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[av_heading heading=’MY SPIN | Yesterday and now’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY JUN ESCALONA
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Sunday, July 2, 2017
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ANY TIME is a good time to tell stories of old times, as when our Antique province was in the hands of leaders who saw the need for improvements in the socio-economic sector.
There was a felt need for an actual condition map of Antique that will serve as basis for coming up with a true-form land use map that will provide planners and policymakers with facts and ideas about the province and what it needs to improve.
When Gov. Evelio Javier went to the US on a scholarship grant, he gave the mantle of leadership to then congressman Enrique Zaldivar, with the Antique Upland Development Program exclusively under then Board Member Jovito C. Plameras Jr. as “upland governor.” But the distinction was instrumental in making him the next governor of Antique.
Governor Zaldivar is credited for establishing a reliable water system service in the capital town of San Jose de Buenavista.
The style of leadership of Governor Zaldivar was based on a development mapping study where development leads and development lags were identified per municipality.
We remember that inspecting projects done by contractors was one of our duties, for the sake of public information and transparency.
The establishment of provincial nurseries province-wide, with assistance from the Netherlands government in the Antique Integrated Area Development (ANIAD) program, was made during the term of Governor Plameras.
Not to be outdone, our erstwhile representative to Congress, Cong. Ex Javier, is credited with passing the Expanded Value-Added Tax Law that had helped the government balance its debit and credit side of the national budget. No other law has surpassed the VAT and EVAT in earning more for the nation, the only downside being that it is the people that carry the extra tax load.
Cultural renaissance occurred during the incumbency of Gov. Sally Zaldivar Perez. Although tourism-oriented endeavors started during Perez’s time, it is now receiving a boost under the administration of Gov. Rhodora J. Cadiao. Her historic, well-intended visit to Antiqueño sugarcane plantation workers in Negros Occidental sugar fields paid her dividends in political history.
A program for the welfare of Antiqueño migratory sugarcane workers in Negros is now in place in the provincial government.
There are many improvements undertaken by the new provincial leadership, and some completion of uncompleted projects in the province, foremost of which are infrastructure projects that were started a decade or two ago by past governors but left to the elements by political expedience.
Very lately when Sen. Loren Legarda became Senate Committee of Finance chairman, Antique received a windfall of billions of pesos in budgetary allocations for prime projects in infrastructure, new roads, hospital equipment, airport, health and education and other social services. Particular mention was the budget never before heard in Antique, like lateral roads to the neighboring province of Iloilo and the rice terraces and vegetable and high-value crops of San Remigio, now known popularly as the food basket of Antique, and its tourist points of interest.
These are now happening as a matter of optimizing the movement of the commerce of man, bringing agricultural products nearer the market, of keeping schoolchildren free from traffic harm as in the skyway at the Angel Salazar Jr. Memorial School.
The provincial airport, the Evelio B. Javier airport, is being refurbished to take passenger airlines, and seaports are being improved, with a jetty port in the north.
These are just a few that is worth mentioning now, but we promise we will update you more the next time around./PN
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