GMA agrees to revise EO 496

COTABATO CITY — President Arroyo has promised officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to have Executive Order 496 revised, convinced that some of its provisions can unduly derail efforts to strengthen regional autonomy.

ARMM Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan, who held a dialogue with President Arroyo with some 50 officials from the region last Saturday, said Mrs. Arroyo assured him that the ARMM Social Fund for Peace and Development, or ARMM-SFPD, will be excluded from the entities she placed under "oversight control" of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

"To say it more clearly, the President will allow the regional government to continue exercising ministerial control over the ARMM-SFPD and all of its projects in all parts of the autonomous region," Ampatuan told The Star via mobile phone.

Mrs. Arroyo empowered OPAPP to control ARMM-SFPD, the Mindanao Economic and Development Council, the Mindanao Peace and Development Fund, and the Office on Muslim Affairs through EO 496, which she signed last Jan. 23. — John Unson