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STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS 2014
BY GOV. ARTHURD. DEFENSOR, SR.
Honorable Vice Governor Raul Tupas, Honorable Members of the Sangguniang
Panlalawigan, distinguished guests, fellow workers in government, ladies and gentlemen:
About this time last year, from this podium, in this hall, I reported to you
how we were struggling and succeeding in fleshing out and turning our call
for reform and change from rhetoric to reality. We met roadblocks, but we
were well on our way to our destination.
And then, Yolanda struck.
All of us have indelible memories of her etched in our consciousness. And
even in our sleep, she comes alive in our disturbed dreams and nightmares. She
left behind a swath of death and destruction and those lucky enough to be alive
had to bear the loss of livelihood and homes, of limbs, even of loved ones.
When the winds died down and the lashing waves of our Northern Iloilo
seas settled into ripples, they glinted with a strange reflection of sunlight from
the skies. No, the now-subdued sea was not blue but shiny black. The super
typhoon was gone, but we had a major oil spill in our hands.
Others might have thought we were broken and beaten. They might have
thought that we couldnt rise again from the debris of devastation.
They thought wrong.
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We were not unprepared for Yolanda.
We had predicted that it will rapidly intensify into a powerful typhoon
and had the potential of becoming a super typhoon.
Apat ka adlaw antes nag tupa ang bagyo, na abisohan kita sang halit nga
posible dal-on sa aton. Gani, aton na ginpa-andaman ang mga pumuluyo sang
mga kabanwahan nga iya pagasalakayon. Gin handa man naton ang aton
kagamitan kag gin-alerto ang aton mga first aid responders. Sang gab-i mismo
pagkatapos sang bagyo nagdala na si Dr. Raul Banias, ang aton Provincial
Administrator sang pila ka truck nga relief goods nga aton ginpamakal antes
sang bagyo, pero wala sya makalusot sa Banate.
I was fully apprised and aware of what was coming though not of how
truly bad it will be. But I had to be with my family in Manila at that time to lay
to rest my 13-month old granddaughter Erin, second child of my younger son
Lorenz and his wife Vanessa, who succumbed to a gall bladder complication. I
returned the day after, taking the first available flight.
I was told that the devastation exceeded all our calculations. From the
airport, I went straight to the Capitol and saw our dump trucks being loaded
with relief goods. The next day, I was amazed at the sight of aid piled so high
and so deep I could hardly find my way to the elevator.
There begins the narrative of our redemption.
All of us have given so much of ourselves to help be it in cash or in kind,
in a word of comfort or in a silent prayer.
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I couldnt thank you enough. And I speak not only for myself, but for
those who could no longer speak, and those who couldnt speak loud enough.
Tama guid kadamo ang nag alamot. May mga utod man kita nga sabaylo
mag amot, nag bulig pamutos sang aton mga relief goods. Bata, tigulang,
estudyante, mga empleyado sang gobyerno, mga maestra, mga trabahante, tanan
sila nag kadto diri sa Kapitolyo agud mag bulig sa aton.
They did as people do for their fellowmen in times of need. They helped.
Kag diri nanumbalik ang akon pagsalig, kag subong man ang pagsalig
sang kadam-an, sa katawhan.
We have proved to ourselves that we can survive even a Yolanda-level
catastrophe because of our strong sense of community anchored on our deeper
sense of common humanity. But we have to admit that our forward
momentum towards progress was halted, and delayed, even as we responded to
the pressing problems of the present.
It is at this point, when our own resources are overstretched and even
drained, that we welcome the announcement of President Aquino in his recent
State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he has approved the rehabilitation and
recovery plans of Yolanda-affected provinces. Iloilo will be getting projects and
programs amounting to 17.3 billion pesos under that plan.
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Kabalo kita nga kulang ining igahatag sang gobyerno sa aton. Apang
kung aton isipon ang mga bulig nga aton na nabaton, bastante naman ini agud
makabangon kita liwat.
Huo, madamo ang nag bulig kag nagtabang sa aton.
Take the stream of volunteers, both Filipino and foreign, who came with
food, clothes, and those who brought their own medical equipment and supplies
to tend to the injured and the sick.
