PA Banias' executive briefings seeks to enhance 'participatory democracy'
SAN JOSE, Antique – Calling it part of enhancing " participatory democracy" in the country, Presidential Assistant for Panay and Guimaras, Raul Banias, took on the third leg of his executive briefings here bringing with him about 35 regional directors of national agencies.
Banias says the exercise was meant to foster better linkages between local government units and line agencies and establish a more vibrant coordination and complementation in implementing each province's executive-legislative agenda.
More importantly, Banias says the briefings could pave the way for the LGUs and other government agencies to learn from each other by replicating the best practices from each area as well as streamlining projects they may find redundant as a result of said executive briefings.
Alliance building
Echoing ASec Banias' call for participatory democracy, Antique Governor Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez said that the Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) of the Province for the next three years is a product of an "alliance building" session that she initiated so that even those who have been politically opposed to her in the last polls could participate.. The "alliance building" session she said resulted in the creation of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) which eventually paved the way for the drafting and approval of Antique's Executive-Legislative Agenda for 2007-2010.
It must be noted that while there is no strong opposition in Antique, the rift lies between and among political parties here, all of them aligned with the present administration.
Social Services as cornerstone
The cornerstone of Antique's ELA for the next three years is social services as gleaned from what its Provincial Planning and Development Officer Julie Cepe had presented at said executive briefing. It gave special attention to maternal and child health care and to population management and to the various aspects of primary health care and child focused projects.
Population Commission Regional Director Vicente "Bugoy" Molejona took special note of this as he also underscored the necessity for population management to achieve development.
Notable exchange during the executive briefing are as follows:
* From the agriculture department, DA Regional Director Larry Nacionales encouraged Antique to take part in the hog raising program. Aside from rice and sugar, hogs he said is a major product of the region specially with the launching of the "pork in a box" project. The project will boost countryside income in Western Visayas as the region is expected to supply Metro Manila with 120 metric tons of pork each week. To sustain this demand, the DA says backyard hog raising projects should be enhanced across the region. He also suggested that Antique take advantage of the country's good condition for poultry raising as it is one of two countries in Asia not affected by the avian flu.
* From PhilHealth, its representative said that the Province of Antique should maximize the benefits it is supposed to receive from the PhilHealth, taking note that it is re-imbursing some P8 million worth of medicines that Phil health patients buy from outside sources. An improvement in the medicine procurement and stocking at the Provincial Hospital is called for.
* The budget department on the other hand announced to the local executives present that the Internal Revenue Allotment due their respective towns would now be through automatic appropriations giving it a more stable status in terms of budget release compared to the more "erratic" practice of the past. DBM Regional Director Alfonso Bedonia also said that Antique should make full use of its income share in the national wealth. For the year, Antique already received a total of 53.4 M as its share in the taxes paid by the DMCI Semirara Coal Mining. Of this amount, P12.9M went to the provincial government, P29.3M to the host Municipality of Caluya and P22.7M to Barangay Semirara where the mining operation is being done. According to DBM, 80% of the amount released to them should be used in lowering the cost of electricity in these areas.
* But not all the projects coming to Antique are received graciously, in the same executive briefing, Gov, Perez took to task Representatives of the Department of Public Works and Highways and asked them to facilitate the re-alignment of the solar lightings earmarked for the province from their share of road users tax. Perez said they need roads more than the solar lights. Shorts of scolding the project proponents, Perez said, "These people should not dictate on us but should listen to us. They have ideas and make business out of it, is it difficult for these people to ask us what we need?"