The State of the Province

Remarks by Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr.
to the Province of Pangasinan, January 28, 2008

We gather here today, a few days after the completion of our almost seven months in office and I thank all of you for your support as I and my fellow workers started to chart the right course for our beloved province.

Now I can say we are moving forward and gaining headway in preparing the initial steps that could lead Pangasinan toward genuine development and progress.

In early October last year, one hundred days after I took over as your governor, we reported a list of problems that have hampered governmental operations, causing a breakdown of services-delivery in several areas, and which, in turn, adversely affected the economic growth of our province.

Those problems are grave. They needed immediate and long-term solutions that required enormous work, painstaking attention, good and wise decisions.

Since Day-One, on July first, 2007, I and my staff, and members of the provincial board headed by Vice Governor Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, took on a grueling work-load to map out a direction towards addressing these problems. And many have asked why I persistently followed a 12-hour working-day schedule, seven days a week, 30-31 days a month.

The answer is simple: because we have to play CATCH UP, having long languished in stagnation.

I could have coasted along in carrying on with my job as chief executive of this province, without FRONTALLY engaging the difficult problems and tasks we discovered.

But that would NOT be LEADERSHIP.

Many of our problems demonstrate that the easy way was the path chosen in the past. And I must admit, even the best-motivated leader is sometimes tempted to tackle only the so-called “SAFE ISSUES” that can make him get along fine, more likable, more popular.

But that will NOT help Pangasinan at all.

In the past seven months we have devoted our time and efforts correcting what was wrong in the way we did things, and finding the right answers.

Today I am happy to say WE have learned VALUABLE LESSONS. Lessons that SHOW US clearly that Pangasinan needs bold and new approaches to solving its problems. We need better ideas if it means dismantling systems and procedures that had made certain people comfortable, but had only worsened our problems.

And why do these problems we face look less difficult today as when we took over in July last year? Because we now know what we really have to do, and this day and the next two years must NOW be ABOUT FINDING solutions to the challenges we face.

What do our people want for Pangasinan? What are we striving for?

Quite simply to make Pangasinan one of the best places to live, work and raise a family. To make it once more the center of economic growth and opportunity.

Our people want good jobs. Better education. The best affordable health care. Strong, safe and vibrant neighborhoods.

Achieving this is not easy. We have to move fast, but we also must ADAPT to realities that are now upon us. First, we must make hard choices necessary to live and work within our means — recognizing that every choice must help the people toward a better future. But above all, we must act with URGENCY.

IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES

WE first focused on setting our own house in order. To be able to transform our economy, we must first transform government. We developed a government that is LEAN, but not MEAN. We waged war on wasteful operations and systems and sought new efficiencies that allowed the government to work BETTER for LESS. The bloated bureaucracy have been trimmed down, and we are now in compliance with the 45 percent ceiling set by the Local Government code on personnel services.

For too long, we have been weighed down by too much partisanship, lack of political will and bureaucratic inertia. In many cases, we were using outmoded tools to solve 21st Century problems. We simply cannot run the government the same way we’ve been doing it.

WE adopted bold but effective human resource management measures that not only upgraded the working system, but helped save the government substantial funds that could be better used for more needed programs and projects.

To institutionalize management reforms, the Special Management Study Group which we commissioned last July 31, 2007 after 90 days of intensive research and study, came up with a comprehensive program that further helped make an efficient, effective and economical government workforce and I take this opportunity to thank these people who prepared this.

a) Peace & Order

While re-organizing the Capitol workforce for the tough jobs ahead, we immediately attended to urgent problems.

All efforts were directed at improving lives in the communities. But without SAFE neighborhoods, there is no community.

When we took over, there were lingering anxieties caused by a number of violence incidences topped by the assassination of San Carlos Mayor Jolly Resuello, a string of cattle rustling cases in some localities and the depredations of insurgency groups that resulted in a clash where some three policemen were wounded in Mabini town in the First District.

