Espino: Explore and promote your province
2.7 MILLION PANGASINENSES DARED
LINGAYEN—Be tourists in your own province.
This was the exhortation made by Gov. Amado Espino Jr. to the 2.7 million Pangasinenses in a bid to spur tourism in Pangasinan.
Espino made the call when he spoke before mayors and heads of different government agencies in the first-ever meeting and strategic planning session of the Provincial Development Council (PDC).
“We are 2.7 million Pangasinenses and with our numbers, we can keep tourism alive in our province,” Espino said.
In the meeting, Espino listed tourism and investment high in his list of priorities for the province.
“We have only a simple vision, which is to make Pangasinan a good place for people to see and invest, where we the people, to include the next generation, wish to work and retire later on,” he said.
Espino said if only half of the 2.7 million Pangasineses will travel and see their own province, there will be more than one million tourists around who can contribute to the province’s economy.
“We encourage even now our local officials and heads of national government agencies to hold their seminars and conventions in the province so that their money will be spent here, rather than in the outside,” Espino said.
It has been a practice among municipal and city executives to hold their seminars and workshops in other places in order to avoid any distraction while plotting their plans and programs.
The governor said there are many good venues in Lingayen, Labrador and San Fabian, for seminars and even big conventions.
Espino revealed he is pushing for the upgrading of the Lingayen airfield into a commercial airport to make the province more accessible to tourists from Manila and other provinces.
The Lingayen airfield is now slowly being refurbished in preparation for handling commercial traffic.
The governor clarified though that this initiative does not undermine similar efforts to build other airports in Alaminos City and Sta. Barbara.
“As the governor, I welcome it if there are more airports that will rise in Pangasinan,” Espino clarified.
SEAPORT
Meanwhile, Espino also announced that the feasibility study on the international commercial seaport in Sual will be completed by next week.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo already committed an initial P100 million for the project.
Sual is where the province’s first government fish port was originally located.
Espino said both the airport and seaport are among the special projects he intends to pursue so that Pangasinan can keep in step with the more prosperous provinces in the country.—LM
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