Calasiao, ‘the puto town’ forges ahead

THE rustic town of Calasiao is forging ahead.

From a mere second class municipality in the third district of Pangasinan in 2001, the town has now risen to first class following the 2006 reclassification made by the Department of Finance.

A town famous for its tasty puto, aptly called the ‘white gold’ of Calasiao, its backyard industry that produces the Filipino bolo ‘barang’ to the Pangasinenses) and its Divino Tesoro Shrine, it is where investors who can no longer find a suitable location for their businesses in crowded Dagupan City are now going.

Big hotels, classy restaurants and fast food chains, schools, car display houses and others, including the giant Coke bottling plant have risen over the years in Calasiao, making it the envy of many towns for meteoric rise in the economic field.

Mayor Macanlalay with his constituents

Mayor Roy Macanlalay, on his second term of office, attributes Calasiao’s rise to first class to five long years of sacrifice and industry by the unrelenting people of the town who are religiously and honestly paying their taxes to the municipal government.

The sacrifice finally paid off last year when the town jumped to first class, joining many other first class towns in Pangasinan, which include Mangaldan, Malasiqui, Bayambang, Sta. Barbara, Lingayen and Sual.

With the passage of the Calasiao Revenue Code by the Sangguniang Bayan, Calasiao became the top tax grosser all over Pangasinan, proof of which was the recent award received by Municipal Treasurer Amelita Molano from Provincial Treasurer Ramon Crisostomo.

The town’s Model Senior Citizens Building

Of the town’s P80 million income, at least P30 million comes from local taxes and P50 million from the Internal Revenue Allotment, numbers that are worthy of a first class town.

Mayor Macanlalay said with the support of the SB, the municipal government is funneling back to the people what they paid for in terms of taxes to the municipal government.

Aside from providing counterpart to the funds given by the national government and Rep. Generoso Tulagan for the construction of the new and modern police station, the present municipal administration re-built and added new structures to the public market.

The new Calasiao Fire Station

Last January 29, Macanlalay led the inauguration of the Fire Station building costing P450,000 from purely municipal fund, the Senior Citizens Building from P1 million provided by the late partylist Rep. Ernesto Giddaya and Calasiao Training and Multi-Purpose Center from Pl million įset aside by his administration; and the soft-opening of the Calasiao Sports and Commercial Center.

On the still unfinished Calasiao Sports and Commercial Center which is already playable, Macanlalay said that when he proposed and started the project, nobody except himself believed the project could rise.

“But when my townspeople saw the funding from the outside was slowly coming, they had a change of heart and are now supporting me in this gargantuan project,” Mayor Macanlalay said.

The outside funding came from House Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr., P5 million; Rep. Tulagan, P3 million; and Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr., P1 million.

The municipal government already spent P7.8 million for the project, including the P1.5 million proceeds from fiestas in 2002 and 2003.

The Calasiao Human and Women Resources Center
donated by Akbayan partylist Rep. Etta Rosales

It might take a few more years before the project could be completed as it has adopted the standard of the Philippine Basketball Association. When completed, it will be able to accommodate 4,000 spectators at the same time and could very well become another pride for Calasiao.

Macanlalay told newsmen that the biggest investor that has yet to start constructing is property and retail giant Robinson’s, which already bought a seven-hectare lot along the De Venecia Highway leading to Sta. Barbara to be the location of the first-ever commercial mall in the town.

Of course, the company Water for Calasiao is also another big investor having already started to drill water for the whole of Calasiao. The mayor said that to date, the company has already drilled 100 meters deep of its target of 150 meters.

The mayor admitted that there is very minimal resistance to the dredging but he nonetheless will not let the opposition derail the project because the whole of the town needs clean and potable drinking water.

At the same time, Macanlalay admitted that he will seek the help of officials of the national government to do something about the recurring floods in Calasiao every rainy season.

He said this is the job of the national government, adding that even if Calasiao, Sta. Barbara and San Carlos City combined their resources, it will not be enough to solve the flooding problem.

“I think a parallel dike along the Sinucalan River up to the Marusay River proposed earlier by Speaker De Venecia can solve the flooding in Calasiao which is also affecting part of Dagupan City, Macanlalay said.

On puto, the mayor said, the industry is growing even bigger and bigger.

In a recent visit to Malacańang, Macanlalay was surprised to see Calasiao puto being served to him and other guests.

This showed, he said, that the town’s puto has already gone far since building 28 uniform puto stands, using the P1 million provided by President

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo under the “One Town, One Product” program.—LM