Region VI Development Council joins supra regional meet

The officers of the Western Visayas Regional Development Council suddenly found themselves invited to a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and representatives of the Central Visayas Supra Region in Cebu City yesterday.

The meet will have far-ranging impact. The reason: the President is strongly encouraging Western Visayas to shift its medium-term development program from agri-industry to agri-tourism, pointing out the need to make Central Philippines the tourism hub of the country.

Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas Rafael Coscolluela said RDC chairwoman Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez will present the President the Western Visayas tourism development program with Boracay as its anchor.

The two Negros governors, however, will push for bridges to interconnect Panay, Negros and Cebu to boost the economies and tourism potentials of the three islands.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon and Oriental Negros Gov. George Arnaiz have long been batting for the ambitious bridge-link project.

Both said they will also push for the production of ethanol and jatropha as well as organic farming.

Arnaiz will handle the presentation of the common concerns of the two Negros provinces.

Gov. Zaldivar-Perez intends to invite the President to attend the special celebration of RDC VI by the third week of this month to award the first-ever winners of the Best Public Sector Projects evaluated by the private sector components of the council.

The Central Philippines Supra Region is composed of Regions V to VIII and a few island-provinces of Region IV-B.

Governors, city and town mayors and members of the RDCs’ executive committees are expected to join the President to hammer out the priorities and concerns of the Central Philippines Supra Region.

This will provide the National Economic Development Authority the opportunity to present to the President a bigger perspective of the development thrust that needs to be pushed.

Local executives and national officials will participate in the planning, monitoring and fine-tuning of development projects, Coscolluela explained.

NEDA will also present the strategies and projects of the Medium-Term Public Investment Program in line with the President’s vision to make the regions globally competitive based on the perspectives of the regional leaders themselves.

The inputs of the Supra Region meeting will be included in the State of the Nation Address of the President when Congress reconvenes later this month.

The President has divided the country into four regional mega regions. These are North Luzon, Metro Luzon, Central Philippines, and Mindanao.

Best public sector projects

As previously mentioned, RDC chairwoman Sally Zaldivar-Perez inaugurated recently the first judging by the Region VI RDC of the Best Public Sector Projects.

The winners were announced in last week’s RDC meeting in Iloilo City.

Ten winners were selected. The 45 projects submitted were pared down to 25 and further to only 18 before the final selection post a field evaluation by the private sector board of judges.

The regional line agencies

The first prize went to the BIR VI Operation Dikit and Tax Mapping on Tax Compliance Verification Drive. This earned BIR P40,000 in cash and a plaque of recognition.

The second prize was won by the DOH VI TB-DOTS Best Practices Collection. The third prize winner was the Kalahi-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services of the Department of Social Services and Development.

In the local government unit category, the winners are the Drug Management Reforms (Parallel Drug Importation) of Capiz province. This was followed by the Country Program for Children of Antique.

For cities, the top prize went to Roxas City’s establishment of diwal sanctuaries, which won for the city P25,000 and a plaque.

Sipalay City of Negros Occidental captured the third place with its tourism development program.

Among state universities and colleges, the development of the UP Visayas Health Service Unit in Miag-on, Iloilo as a primary hospital won, with a P40,000 cash prize.

The Food-Always-In-The Home (FAITH) Garden Program of the Negros State College of Agriculture in Kabankalan City won second place, while the third prize went to the Aklan State University’s DYMT.

The other outstanding projects included the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources’ Seaweed Development Program in Guimaras province; the Garment Center in Cauayan, Negros Occidental; the dovetailing, monitoring and evaluation of the Western Visayas regional development plans of NEDA, and the NTC on Wheels, the mobile licensing of the NTC VI. Then, there is the communications network.

Among local government units, the projects cited included the Iloilo dairy project; Indigenous Supplementary Mixture (ISUMIX) of Bacolod City; the Iloilo City urban poor relocation project; the Himamaylan City (Negros Occidental) relocation and housing project; Kabankalan City’s high-value vegetable production; the La Carlota City high-value crops program; Sagay City’s urban and housing site for government employees; and Silay City’s free school bus service and raincoat project.

The Carlos Hilado Memorial College was also cited for its design and production of selected farm implements for small-scale farmers in sugar haciendas in Talisay City.

Based on this listing of ongoing projects, it is now evident that many things are happening to refute the claims of rallyists that nothing is being done by the government to improve the lot of the common tao.

Two refineries in Negros

In Negros Occidental, the developing situation is that it is definitely becoming the hub of sugar for food with the establishment of two more refineries by two sugar mills. These are the refineries of the Southern Negros Development Company in Kabankalan City and the Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM) in Binalbagan town.

But Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBBCI) chairman Roberto Montelibano read it differently — it could mean a higher demand for industrial diesel and stimulate the development of jatropha curcas or jatropha as alternative fuel.

For that matter, MBCCI rallied school principals of Murcia town yesterday to encourage agriculture teachers to mobilize schoolchildren to cultivate jatropha on idle lots.

Montelibano himself told me that the MBCCI is planting some 1,000 hectares in Negros Occidental with jatropha, and will soon distribute some 300,000 seeds to local government units for planting.

Although Congress still has to approve the biofuel bill pending in the Senate, alternative fuel investors have started planting jatropha and finalizing plans for the development of biodiesel and ethanol distilleries.

Some pinned their hopes on the fact that with the price of oil hitting $75 per barrel yesterday, the most rabid opposition senators may eventually realize the need to pass the measure or earn the country’s ire.