CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Ignoring her doctor’s advice to rest by distributing relief goods in her hometown Lubao, former President and current Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dismissed her ailment, saying the difficulties of Capampanga folk affected by floods pained her “much, much more.”
“It hurts me more to see my ‘cabalens’ in this predicament much, much more than the pains I’m experiencing right now,” Arroyo said in a message posted yesterday in her Facebook account.
After posting bail on election fraud charges last July 27, Arroyo visited her constituents in Porac in Pampanga’s second district where she declared plans for reelection, and briefly went to the House of Representatives.
Experiencing some pains later, she again went to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center where her doctors told her to rest.
But the other day, Arroyo was in Lubao, in the heavily flooded second district she represents in Congress, to distribute relief goods. She has a house near the St. Augustine church in the town where she is a registered voter.
“The devastation caused by the rains sends a strong warning for humanity that we are very vulnerable to nature’s wrath and its destructive elements,” Arroyo said.
“I enjoin our beloved Capampangans to show strength and unity in confronting these challenges before us,” she added.
Arroyo said “there is nothing more potent than the faith in God and faith in our attributes to withstand misfortunes such as this.”
“Let us be strong. Let us fight. Wounds will always heal, anxieties will always cease, and sadness will eventually be replaced with glee,” she stressed.
Arroyo urged her Cabalens not to “cry but instead come up with solutions and actions to stand up once again.”
“Let us hold our hands together, thank the Almighty for sparing our lives and let’s get to work,” she said, ending her message in Campangan by saying “Caluguran da cayu ngan (I love you all).”
Edith Gerona, follower of her Facebook account, commented: “Once again, Madame President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, you made me see the vast difference between you and the other presidents of our country in terms of leadership and love of our country and people.
I really miss you and love you more than ever as my leader, and my president. I will always admire you. May God always protect you and give you health and long life.”
This, even as follower Jerry Ocampo shared a link blaming the Aquino administration on the floods that have swept Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon.
The link cited a story indicating that in July, 2012, Public Works Sec. Rogelio Singson cancelled 19 approved negotiated projects worth P934.1 million which were are part of the 139 projects or 42 contract packages funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency loan for the urgent rehabilitation of flood control facilities worth P1.9 billion.
The cancelled projects are located in areas recently flooded by recent typhoons.
These are in Cordillera Administrative Region P53 million; Ilocos Norte, P35 million; Asingan, Pangasinan P91.4 million; San Manuel, Pangasinan P228 million; Cagayan P25.8 million; Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya P68.6 million; Kayapa and Dupax Nueva Vizcaya P27.4 million; Paombong and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan P9 million; Bulacan province P41 million; San Felipe and Iba, Zambales, P42.5 million; San Marcelino, Zambales, P19 million; Arayat, Pampanga, P77 million; Candaba, Pampanga, P78 million; Floridablanca, Pampanga P27 million; Guagua and Lubao, Pampanga, P16 million; Moncada and Bamban Tarclac P32 million; Aliaga, Nueva Ecija P18 million; Bungabon and San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija P19 million; and Balayan and Lemery, Batangas P22 million.
The link cited a quote that said: “ “One cannot help but think that if these projects were not capriciously cancelled on the sole fact that they were initiated by the previous administration, then the recent floodings could have been prevented or mitigated.”