And the local and international groups who brought with them or helped
procure building materials and wielding the carpenters tools with their own
hands sweated under the sultry sky to build shelters for the homeless.
Corporations may not be people, but they do have a high sense of social
responsibility.
Take Ayala Land which last June turned over 200 typhoon-resilient
housing units to Yolanda survivors who were relocated to an 8-hectare
resettlement site in Barangay Jolog in Estancia town. And they are building
more.
And the SM Group of Companies which is now constructing a 200-unit
housing project in Barangay Bacjawan Sur in Concepcion on a one-hectare
property donated by Mrs. Ruth Tirol Jarantilla and her family for those affected
by the calamity.
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Adjacent to the SM Cares Housing Project, there is now an ongoing
construction of 100 permanent houses of the Gawad Kalinga Assumption Village
for the victims of Yolanda. The land was also donated by Mrs. Ruth Tirol
Jarantilla and her family.
Food rations and temporary shelters can only go so far. For coastal folk
whose very survival depend on their access to the bounty of the sea, a fishing
boat is the equivalent of Noahs Ark, and these were all but destroyed when
Yolanda struck.
When we launched the Adopt-A-Fisherman Project soon after the
onslaught of Yolanda, our target was 9,000 fishing boats. We have already
distributed 6,308 fishing boats to fishermen who lost their means of livelihood.
Using the 11.5-million peso cash donations that we received for the project, we
will hit the target and soon exceed it.
Along the coast of Northern Iloilo today, you will be greeted by the sight
of yellow-painted fishing boats, all from One Meal Foundation, and its partners
here and abroad, that has so far donated 1,500 motorized fishing boats, valued at
30 million pesos.
The chairperson of the foundation made me swear that I should not
disclose her identity, but I will break that promise because she has a heart so
huge that it can accommodate all our fishermen who lost their fishing boats. She
is Miss Teresa Nene Chan.
A few months ago, we deployed fishing boats donated by the
Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals, and the Federation of
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Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Panay, among the many benevolent
organizations.
So much has been done, but we all know that a lot more need to be done.
We simply have to move on because for us, there is no turning back.
But the task of rebuilding and renewal is not limited only to the areas of
recent devastation. It goes further back in time and deeper down into our soul as
a people.
We have a wounded history, a wounded society, a wounded culture.
Time heals, but healing takes time. And for all the time that I have served you in
the government, I have asked you to join me in a transformation for reform and
change that seeks to make us whole again. That is why we have toiled long and
hard to earn back the trust of our people in their government.
We still have a way to go, but we are getting there.
We have remodelled and restructured our procurement system; we have
cleaned and refurbished the image of our provincial government; we have made
great strides in regaining the faith and confidence of our people.
Meanwhile, as this great structural repair job continues to be a work in
progress, let us take a moment to celebrate the gains we have made
achievements that reassure us that we are on the right track and revitalize our
efforts and inspire us to move forward with greater vigor and greater fervor.
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For example, the test of Yolanda and other social service challenges won
for Dr. Neneth Pador the Most Outstanding Provincial Social Welfare and
Development Officer Award. And I am happy to share with you the news that
after a rigorous validation process, I was given the honor which is really yours
as the Most Outstanding Governor in Social Service.
Our track record in the delivery of social services is a collective
achievement of our Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, our ever-
supportive Mayors and the social welfare officers of our component LGUs who
have selflessly served the poor and the needy.
We have sustained our Aid to Individuals in Crisis Situation or AICS
Program, serving at least 10,600 walk-in clients over the past 12 months,
expending some 18 million pesos for their needs, and our Health Care Financing
Program for the Indigents where we enrolled our beneficiaries with PhilHealth.
In other areas, our effort to protect our coastal environment has gained
worldwide recognition with the International Network for Environmental
Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) based in Washington DC, USA, awarding
us a Certificate of Recognition for our relentless efforts to protect and restore the
municipal waters of the Province of Iloilo and the Visayan Sea.
I received this citation for all of you, and share this honor especially with
the dedicated and gallant operatives of our Bantay Dagat Task Force, under the
fearless and inspired leadership of Dr. Raul Banias.
One of our men died on duty during the onslaught of Yolanda. We also
lost two patrol boats and several navigational equipment. But if it were up to me,
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I would rather that we had lost more boats and more equipment that we may
have saved that one precious life.
