One Pangasinan

HUWAG maging dayuhan sa sariling bayan.

This is an old local adage that in a nutshell captures what Governor Amado Espino Jr. is sending out to Pangasinenses when he made the call for locals to travel and discover their own province.

Given that times are hard at the moment, what with prices of basic goods such as food and fuel continuously rising; traveling could very well soon be a luxury that majority of Pangasinenses cannot afford.

Then again, the import of Espino’s message could be found in his emphasis on local government servants leading the way towards boosting local tourism by holding their meetings, seminars, and workshops right here at home instead of the usual out-of-town venues, which oftentimes renders the official activities into mere junkets in guise.

And Espino set the example right by making that call during the first comprehensive Provincial Development Council (PDC) meeting last week, which was held right in his backyard, Lingayen, the capital town.

The PDC meeting makes for a significant step towards an integrated provincial development blueprint.

By bringing together the city and municipal mayors along with the chiefs of the various departments under the provincial government, Espino is on the right track initiating a “One Pangasinan” mindset wherein individual towns will be able to see their own projects as part of a bigger program that will benefit the province as a whole.

Espino also made an effort to underscore this message of unification through the contentious airport issue.

He mentioned that while he himself is pursuing the ongoing refurbishment of the airport in Lingayen in preparation for commercial operations, he remains in support of the planned international airport in Alaminos City, which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promised to back up, as well as the one being fervently pursued in Sta. Barbara by Mayor Reynaldo Velasco. (Espino’s pronouncement somehow relieves the tension between Lingayen, Alaminos and Sta. Barbara over this controversial issue).

But if Espino’s goal is an authentic integrated development, he must sustain the momentum through out and not treat the event as another officious affair where the town executives merrily returned to their respective turfs feeling like they were simply fed in another one of those useless day of motherhood speeches.

The objective is laudable. The province must know what it really needs and what can be permanently shelved from the perspective of the constituents because everyone should start seeing and thinking not just individual pride, but as one Pangasinan.

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