Davao City (20 October) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said her Administration will continue to fight against terrorism and work to bring peace and development to Mindanao "so that we can improve the living conditions in the poorest areas of our country," especially the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Caraga.

"To bring in more investments and jobs, we must also advance peace in conflict areas not only in Mindanao especially but also in other areas through amnesty and local peace initiatives such as being undertaken in Agusan, which is in Caraga, as well as in Bohol which is the model for local peace processes." The President said.

The imperative now is to sustain growth by making long overdue investments in education, health care and training and attract investments by fast tracking billions of pesos in new bridges, roads and ports. In fact, that's part of the recommendations of the Millennium Development Goals, to upgrade infrastructure so that we can upgrade the competitiveness of the Philippines. These are the keys to uplifting the poor up, the President added.

"We are spending money to upgrade local government hospitals from primary to secondary because secondary hospitals have facilities for childbirth and caesarian delivery. So, if we have better local government hospitals – no more primary mostly secondary and some may even be tertiary – then more mothers will give birth in the hospital and that will also reduce maternal death."

The President made her commitment to also boost educational support in our efforts to reduce poverty by investing in better schoolbuildings, new textbooks and teaching materials, and training programs for teachers and school administrators.