DAVAO CITY – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, bringing the government to Mindanao, started today a week of intense and focused attention for peace and development in the Southern Philippines.

"The concerns of Mindanao have always been the important matters of my administration," she said upon arrival, before going immediately down to business and presiding over a Cabinet meeting at the Marco Polo Hotel here. "This coming week will be an opportunity to make headway on many issues facing Mindanao," she added.

The President said she regards the remaining year of her administration "as a unique window of opportunity for building the foundations of an enduring framework for principled peace and development."

While acknowledging that one week of effort even by the whole national government would not solve the massive and long-standing problems of Mindanao, the President said she is "hopeful that our many strong and committed partner’s in Mindanao’s peace and development will vastly amplify our efforts."

The President noted that her trip to the South, which will take her to several provinces all over the islands, comes after a series of successful visits to the United States, South Korea and Japan.

"While the gains from these visits will benefit the whole country," she said in her arrival statement, "I have tried my best to focus the benefits in favor of Mindanao."

She said much of the trade concessions obtained from these trips abroad would benefit many products from Mindanao.

She added:

"A considerable portion of new public and private investments we mobilized will create more employment and livelihood opportunities for the people of Mindanao.

"The bulk of military and law enforcement assistance we secured will provide better security and greater protection for the communities of Mindanao.

"Much of the grant and official development assistance we obtained will be targeted and focused on providing unmet needs of Mindanao’s poorest and most vulnerable."

The President also gave a hint of what her week’s work in Mindanao will cover and focus on: preparations for school opening; implementation of key infrastructure projects in transport, highways and communications; accelerating progress in initiatives in agriculture, trade, industry, tourism and livelihood; securing improvements in law enforcement and police administration.

She said her administration recognizes that the armed conflict in Mindanao "has been a monster bred by injustice, neglect, under-development, poverty, ignorance, disadvantage and economic exclusion."

DAVAO CITY – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today mobilized the local governments, civil society and the business community in a strategy to attain peace and development in Mindanao.

In her arrival statement here at the start of a week-long mission to bring the government to Mindanao and concentrate on the issues facing the region, the President said: "I have come again to join the people of Mindanao secure for themselves and their children the blessings of peace and the bounties of development."

"Mindanao muna tungo sa isang matatag na Republika," she declared, adding that "Mindanao is crucial to our nation’s welfare."

She said she was looking to the provincial, city, municipal and barangay governments, including the regional government of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, as the primary frontline agents for peace and development in the communities.

"I am also optimistic that civil society in Mindanao, including non-government and people’s organizations, religious leaders and tribal chieftains would continue to provide the cause-oriented conscience and grassroots capacities for effective poverty reduction and outreach to the most disadvantaged," the President said.

"And I am sure," she added, "that our business community in Mindanao will respond with entrepreneurial vigor in translating the government’s development policies and projects into sustainable production, income and livelihood opportunities for the people."

The President said her administration has a sound strategy for peace and development in Mindanao that is being implemented across many areas of action from security to infrastructure to education to economic growth to poverty reduction to law enforcement.

She said she regards the remaining year of her administration "as a unique window of opportunity for building the foundations of an enduring framework for principled peace and development."

The administration is committed to building an enduring and just peace in Mindanao within the framework of our Constitution, she added.

"Our government, however, must have the means to fully guarantee on the ground eventual compliance with whatever might be the terms of the political settlement of the armed conflict in Mindanao," she went on.

DAVAO CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today pinpointed Mindanao as the primary beneficiary of the gains she achieved during her series of successful visits abroad.

The President also issued a call for Mindanaons to rise up to the occasion, unite and help government give Mindanao a big push towards socio-economic growth.

"Mindanao muna tungo sa isang matatag na Republika. Onahon og Mindanao pa-adto sa usa ka kusog nga Republika. (Mindanao first towards a strong Republic)," she said.

In an English-Cebuano speech following her arrival at the Davao International Airport at about 10:15 a.m., the President said that while the gains from her foreign visits would benefit the country, " I have tried my best to focus the benefits in favor of Mindanao."

The President had recently conducted state and working visits to the United States of America, South Korea and Japan.

She said that "much of the trade concessions we obtained will benefit many products coming from Mindanao."

At the same time, a big chunk of fresh public and private investments mobilized during the visits will spur employment and livelihood opportunities for the people of the country's second largest island, she added.

On top of these, the President disclosed that the "bulk of military and law enforcement assistance we secured will provide better security and greater protection" for Mindanao communities.

Similarly, much of the official development assistance (ODA) generated during the trips would be targeted for programs and projects that aim to uplift the lives of "Mindanao's poorest and most vulnerable," she said.

All these would redound to the attainment of peace and development in the area, two factors that would in turn counter terrorism and poverty in the region.

The President said she regarded the remaining year of her administration "as a unique window of opportunity for building the foundations of an enduring framework for principled peace and development" in Mindanao.

She also disclosed that during her eight-day work in Mindanao, she would concentrate on preparations for the school opening; implementation of infrastructure projects in the area; acceleration of initiatives in agriculture, trade, industry, tourism, and livelihood; securing improvements in law enforcement and police administration.

She added that "we are also dedicated to reducing and eliminating the main conditions that might continue to breed conflicts in the future."

DAVAO CITY -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today lauded Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople for successfully getting the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to act on the application of the Philippines for observer status to the Islamic body.

The President also noted Ople’s success in developing among international Islamic communities a better appreciation of the Philippines as a partner of the influential body.

She likewise asked officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to continue informing the OIC about government moves to peacefully resolve the decades-old Mindanao Problem.

Her remarks came during the Joint Cabinet-National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) meeting at the Marco Polo Hotel here, after DFA Acting Secretary Franklin Ebdalin reported on Secretary Ople’s attendance to the OIC Foreign Minister’s Meeting in Tehran, Iran from May 28 to 30.

She urged the DFA to further engage OIC member-countries in continuous bilateral meetings so that they would know and understand the concerns facing Mindanao and how they could help bring about peace and development in the region.

In his report, Ebdalin said that Secretary Ople had conducted at least 13 bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of OIC countries, seven of whom belonged to the powerful Committee of Eight.

The meetings, he said, focused on a wide range of issues that included the welfare of overseas Filipino workers, investment and trade, the peace process, rehabilitation and development efforts, and others.

He added that Secretary Ople filed the country’s application for observer status with the Secretary General who committed to circulate it among members.

Ebdalin said the same application would be taken up during the Senior Officials Meeting and Ministerial Meeting of the OIC, leading to the OIC Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in October.

He reported to the President that the Philippines gained solid support from OIC members Indonesia, Bangladesh, Libya, Senegal, Bahrain, Iran and Qatar.

MALUNGON, Sarangani – This small southern agricultural town will once more bustle with vibrant activity when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo leads national and local officials in inaugurating the 30-linear meter Upper Mainit Bridge tomorrow (June 11).

The President visited this town on July 26 last year and swore into office some 500 newly-elected barangay and Sangguniang Kabataang officials from seven Sarangani towns in simple mass oath-taking rites at the Malungon Gymnasium.

In Wednesday’s rites, the President is expected to exhort the more than 30,000 residents of Barangay Upper Mainit and the people of Malungon to take full advantage of the benefits the newly-built bridge worth over P5 million would provide them.

The bridge, some 12 kilometers from the national highway, provides a vital link from the village farms to the town market, giving Upper Mainit farmers an easier, faster way to bring their agricultural produce.