NE vice gov defends out-of-town sessions

STA. ROSA, Nueva Ecija, Philippines  – Vice Gov. Jose Gay Padiernos has defended the move of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to transfer the venue of the weekly SP sessions to various municipalities and cities of the province from the seat of the capitol in Palayan City, saying this will fast-track delivery of basic services to many Novo Ecijanos.

Padiernos, SP presiding officer, told newsmen that out-of-town SP sessions is one way of giving the provincial board members a direct pulse of the needs and sentiments of a particular locality instead of just dealing with documents submitted to them during sessions at the SP session hall in Pala­yan.

“If the provincial government conducts fiesta caravans in various towns and cities where services are downloaded, we at the SP also feel that by conducting out-of-town sessions, we can readily identify the needs of the people and address them in their own homecourt,” he said.

He said deliberating on various requests for appropriations in SP sessions in Palayan does not exactly serve its purpose because “it’s hard to approve allocations for projects merely based on documents.”

Nevertheless, he said a skeletal force has been left at the SP office in Palayan to attend to the needs of visitors from other places.