Securing the future of the new Nueva Ecija

MANILA, Philippines - If one returns to Nueva Ecija, maybe a five-year absence one can easily see the vast improvement  - clean and pave roads, business establishments, and malls – all indicating progress and improved standards of living in the province.

Gov. Aurelio “Oyie” Umali remains proud of his accomplishments since he was elected to the post by a huge margin in 2007. But the biggest achievement, he says, is liberating the Novo Ecijanos from political oppression and recasting the province’s image from that of a violent and dangerous region, to that of a progressive and peaceful place.

“The political history of Nueva Ecija was written in violence, and that’s recorded. But we’re now moving away from that, removing Nueva Ecija from what they say as the hotspot, especially during elections,” Umali tells STARweek.

He recalls there was one election when Nueva Ecija was the only one the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared as a hotspot in Luzon because of the killings there while the rest in the same category were all in Mindanao, considering the province is only about a hundred kilometers north of Manila.

He says that in the past, Novo Ecijanos could not talk openly against the former officials of the province out of fear.

“The Novo Ecijanos are enjoying freedom. They can now express themselves freely and without any reservation – that to me, is more important, plus there can be no economic growth if the people are subdued,” Umali says.

“During my term, the people right now give out their opinions readily, and that to me is a good sign. The moment the people are given the chance to speak out their minds, they can complain, they can now have a way of addressing their grievances. In this way, the local government, not only the provincial government, will now have to listen to the people. That raises the standard of living,” he says.

“Because the moment the people speak openly, the elected officials will have to raise the bar of performance, by which the people are going to vote for them,” he adds.

He says: “The perception is that now, Nueva Ecija is different from what it was known in the past, people will now come here to live, and invest.”

Provincial public-private partnership program

To boost the inflow of investments into province, the local government has drafted its own Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Code, which lays the legal framework to allow the participation of the private sector in major projects Umali says Nueva Ecija was the first to come up with its own PPP Code and now, other local government units (LGUs) are getting into the bandwagon.

“Traditionally, the sources of LGUs are the IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) and real property tax collections. But to my mind, these are the traditional sources of revenues. When I assumed the governorship in 2007, the province with the biggest debt was Nueva Ecija, running into bill “So we really had to find a way not to be dependent on IRA. So I started looking at alternatives,” he adds. “For instance, we need to attract investors. In order to attract investors, there must be some sort of modality by which they could come in.”

Because of the PPP Code, a P1.5 billion 3,000-seat business process outsourcing (BPO) center is set to rise soon in Palayan City, where the provincial capitol and some cold storage facilities are located. At the former provincial capitol of Cabanatuan City, one of the Top 10 corporations of the country is also putting up its own BPO center with an investment of P2 billion.

He says that the BPO centers will also help those working in similar jobs in Metro Manila to not only save on transportation, and board and lodging expenses, but also enable them to be closer to their families.

“We have to create pockets of economies. Beyond what the LGU will earn for the joint venture are the direct and indirect benefits. The new jobs will enable their families to have purchasing power and will create pockets of economies,” he says.

“We’re competitive. The price of doing business in Manila or elsewhere is quite high,” he adds.

Umali also disclosed the provincial government is also negotiating with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with a P50 billion PPP project to transfer the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, and the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, inside Fort Ramon Magsaysay of the Army in Palayan City.

The move will mean the transfer of about 26,000 inmates from the NBP and some 5,000 from the CIW to a new complex to be built within the Army reservation.

“Why am I allowing this (transfer)? One, it is the desire of the national leadership. Second, I do believe that outside of Metro Manila, the only logical place to put it is in Nueva Ecija because Fort Magsaysay is the biggest military camp outside of Metro Manila, and of course, the direct benefits of this.”

“Other than the job opportunities it will offer, the products of Nueva Ecija will have to be purchased. They will have to eat daily, could you just imagine. Every morning, more than 30,000 individuals will have to eat, like poultry and rice,” Umali says.

The provincial government has also secured a commitment from the DOJ that the food requirements and other needs of the new complex will have to be sourced from the province.

The governor says that most inmates will also have visitors who will visit the province, and most likely spend even a little on food or lodging that “again will create pockets of economies.”

