Ramos okays $1.06b scheme for Moslem-populated areas

Ramos okays $1.06b scheme for Moslem-populated areas

MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Fidel Ramos yesterday said
the government had approved a 30.9-billion-peso (US$1.06 billion)
program to speed up development in Moslem-populated regions in
the south.

The program includes investment in infrastructure, social
services, agriculture and education including the construction of
37 major roads, two bridges and eight ports.

Funding for the program will come from both state funds and
official development assistance, a government statement said.

The program was approved in preparation for a meeting of
prospective donors to a development fund for 14 Moslem-populated
provinces that are grouped in the Southern Philippine Council for
Peace and Development (SPCPD), to open on August 8 in the
southern city of General Santos.

The Philippines' traditional aid sources as well as Middle
East financial institutions are taking part in the meeting, which
will be presided over by the World Bank and co-sponsored by the
UN Development Program.

The government hopes to get about 400 million dollars in aid
pledges at the meeting, organizers said.

The SPCPD was created last year as part of a peace agreement
between the government and the main Moslem insurgent group, the
Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)

The southern Philippines, which the country's Moslem minority
consider their ancestral homeland, has been wracked by decades of
fighting between Moslem separatists and government forces.

The government has been seeking to pool funds from various
sources to finance development of the war-ravaged area.

However peace negotiations are still going on with an MNLF
breakaway group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)