Recently, our Supreme Court affirmed the validity of Fishery
Administrative Order 246 banning the operation of the super hulbots or the
modified Danish seine. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources issued
this upon our prodding.
Our Bantay Dagat has relentlessly campaigned against this destructive
fishing method. I have already called a coordination meeting among enforcement
agencies like the BFAR, the Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Command
to work together and enforce FAO 246 to the letter.
Despite Yolanda, December last year felt like Christmas in other ways.
Among others, the Province of Iloilo was awarded by the Department of the
Interior and Local Government Regional Office Champion Trophies in
Administrative Governance and Social Governance in its yearly Excellence in
Local Governance (EXCELL) Awards.
The DILG, through Secretary Mar Roxas, also gave us our second Seal of
Good Housekeeping, now renamed Seal of Good Governance, for successfully
meeting the requirements of the full disclosure policy, and for having exemplary
standards of frontline services and procurement.
This award now allows us to access national government programs like
the Bottoms-Up Budgeting (BUB), the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan
(PAMANA), the Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig Para sa Lahat (SALINTUBIG) and the
Special Local Road Fund (SLRF).
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Our first Seal of Good Housekeeping brought us a prize of 17 million
pesos. We hope to receive more than that with the additional fund facility
available for us to access.
To Director Anthony Nuyda and the DILG staff, thank you. We know
there is more work for us to do and we shall do it.
Earning and keeping the trust of our people demands not only efficiency,
but also honesty and transparency which in turn requires the free flow and
accessibility of information. Two years ago, we established our Public
Information and Community Affairs Office or PICAO to lead our advocacy for
transparency and full disclosure by continuously providing our people regular
updates through news releases, our newsletter, our weekly radio program and
other innovative projects. Again last December, this office received the Best
Performing Information Office in Western Visayas Award from the Philippine
Information Agency.
To Director Janet Mesa and the men and women of the PIA, thank you for
recognizing our initiatives, and to the PICAO workforce, my congratulations!
Another winner is our Public Employment Service Office which received
the Best Performing PESO Award 2013 from the Department of Labor and
Employment for its successful conduct of job fairs, career guidance and
employment coaching.
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But we never rest on our laurels. With major setbacks delaying us, and
still so many challenges ahead of us, we cannot afford to tarry. We just have to
move on.
And moving on, we are vigorously pursuing our flagship programs in the
areas of hospital enhancement, health care efficiency, agricultural productivity,
environmental rehabilitation and infrastructure development.
Our Hospital Efficiency Assurance through Reform and Transformation
or HEART Program has received a big boost with the signing of the US$7 million
or 300 million peso, grant from the Korea International Cooperation Agency or
KOICA to enhance and improve the services of three hospitals of their choice,
servicing geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas; namely, the Aleosan
District Hospital in Alimodian, the Jesus M. Colmenares District Hospital in
Balasan, and the Dr. Ricardo S. Provido, Sr. Memorial District Hospital in
Calinog.
KOICA has even assigned Ms. Yon Hee Yang of Hyundai Asan Co. Ltd. to
manage what we call the Iloilo Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged
Areas (GIDA) Health Strengthening Project, which aims to improve maternal
and child care in the towns of Alimodian, Leon, San Miguel, Bingawan, Calinog,
Balasan, Batad, Estancia and Carles.
Ms. Yang, if you are around, please rise that we may acknowledge you
and thank you.
Last June, 14.7-million pesos worth of basic emergency obstetrics and
newborn care equipment from Korea arrived, and were distributed to the rural
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health units of the aforementioned municipalities as part of KOICAs 300-million
peso grant to improve the delivery of basic health services in remote areas.
KOICA is helping us not only in the enhancement of our hospitals but also
in the rehabilitation and development of our ports, particularly those damaged
by Yolanda. Among these are the fish-cum-terminal ports of Carles, Concepcion
and Estancia which are vital to the survival of the residents of the island
barangays in Northern Iloilo.
A team of experts headed by KOICA Vice President Doo Jung Soo came to
inspect and validate the needs of these ports. I accompanied them to Yolanda-
affected areas on November 27 last year, and he personally committed to me the
amount to US$10 million for this undertaking.
