California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with a group of Filipino-American experts on urban planning, will visit the Philippines next week to assist in the ”heavy lifting” of the Philippine government’s reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.

Executive Director Butch Meily of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation, which serves as partner of the Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission (SNPRC), announced the scheduled arrival of the California-based experts on reconstruction and rehabilitation along with the Hollywood action hero-turned-politician.

He said in a press briefing last Thursday that Schwarzenegger and company ”will be spending days” in Manila to share with their counterparts their practices and strategies in addressing damages brought by catastrophes.

In the same briefing, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said the California governor would ”assist in the heavy lifting” task of the SNPRC to address the damages from the devastating typhoons last year as well as to attract humanitarian assistance to fund the government’s rehabilitation efforts.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Ricardo Saludo, also the head of the Commission’s Secretariat, said they are hoping to mobilize $877.58 million (P40 billion) in foreign funding for the rehabilitation efforts.

Full Story: Manila Bulletin/Yahoo PH