“There were other social concerns. Is this going to be a stigma to us? It’s not. Right now, the NBP is in the center of urbanization, it’s beside Ayala Alabang. It’s even better if it’s inside the military camp. Can you just imagine, it’s guarded and it’s also inside a military camp,” he says. The provincial government is also undertaking programs to make Nueva Ecija a tourist destination, with the 40-year-old Pantabangan Dam – the biggest dam in the country – as its main attraction.

He says that the dam used to be the biggest in Asia and an entire municipality had to be sacrificed to build it. “At that time, it was a very tough

decision, and it is only now we’re reaping the benefits. So aside from the very colorful history, the Pantabangan Dam provides electricity. It’s one of the most successful hydros in the country. And that’s the reason why we’ve sustained the rice granary in the Philippines. Seventy percent of the irrigated lands are sourced from Pantabangan,” he says.

He says that he was proposing to the national government to make Pantabangan another source of potable water for Metro Manila as the Angat Dam in Bulacan is deteriorating.

Out of the nearly 1,000 kilometers of roads in the province, only 177 kilometers remain for concreting to speed up local trade and commerce, improve infrastructure for tourism and investments. All roads will be fully-paved by 2016, he says.

Umali however says that the local government is not content with that. It is coordinating with private proponents for another PPP project to extend the North Luzon Expressway to pass through the province.

‘Food basket of the Philippines’

Umali says that each province in the country has a role to play in national development. And while Nueva Ecija continues to embark on modernization and expansion of its economy, it will remain true to its roots of being the source of food for Luzon, and even the rest of the country.

“We are very near Manila and we are the rice granary of the Philippines. We are also the onion capital, and we are also positioning ourselves as the dairy capital. So it’s very important that the development of Nueva Ecija is still centered on agriculture,” he says.

He says the full implementation of the agreements entered into by the Philippines with the World Trade Organization would have an adverse impact on the country’s poor farmers as the WTO bans national subsidies for the agricultural sector.

He says the solution to such developments is direct intervention from the local government, which he implemented in 2008 through the “Ani ng Masaganang Uhay” (AMU). The AMU program grants poor farmers with concessional loans and technical support to allow them to be strong and self-sustaining when the WTO agreements are fully enforced.

“We’re the rice granary of the country and there should be intervention from us, and that’s the only way we can help them, our poor farmers.”

“They’re saying while the banking system allows them to provide some loan facilities to farmers, they don’t have the means to do so because, even to photocopy thick documents, they don’t have the money, so they shy away from these loan facilities,” he says.

The AMU started with five hectares each in the four congressional districts of the province in 2008 and it has expanded steadily, and the aim is to expand it to 30,000 hectares, out of the total 125,000 hectares of fully-irrigated agricultural lands by 2016. About 60,000 hectares of farmland depend on rainfall for irrigation.

The AMU program was not only about low-cost financing but also made use of the modern technology to help farmers.

“We have the best agriculturists in the country and many of them have PhDs so we made them readily available 24/7 to farmers for them be able to do the technologically-advanced and modern farming, especially during the typhoon season,” the governor says.

He says that since the 1970s up to the present, demonstration farms, where private and public modern farming technology are showcased, dot the province, but farmers are not eager to adopt them.

“I asked our people, how come we have demo farms and the farmers are not buying into the idea. They told me, ‘maybe it wouldn’t work so we might lose money’ so they’re really afraid to invite change. I said, the only way we can encourage farmers to accept modern technology, is for them to be given security, so what we did is to finance them, do this, and all the agriculturists of the Nueva Ecija provincial government are readily available, to help you and assist you,” he says.

And if the crops are destroyed by natural calamities, the poor farmers won’t be buried in debt as their produce are insured by the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. as endorsed by the provincial government.

Small loan payments are collected only after harvest season and the collection rate ranged from 75 percent to 100 percent, which meant that the AMU was a success.

Hesaysricemillersareusuallythe richest in the provinces as they’re the ones lending money or virtually act as middlemen for farmers. Another intervention in the pipeline of the Nueva Ecija government is to put up its own rice mill.

“Right now, as you can see, the problem of the national leadership right now is controlling the price of palay. Farmers definitely want a higher price of palay. The consumer wants a lower price of rice. So how do we balance the two conflicting needs? The provincial government will come in buy the palay at farm gate prices,” Umali says.

“With the rice mill of the province, we can buy it and sell it at rolling stores in areas where commercial rice is sold much higher. So basically, to balance the need of the farmers to have high price and consumer low rice prices, the only way to serve these two masters is for the provincial government to get into the business, buy it at the price they want, and sell it at price that’s lower,” he says.

