Arroyo says jail didn’t stop her work

AFTER a year of absence, Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reconnects with her constituents in Porac, Pampanga. TONETTE T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON

Detention is no obstacle to delivering services.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in a report on her achievement as representative of Pampanga’s second district, said she continued to monitor and follow up projects for her constituents even as she was being held incommunicado at Veterans Memorial Medical Center on an electoral sabotage case.

In her report, Arroyo said she had filed more than 200 bills that would benefit her constituents and the country’s economy.

One of these is a bill that would encourage corporations to spend more on projects for the poor in exchange for incentives from government. It has passed the House of Representatives and is being deliberated upon in the Senate.

Another bill that Arroyo’s report takes pride on is one that would amend the Local Government Code to allot barangays a share in internal revenue allotments which are funds that towns, provinces and cities receive from the national government as their share in the national income.

Arroyo’s report said all her projects were in line with the Pampanga Development Plan which she said she helped prepare with Gov. Lilia Pineda, a close friend of Arroyo.

The former president’s report listed these other achievements despite Arroyo being detained:

Developing in Porac, Pampanga, a new route for tourists going to Mt. Pinatubo

A zip line and cable car system built by a private investor in Floridablanca town that Arroyo said would boost tourism and help provide jobs to Aetas

Influx of agri-business in Floridablanca as a result of promotion campaigns that Arroyo said she had conducted

Promoting aquaculture in Pampanga’s coastal villages

Funding for the widening of Olongapo-Gapan Road, which is nearing completion.