Speaker Arroyo bares remaining plans

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would devote her remaining time in government visiting state-funded housing projects around the country, which supposedly benefited from the laws she had signed as President during her nine-year term.

Arroyo is now on her third and last term as Pampanga representative.

“I’m already graduating from public service. [Before I end my career] as public servant, I plan to go around the country to see my favorite projects,” Arroyo said as she led a medical mission in Barangay North Bay Boulevard South-Proper in Navotas City on Saturday.

She said that residents of the impoverished community were beneficiaries of a presidential proclamation she issued in 2002 and the Free Patent Act, which was enacted before she stepped down as President in 2010.

The latter relaxed the usually strict requirements in applying for titles of unregistered residential properties and brought down to 10 years the previous 30-year eligibility period for those seeking the titling of such lands.

The former President claimed some 39 million Filipinos occupying unregistered lands would benefit from the law.

“That’s why I’m glad to see that you are now in a better situation since you are among the first ones who benefited from the proclamation and law I signed,” Arroyo told the residents.

Her trip to Navotas was the latest of her visits to urban poor settlements.