PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo visited Thursday several areas in Eastern Mindanao, gracing events that have something to do with the government's peace initiatives.

Before she proceeded to Davao City Thursday afternoon, Arroyo first attended the First Mindanao Cooperative Peace Forum at Xavier University gymnasium in Cagayan de Oro City where she received the Mindanao Cooperative Peace Declaration.

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During the event, Arroyo stressed "the cooperative movement in Mindanao is declaring affirmatively that it is up to the task of being a vehicle of peace, progress and an instrument of social justice."

The chairs of the different Regional Cooperative Development Council (RCDC) of Mindanao presented the declaration.

Religious leaders in Mindanao later handed over to Arroyo results of the series of dialogues and consultations they had conducted on ancestral domain, one of the ticklish issues that delay the signing of the final peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Arroyo received the document during the 37th general assembly of the influential Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Davao City.

Arroyo earlier asked the BUC to find out the sentiments of affected communities after the Supreme Court in August last year ruled as unconstitutional the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) between the government and the MILF.

The BUC is led by Davao Archbishop Fernando Capalla, United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Bishop Hilario Gomez Jr., Konsult Mindanaw project director Fr. Albert Alejo, and Dr. Hamid Barra, representing the Ulama League of the Philippines.

Arroyo was also supposed to visit North Cotabato to inaugurate the airport there but it was cancelled and moved to November 3.