Based on their initial discussions with our Provincial Planning and
Development Office, this initiative - called the Northern Iloilo Comprehensive
Fishery Rehabilitation and Development Project - will cover the development of
the fishery ports in Carles and Concepcion, and the agro-fishery market in
Estancia.
We owe so much to the goodwill of the people of Korea and we thank
them, and many other countries, from the bottom of our hearts.
The Government of Canada, through the Local Government Support
Program for Local Economic Development or LGSP-LED, is supporting us
develop our tourism industry in Northern Iloilo in the form of technical
assistance amounting to 6 million pesos.
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The program, called Rebuilding Economic Opportunities for Sustainable
Tourism in Northern Iloilo, aims to help identified communities develop their
capacity to formulate strategies that will improve their livelihood, with tourism
as a major economic driver.
This will be managed by the our recently established Local Economic
Development and Investment Promotion Unit, which also provides technical
assistance to the Integrated Central Iloilo Alliance on Economic Development
(ICIAED) in setting up an agricultural information system.
We have an agricultural economy; we are an agriculture-based society and
will remain so within the foreseeable future. Agriculture then should be among
our top priorities.
Padayon ang aton pagsakdag sa patag sang panguma, paagi sa pag
patindog kag pagpakay-o sang mga post-harvest facilities kasubong sang mga
flatbed dryers, mga bodega, mga magagmay nga irigasyon kag mga karsada sa
kaumhan.
To help us improve our farm-to-market roads, the World Bank, through
the Department of Agriculture, will be investing in the Province of Iloilo for the
concreting of a 28-kilometer road in Passi City that will serve the people living in
the mountainous areas up to Gemumua Agahon.
Sa madugay nga mga tinion, ang dalan pakadto sa Gemumua Agahon
indi ma agwanta. Gintilawan namon magkadto sa sina nga barangay pagkatapos
sang eleksyon sang 2010 apang indi gid masarangan ang lubak-lubak sang dalan.
Wala kami makalab-ot sa barangay proper.
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Ang pagpasemento sini nga dalan maga agum sang funding nga magalab-
ot 280 million pesos sa idalom sang Philippine Rural Development Program. We
will provide a counterpart of 30 million pesos, 20 million of which will come
from the Provincial Government of Iloilo and the remaining 10 million will come
from the City Government of Passi.
Akon ginmanduan ang aton Provincial Engineers Office nga padasigon
ang pag implementar sang sini nga proyekto bangud nahibaluan naton kung ano
ini ka importante sa mga pumuluyo sang nabukid nga bahin sang Passi nga
nabudlayan mag dala sang ila mga patubas sa merkado bangud kasulumpaan
sang ila dalan.
I know that the personnel of our Provincial Engineers Office describe me
as a slave-driver jokingly, I hope. But that is true, because what I demand of
them is not a joke.
On top of their regular and already backbreaking workload of road repair
and maintenance, not to mention bridges, we have tasked them with the
supervision, upgrading, renovation, expansion and improvement of the Iloilo
Provincial Hospital and our eleven district hospitals at the cost of 850 million
pesos, which we sourced from our local annual budgets and from assistance
provided by the Department of Health.
Ang aton nga mga hospital may ara na pondo agud sila aton mapakay-o
kag mahatagan sang mga moderno nga mga kagamitan.
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I have tasked our Provincial Administrator, Dr. Raul Banias to hasten our
hospital reforms. His marching orders are clear: make our district hospitals real
hospitals for the poor. With the enthusiastic support of everyone concerned,
these are being carried out, starting with No-Balance-Billing, where all
indigent patients enrolled with Philhealth enjoy full subsidy with no out-of-
pocket expenses, and the Point-of-Care Program, where indigent patients
admitted to our hospitals, but who do not have Philhealth insurance, can be
enrolled upon admission.
I am disturbed, however, especially by reports from PhilHealth, that the
implementation especially of our No-Balance-Billing policy remains spotty.
But I have made my message clear to all our Chiefs of Hospitals in this regard.
As of today, we have invested close to a billion pesos in our hospitals.
That is an investment well-made, and should be added to, if need be. I am a
lawyer, not a doctor. But in law school, I remember my professor in Criminal
Law giving us problems involving death or injury and asking: How much is a
human life worth in terms of money? If youre a gun-for-hire, thats easy enough
to answer. But for us, investing in the health and well-being of our human
resources is more important than our investments elsewhere.
