the defunct Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) which, since the 1970s, had been extending financial assistance to beneficiaries in depressed areas in Mindanao.

The Mindanao Peace and Development Fund (MPDF) was activated here last Friday with the oath-taking of its members, led by Presidential Assistant on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, who chairs its board.

The MPDF, which will be under the Office of the President, was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 229 which cited the need for mechanisms to address the socio-economic problems in conflict-stricken areas in Mindanao, outside of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

"We will start working on the remaining assets of the SPDA although an inventory has yet to be made on what the SPDA really has," Deles said.

The SPDA was deactivated in November 2002. — Edith Regalado