Estrada meets the richest, poorest

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga - In an apparent bid to boost his sagging popularity, President Estrada is set to meet today with the scions of the country's richest and politically influential families and this province's 100 "poorest families."

The President is expected to address this morning a conference convened by the Philippine Forum Foundation, hea-ded by newly designated Trade Secretary Mar Roxas, at the Holiday Inn Hotel here.

The foundation ends today its three-day forum on "Convergence in the Millennium" attended by prominent business people such as Antonio Cojuangco, Jaime Jose Concepcion III, Lance Gokongwei, Doris Magsaysay-Ho, Menardo Jimenez, Jack Ponce-Enrile, Alfonso Yuchengco III and Augusto Zobel de Ayala.

The conference is also being attended by young leaders in government, the academe, and arts and culture.

In the afternoon, Mr. Estrada flies to the foot of Mt. Arayat to inspect a P3.2-billion irrigation project that will benefit 10,270 hectares of local farmlands, and meet there with 100 of the poorest families in Pam-panga.

The irrigation project, funded by Japan's Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, is part of the controversial Pampanga Delta Development Project (PDDP).

The project will trap water from the Rio Chico and Pampanga Rivers to irrigate 10,270 hectares of ricelands in Arayat, Sta. Ana, Mexico, San Luis, San Simon and Candaba.

Mr. Estrada is also scheduled to hand out checks to local government units in the province, representing their respective shares from quarrying fees collected by the Natural Resources Development Corp., an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.