Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo has designated five "point persons" who will coordinate with local government units throughout the country on the implementation of her infrastructure projects which she announced in her recent State of the Nation Address (SoNA).

Bunye said the Cabinet champions would also ensure full transparency of government spending during the implementation of the P372-billion infrastructure development plans in the next three years.

"Our development plan is right on target as the President has designated a point person for each super-region who will coordinate the projects in consultation with the local government units in the spirit of transparency," Bunye said in a statement.

The five "point persons" are Secretaries Arthur Yap, Ed Pamintuan, Joseph Ace Durano, Jesus Dureza and Ramon Sales.

Presidential Management Staff chief Secretary Arthur Yap said he had been assigned by Mrs. Arroyo to oversee the development plans of the government for the Northern Luzon superregion, particularly the plans to make the region the food basket of the country.

Yap said Secretary Ed Pamintuan of the Office of External Affairs (OEA) will take charge of the Metro Luzon urban beltway, or the region consisting of Metro Manila, and Regions 3 and 4A.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano will be in charge of implementing the development plans for Central Philippines to make that region one of the more popular tourist destinations in Asia, while Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza will be assigned to push for the development of Mindanao through strengthened efforts to achieve peace in that region.

The development plans for Mrs. Arroyo’s "fifth super region," the information and technology belt stretching from Baguio City in the North to Davao City in the South, will be handled by Secretary Ramon Sales, chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.

Bunye assured that the government’s ambitious plan of implementing various infrastructure projects throughout the country in the next three years would have sufficient funding through increased revenues and more efficient revenue collection practices.

"The development of the super-regions is going into high gear. Costing benchmarks and fund sources have been identified, and the numbers are being finetuned by President Arroyo’s economic team," Bunye said.

"Recent trends in our revenue collections clearly indicate that we can finance the infrastructure projects, with full support from the private sector and international partners," he added.