RP 'high-impact' projects undertaken for the poor

RP 'high-impact' projects undertaken for the poor

MANILA (Agencies): The Philippine government is to launch
"high-impact" projects to alleviate the plight of millions of
poor Filipinos, seen as a key power base of jailed ex-president
Joseph Estrada, an official said on Monday.

President Gloria Arroyo was to unveil a blueprint on Tuesday
spelling "new directions for the cabinet" on implementing the
projects, presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said.

"She wants her entire cabinet to start thinking this new kind
of direction which is basically having high-impact projects for
the poor even as macro-economic policies and moves are being
undertaken," Tiglao said.

Tiglao said the government would, for example, fast track
housing projects to the poor, as well as offer scholarships to
their children.

The government now realizes "there must be immediate projects
that could impact on the lives of the poor."

About 30 percent of Filipino families live in poverty,
according to government statistics.

The new government thrust comes two weeks after some 50,000
urban poor supporters of deposed leader Estrada rioted outside
the presidential palace to demand his reinstatement.

Four people were killed while over a 100 were arrested as
Arroyo invoked emergency powers and called in the troops to
disperse the mob.

Arroyo has since been trying to reach out to the poor and shed
an image that she is only president to the rich. She has begun
visiting slums around Manila, former movie star Estrada's
traditional base of support.

"It's a response of the government to the obvious sentiments
of the poor. Precisely (we are) shifting gears," Tiglao said.

He said it was also an answer to the "rage demonstrated by the
urban poor" in the failed siege, which had helped highlight the
cultural and political gap of the "upper class and the urban
poor."

In a speech to an Asian conference on young women on Monday,
Arroyo vowed to "heal the nation" by visiting the slums and
Christian communities in the southern Philippines where Muslims
are fighting for separate state.

Both constituencies dumped Arroyo's candidates in last week's
key congressional elections.

Exit polls and unofficial counts of the May 14 vote show the
poorest parts of the Philippine electorate, as well as Mindanao,
the Muslim-populated southern third of the archipelago, had voted
overwhelmingly for Estrada allies.

On Monday, doctors said that the jailed former president has
bronchitis and needs treatment that could keep him in Manila -
and out of a remote detention center - for at least two weeks.

The Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft court handling allegations
that Estrada illegally amassed $82 million in 31 months in
office, is to rule this week.

The court accepted earlier doctors' requests to keep Estrada
hospitalized. The Philippine National Police also said they would
not take Estrada back to the detention center until doctors give
him a clean bill of health.

Estrada has asked the court to transfer him from police
detention to house arrest, as a courtesy to a former president,
but the court has not said when it will rule on the petition.

The former movie actor is scheduled to be formally arraigned
on a separate charge of perjury on May 31.

The Philippine police, fearing for the security of Estrada,
have proposed to detain him in a military hospital during his
approaching trial on corruption charges.

They also suggested the trial be held in a gymnasium at the
hospital compound to avoid the risks and inconvenience of having
Estrada shuttle back and forth for trial hearings, the
presidential spokesman said on Monday.

Estrada, 64, was transferred from detention to Manila's
Veterans Memorial Medical Center on May 12, complaining of a
cough and fever. His son Jinggoy was also taken to the hospital,
complaining of a stomach ache.