But before the rice mill, the provincial government is finishing a P122-million gasifier complex, where farmers can dry their palay. If one goes around Nueva Ecija, one will see palay being dried along provincial and national roads, which has long been prohibited by a local ordinance.

Umali says he believes the ordinance is correct but cannot be enforced as farmers lack the space and means to dry their palay properly. Once the gasifier is completed, the ordinance will be enforced.

Private rice millers charge about P1 per kilo of drying palay, but the provincial government can charge farmers 50 centavos, or even less for as long it can repay the cost of the gasifier over time.

“We’ll not only be able to enforce the ordinance, the farmers will come to us because it’s much cheaper. I cannot enforce the ordinance if I don’t have any alternative. While we’re doing some drying facilities, what if it rains? Where will they dry their palay?” Umali says.

He says the local government has also acquired 300,000-bag capacity onion cold storage facility to help onion farmers extend the life of their produce and shield them from some unscrupulous middlemen.

Umali believes there can be corporate farming in Nueva Ecija without taking the land from farmers. Under the AMU, the provincial government does not take away land but on collect payments.

“We buy the produce and sell. So in effect, we are establishing corporate farming initiated by the provincial government, and the farmers themselves need not worry, what is happening here is that the farmers don’t have any say in the prices. Those who profit are the middlemen and rice millers. You don’t see any farmer dictating the price. But we don’t compete. The difference between the provincial government and the rice millers is that we don’t operate for profit. We just want a very small margin to recover costs, pay debts and sustain our programs,” he says.

‘Disaster prevention and resilience’

Based on the standards set by the Department of Interior and Local Governments on disaster-preparedness, Nueva Ecija is No. 1, says the local chief executive.

He says that the province had zero casualties when tropical storm Ondoy struck Luzon in 2009. He says when other governors where blaming national agencies for the flooding due to water releases from dams, the province had been gradually releasing water from Pantabangan days before Ondoy dumped torrential rains.

“Because if you’re the governor, you’re the head of the disaster management council, the buck stops with you. In other LGUs, when calamity strikes, they point blames to other agencies. Why be the head of the disaster council in your area if you’re not going to own the responsibility,” Umali says.

He made sure that all members of Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council have close coordination and fully know their respective responsibilities. He says he always carries a chain saw and some shovels in his vehicle.

Because of their preparations, the Nueva Ecija government sent teams with amphibious vehicles to Pasig City when it was still inundated by floodwaters from Ondoy upon the request of former defense chief Gilberto Teodoro, and they were able to rescue over 100 people.

The local government also sent mobile kitchens to evacuation centers in Marikina City and fed over 15,000 evacuees with cooked food.

Recognizing their efforts, Umali says the Spanish government issued grants worth P300 million to Nueva Ecija for equipment, water purifiers, and livelihood projects, “simply because we were prepared.”

“You can never prevent typhoons but you can mitigate and prepare the community,” he says. “There’s no magic here. Just hard work and we own up to our responsibilities.”

‘Secure future’

Umali says he will step down as governor in 2016 even as he rushes to finish his other programs before his term ends.

His remaining goals include leaving the provincial government with a balanced budget. He recalls that when he assumed office, the local government did not pay premiums of its employees to the Government Service Insurance System for 10 years.

Now, the payments have been updated and provincial employees receive salaries compliant to the Salary Standardization Law.

Umali says he hopes that his wife, Rep. Cherry Umali, would be able to win the gubernatorial elections in 2016. He recalls that Comelec officials were both amused and surprised that in 2013, he was the only local executive to ask the poll body to declare the province a hotspot.

He says he made the request not only to prevent possible violence, but to also tie the hands of his party, and ensure the elections are fair. He says being a governor brings tremendous influence and advantage during elections but the Novo Ecijanos are now aware of their rights and are more assertive.

“But that’s the beauty of democracy, complaints – even in social media – for us elective officials not to slacken and be on our toes,” Umali says.

“I could not allow the province to be ruled again by people associated with predecessors. The only reason why Novo Ecijanos keep on voting for me because I allow them to criticize me. I’m not violent, I have always exercised patience, empathy and understanding in dealing with the people’s complaints,” he says.

“The politics of the province will revert back to violence and fear and all the sacrifices the people of Nueva Ecija have made will all be for nothing, if we don’t continue what we’ve started,” he adds.