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Arroyo Stresses Policy in Dealing With Anti-Gov't Groups
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Monday that her administration will discard the "all-out war" policy of the previous administration in dealing with the so-called enemies of the state to protect innocent lives and the welfare of the Filipino people, especially the poor.
Arroyo made the statement at a luncheon meeting she hosted for the officials and employees of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
"This administration will exert more efforts to attend to the immediate and long term needs of our less fortunate countrymen. And we will spend government money in funding social welfare, education and health rather than an all-out war policy," she emphasized.
Arroyo noted that the Estrada administration had spent millions of pesos in an all-out war policy which, she said, could have been used instead to fund low-cost housing projects, rural clinics, school buildings and infrastructure projects.
"So much money will be wasted and so many innocent people will be affected. That is why we have adopted a development-driven peace process," she pointed out.
"In my administration, we choose restoration over devastation and I am glad that the DSWD will play the leading role now in the relief and rehabilitation efforts in Mindanao," the president added.
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