Aquino presides over Neda board meetings

MANILA -- President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday presided over the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) board meeting at the Aguinaldo State Dining Room in Malacanang.

The meeting was scheduled at 10 a.m.

Present at the meeting are Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Agriculture Secretary Proseco Alcala. Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, and Neda Director General Arsenio Balisacan.

Also in attendance are Mindanao Development Authority (MinDa) chairperson Luwalhati Antonino, Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson, Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap) president Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali, Jr., Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Mujiv Hataman, Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Head Julia Andrea Abad, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said there are 11 projects included in the agenda of the board meeting, three of which were previously discussed during the past meeting.

Some items on the agenda include Light Railway Transit (LRT) Line 2 East Extension Project, Bicol and Bohol International Airport Project, said Valte.

This is the seventh Neda board meeting presided by Aquino since he became President in 2010.

The last was on May 30 were the board approved a P42.1 billion government project for Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Expressway project and improve the national sewerage and National Sewerage and Septage Management Program.

The meeting is still ongoing as of this posting. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)