GUAGUA, Pampanga, Philippines--President Macapagal-Arroyo visited her home province on Sunday afternoon to inspect road projects and a dike that would control floods here but she was welcomed by a group of residents protesting the project.

Ruston Banal, a resident of Barangay (Village) San Juan Bautista here, said around 50 families would be displaced if the construction of the Sapang Maragul diversion channel in Barangay San Agustin were to push through.

About 20 residents posted protest streamers and held placards as the President's convoy passed.
They, however, complained that policemen harassed them by trying to take away and tear their streamers.

Banal said they transferred the streamers to a private lot but policemen still broke into the area and removed them.

"That's trespassing. I don't even think Ms Arroyo saw those streamers," he said.

Chief Insp. Marcelo Dayag, Guagua police chief, said his men removed the streamers and asked the residents to stop the protest because they were not able to secure permits from the mayor's office.

"In the first place, those streamers obstruct the highway. We did not harass them. We were just doing our job," Dayag said.

He said dialogues regarding the project were held so the residents should no longer bring the protest to the streets.

The residents said the dike would not solve the flooding in the town. Raising a bridge in the village, they said, would be enough to control floodwaters.

Ms Arroyo later inspected road improvement projects in the villages of San Jose, San Miguel and San Roque. She also inspected a collapsed section of a dike in the village of San Juan Nepo.

After her visit here, Ms Arroyo proceeded to her hometown of Lubao. Ms Arroyo's Sunday visit was her 32nd to Pampanga since February 2009.

Last week, she went to Arayat and San Simon towns to visit landslide and flood victims. She also opened a museum in honor of her father, the late former President Diosdado Macapagal, in Lubao.