I say again: our hospitals are hospitals for the poor. I have no interest in
recovering our investments in them, because even as they are being operated as
economic enterprises, they will never become business enterprises.
Thats the reason Im so glad that the Department of Health has
accommodated our many requests and has been actively partnering with our
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Provincial Health Office in the introduction and implementation of health service
delivery initiatives.
I am happy to report to you that the malnutrition rate in Iloilo has
dropped from 8.5 percent in 2012 to 7 percent last year, and our PHO expects it
to drop further as our milk and supplemental feeding programs, vitamins
supplementation, and medical missions make their impact.
All over Western Visayas, Iloilo ranks number one in the number of
children immunized at 88 percent of the total population of young people aged 0
to 18 years old higher than the regional average of 83 percent.
Our PHO also has an accomplishment of 91 percent in the delivery of
health service packages to children aged 0 to 5 years old that includes Vitamin A,
Ferrous Sulphate and deworming drugs, making our children resistant to
ailments and diseases.
From our Dairy Center in Barangay Nanga in Pototan, which is being
managed by our Provincial Agriculture Office, hundreds of wasted pre-school
children were able to avail of our milk-feeding program, augmenting their
nutritional requirements.
Complementing our health and nutrition programs are our gains in
modernizing our rural health units, making them certified and accredited
emergency obstetrics and newborn care centers. From our partnership with
PhilHealth, we were able to provide our RHUs with modern equipment and
facilities.
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Aside from these, we also have our Project Buligay a medical-surgical-
dental mission where, as of today, we have already conducted 53 medical
missions.
Our Adolescent Health and Youth Development Program has been
expanding, particularly our effort to establish school-based multi-purpose teen
centers all over the province, a project introduced by our Provincial Population
Office. We were able to open five teen centers in 2011, five in 2012 and five in
2013. This year, we are opening 14 more teen centers.
These school-based teen centers help empower our youth through values
formation and other meaningful activities, helping them to resist the lure of
alcoholism, smoking, illegal drugs and pre-marital sex.
We have also finalized the 3-year Integrated Physical Fitness and Sports
Development Program of the Province of Iloilo, which aims to develop physical
fitness and sports at the grassroots level as the foundation for youth sports.
As we respond to the needs of the youth, we also invested some 88 million
pesos from our Provincial School Board funds for the hiring of locally-funded
teachers, repair and rehabilitation schools, construction and completion of
additional school buildings and other facilities, and the purchase of books and
other instructional materials, among other needs.
We are also preparing our young people to become responders in times of
calamities and disasters. Our Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Office has been organizing response teams in various
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municipalities, and has been training them on search and rescue operations, first
aid and basic life support, among others.
Sa pag sakdag sang Sangguniang Panlalawigan, nag pain kita sang 43
milyones ka pesos agud aton mapakay-o ang football field sang Iloilo Sports
Complex, mabutangan ini sang mga flood lights agud sarang mahampangan
kung gab-i, kag ipakay-o man ang aton rubberized track oval pagkatapos sang
tig-ululan agud maka host kita sang international sports events, ilabi nag gid ang
football.
We are also investing in our cooperatives, extending a loan amounting to
4.6 million pesos to 12 primary cooperatives to make their operation sustainable,
allowing them to serve their members better.
Our Provincial Cooperative Development Office is at the forefront of
capacitating our cooperatives with trainings, seminars and strategic planning
sessions our way of recognizing their pivotal position in rural development.
Indeed, we have to encourage more investments in the countryside to
balance the development that is now being experienced in Iloilo City and its
contiguous municipalities.
This is why we partnered with the Iloilo City Government and the private
sector in holding the Iloilo Business Forum in Makati last March. There we were
able to secure business commitments of some 30 billion pesos, a number of
which involve tourism-related ventures.
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We highlighted several selling points, like the planned Jalaur
Multipurpose River Project II, the promising 180-million-peso Dumangas Port
with an industrial zone soon to rise beside it, and our tourism destinations in
Northern Iloilo which, as I earlier mentioned, received technical assistance from
the Canadian Government.
