However, the former
lady solon said it would still have a semblance of what she has been
doing during the past decade as her assignment is specially focused on
anti-poverty programs of the national government for the ten
identified poorest provinces in the country today.
For the most part, she
disclosed, these anti-poverty programs do not cover the province of
Leyte but said, she would find ways to provide aid to the province in
any way she can.
She said her
appointment also means that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is
confident of her capacity to facilitate these anti-poverty projects,
considered among the topmost agenda of the PGMA administration of
alleviating poverty in the countryside.
This the former
congresswoman said in answer that her appointment may have come as a
“reward” for giving way to another candidate in the last May
elections, nipping her plan to run for another term as Leyte first
district representative.
It can be recalled
that she gave up her reelection bid to pave the way for unification
with the administration party umbrella in the province that
subsequently saw to the uncontested win of incumbent first district
congressman Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, a member of PGMA’s KAMPI
party.
Aside from being named
as vice president of PAGCOR the former lady solon was also appointed
as the chairman of the board of director of the sequestered television
station IBC-13.
Her stand on the
current issue whether to privatize the government-run TV station, she
said she still has to look into the overall operation and set up of
the company and took with other members of the board and other
officials to decide if privatizing it is the better option.
It was learned that
for this new position she would be holding office for at least three
times a week in Manila, but the bulk of her time will be spent in
assisting PGMA’s anti-poverty projects in the Visayas.