The National Irrigation Administration is now finalizing the engineering
design of the Jalaur project and, I assure you that this dam will be structurally
sound and can withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake. With it, we can be assured
of water for our farms, industries and households.
Senate President Franklin Drilon worked hard to make this project
possible. We are extending all possible assistance to ensure the success of this
project.
The construction of the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation's 135-
megawatt coal-fired power plant in Barangay Nipa in Concepcion is underway.
We were there last May for the groundbreaking ceremony together with Senate
President Franklin Drilon and Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, and work there
progresses even as we speak.
During that Iloilo Business Forum, we also underscored our gains in the
areas of peace and order and security. We all know that our plans and efforts to
push for economic growth will be for naught in a climate of chaos, criminality,
and lawlessness.
Ginapasalig ko kamo tanan nga ang aton kapulisan kag iban pa nga mga
sangay sang kasuguan ang naga tinguha agud mapabilin nga malinong kag
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matawhay ang bug-os nga probinsya sang Iloilo, ilabi na gid sa pagpugong sang
pagduging sang kriminalidad kag droga.
For the first semester of this year, index crimes those punishable under
the Revised Penal Code reached 5,660, a decrease of 34.8 percent from 8,577 for
the same period last year.
On our campaign against illegal drugs, the combined and relentless efforts
of PDEA and our PNP Provincial Command under Senior Superintendent
Cornelio Salinas, produced results beyond our expectations.
Out of 227 operations conducted from June 2013 to July 2014, both PDEA
and the PNP arrested 412 suspected drug traffickers and confiscated 15 million
pesos worth of illegal drugs.
These mean an increase of 164 or 260.3 percent in the number of
operations conducted; an increase of 306 or 288.7 percent in the number of
suspects arrested, and an increase of 13 million pesos or 740.4% in the market
value of illegal drugs confiscated from the period of June 2012 to July 2013.
It is noteworthy that during the 113th Police Service Anniversary, the
Iloilo Provincial Police Office garnered 5 individual achievement awards out of 8
categories. Likewise, the Municipal Police Stations of Pavia, Oton and Passi City
were among the awardees.
We congratulate Senior Superintendent Cornelio Salinas and Director Paul
Ledesma for their dynamic leadership.
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Padayon ang aton pagsakdag sa aton mga kapulisan, kag ini ang rason
nga ang Philippine National Police Regional Office 6 naghatag sa aton sang
pasidungog bilang "Most Supportive Local Government Unit Award" sang
ginhiwat ang 113th Police Service Anniversary sa Camp Delgado sadtong
Agosto 11.
More so, that DILG Secretary Mar Roxas has named me Chairman of the
Regional Peace and Order Council. I am challenged by this added responsibility.
To Secretary Roxas, thank you.
After the onslaught of Yolanda, we declared a tax amnesty to give our
people time to rise and recover from their catastrophic reverses.
Our real property tax collection posted an increase of 49 million pesos in
the first quarter of this year over our 2013 figures. For the first three months of
this year, our Provincial Treasurer's Office collected around 163 million pesos in
real estate taxes, compared to only 114 million pesos for the same period last
year.
Ini nahinabo wala sapayan sang Yolanda, kag ini nagapakita sang bug-os
nga pagsalig sang mga pumuluyo sa aton pagdumala.
We have always likened our task of rebuilding and regaining people's
faith in government with our effort to keep and restore our old Iloilo Provincial
Capitol and our Iloilo Provincial Jail.
The restoration of our old Iloilo Provincial Capitol, our Casa Gobierno or
Casa Real, is now on its second phase. For the Phase I, we spent 14 million pesos
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on the exterior of the building. We allocated 17 million pesos for Phase II the
restoration of its interior. Soon, a grand ceremonial hall and other amenities will
be ready with their distinct touch of Old World charm. It will be the symbol of
Iloilos proud history.
Earlier, this administration has allocated 20 million pesos for the
restoration of the provincial jail to its original design and structure.
Ginakalipay ko nga ipahibalo sa inyo nga may yara pa gid gin pain nga
budget nga 80 milyones ka pesos ang National Government. Himuon nga
Regional Extension sang National Museum kag pagatawgon nga Iloilo National
Museum.
Last week, I met with National Museum Director Jeremy Barns and he is
asking that we grant them a 50-year usufruct to manage and use the jail facility
and transform it into a major attraction and a symbol of our colourful and
glorious past.
To the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, I am proud and very appreciative of
your full support and cooperation in all our programs and projects, including the
restoration of the Old Iloilo Provincial Capitol and the former Iloilo Provincial
Jail.
Two historic structures that we saved from demolition and oblivion: these
two flagship projects will be our major contribution not only to tourism but also
to cultural heritage preservation in the region.
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By the end of 2013, we had planted some 1.7 million seedlings, an increase
of 5.6 percent over the 2012 figure of 1.6 million, under our Action for
Regreening and Transformation for Climate Change Adaptation.
Gina usisa pa naton ang halit sang Yolanda sa aton nga gintanum nga
mga kahoy, apang nagapati ako nga sa mga duog nga malayo sa gin agyan sang
bagyo, madamo gihapon ang nagatubo. From the mountain areas of the Third
District, down south through the Second and First Districts, we are getting
survival rate figures of 70 to 80 percent between February and June of 2014.
Kag padayon ang aton pagtanum sang kahoy. Sang sining Hunyo,
ginsaulog naton ang Arbor Day paagi sa pagtanum sang 6,000 ka seedlings sa
Barangay Madarag sa banwa sang San Enrique, bilang simbolo sang aton
handum nga magtanum 1.5 million ka kahoy sa sini nga tuig.
As I have been saying, despite all our fantastic technological advances, no
one has yet been able to invent a tree. To paraphrase that old poem by Joyce
Kilmer that many of us here may still remember speeches are made by
politicians like me, but only God can make a tree.
That's how precious trees are: they recycle the air that we breathe taking
in the noxious carbon dioxide that we exhale and giving us back pure oxygen for
us to inhale and, yes, helping us get the water we need to irrigate our fields and
to clean ourselves and to quench our thirst.
We will keep on planting trees seedling by seedling.
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Water -- it is so important that over the past 12 months we have invested
some 13.2 million pesos for the construction of water supply projects in 76
barangays covering 4,503 households.
This program, managed by our Provincial Agriculture Office and our
Provincial Planning and Development Office, has been going on since 2010 and
has already benefitted some 260 far-flung and upland barangays that had no
access to safe water in the past.
Thats water for human consumption, but we also need water for
irrigation. Here we had help from our Provincial Environment and Natural
Resources Office which introduced rainwater harvesting technologies to assist
our upland farmers by building 138 units of small farm reservoirs last year.
There was more that our PENRO did for us this year. It helped us in the
area of legislation it helped finalize our Environment Code.
The Environment Code - Provincial Ordinance No. 2014-110 enacted by
our Sangguniang Panlalawigan on June 10, 2014 and which I approved
immediately, took effect two weeks ago on August 5.
The Environment Code is a monumental piece of legislation. It covers
areas of concern from land use to various ecosystems from the forest and the
uplands, to lowland agricultural ecosystems, down to river, urban, coastal and
marine ecosystems, water and mineral resources, wildlife, biodiversity and
natural heritage conservation, renewable energy, integrated disaster risk
management and biodiversity-friendly businesses.
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We have to move on and move forward to give our farmers the means to
grow their crops and our fishermen the means to catch their fish.
We have to move forward to ease their way to bring their produce to the
market over good roads and sturdy bridges, that from the fruits of their labor
they may be able to buy the needs of their brood and send their children to
school with dreams of becoming better than they are.
We have to move forward to help those struggling in business, big and
small, that they may find fulfillment in the risks and rewards of honest
enterprise.
We have to move forward to assure all of them that we will always be
there to bind their wounds when they are injured and to care for them when they
are ill.
We have to move forward to pursue with greater resolve and commitment
to ensure the absolute triumph of our campaign against graft and corruption and
program for reform and change.
We have set our sights on the horizon where awaits our promised land of
peace and prosperity for all our people.
We have to move forward toward that horizon step by step, or by leaps
and bounds, running if we can or crawling if we must, through marshes and
mountains and seas along the way.
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We simply have to move forward and we will get there because for us,
there is no turning back.
Madamo guid nga salamat. God bless the Province and people of Iloilo.