We immediately directed the Pangasinan police force to toughen anti-crime and anti-insurgency operations, and also anti-illegal drugs operations at all times ready to prevent crime and poised to recover and respond to victims of criminality. This way our Pangasinan communities must be the hardest target possible for criminal elements.

Since then, the PNP reported to us that there has been no lost cattle or equipment of our farmers. As chairman of the Peace and Order Council, I forged the joining of forces of the PNP and the army against insurgency with the help of our PNP Regional Director and the Brigade Commander and for the past six months, there had been NO insurgent sightings anywhere in Pangasinan.May I inform also everybody here that in these three areas of insurgency and anti-cattle rustling and anti-illegal drugs, Pangasinan tops other provinces in Region I.

We need to congratulate here our PNP, now we have the best Regional PNP Office under Gen. Bataoil, we have the best PNP Provincial Command in Pangasinan under Col. Nerez, and we have the best City Police Office under Col. Borromeo, and we have the best Regional Mobile Group under Col. Ed Basbas. We are very proud to announce to everybody that the provincial government has a direct hand or direct intervention in the aspects of peace and order.

Recently, there have been cases of suspected politics-related shooting and other incidence of crime especially in Tayug and San Manuel. And I’m announcing here today that the provincial government will stick together and take a very close look in today’s event in this province.

So only last week I directed the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office to enforce a total GUN-BAN in the whole of Pangasinan, and to make sure that all the permits given to individuals in Pangasinan should follow the regulations governing this issued permits to them about firearms.

Also in relation to our long-term economic-recovery programs, we are seeing to it that Pangasinan remains the safest place to do business, especially for investors and tourists.

b) Health Care

To make Pangasinan the best place to live, work and raise a family, we must have quality health care that our people can afford.

One of our first moves was to direct all 14 hospitals under the provincial government to expand people’s access to health care, especially among the indigent members of the community. We understand too well together with the Vice Governor and members of the board that we are quite slow to implement change that we want our hospitals and health care units in the province. But rest assured that after the first term or before the second term of this year, we hope to implement all these things for the betterment of service for the indigent people of our province.

Within the first quarter of this year, we will undertake massive physical rehabilitation of all 14 provincial hospitals and upgrade their facilities. There will be re-alignment of staff in our hospitals to maximize proper utilization of personnel.

Knowing that health-care costs are hardly within the reach of most of our people, we expanded the people’s health insurance, providing PhilHealth insurance cards to all heads of families of all FOURTH, FIFTH and SIXTH-CLASS municipalities. As of the end of 2007 — 26,205 of indigent families have already been enroled under the PhilHealth Indigency-sponsored Program. Except for District 1, because we are in partnership with Cong. Celeste to insure universally PhilHealth membership here in District 1. Within my first term as your governor, we will make sure that all heads of indigent families of all First, Second, and Third class localities will be granted the same health insurance benefits, also I will seek the help of our city mayors and the town mayors of our first, second and third class municipalities so that we can insure all our indigent heads of families of all these towns and cities in Pangasinan.

I have directed our Provincial Health Office (PHO) to invest not only in treatment and cures, but more so in PREVENTION. While we cannot allow our sick children to go untreated, we will not wait for some children to go to the emergency room for illnesses that could have been prevented by regular check-ups by easily accessible health workers from strategically located hospitals and health centers.

As of the end of 2007, it has been reported to us that in the past seven months the provincial hospitals have served a total of 3,420 indigent patients.

We have reduced the malnutrition rate from 7.28 percent in 2006 to 6.55 percent in 2007.

A crucial part of health care is the people’s access to medication at all times. We are now modifying the procurement systems of our hospitals to insure the availability and affordability of medicine right where patients are being treated.

c) Education

For Pangasinenses to succeed, they need adequate and high-quality education.

We all agree that education is the single most effective strategy for stimulating a community’s economic growth. So, by all means, let us improve our schools and create an excellent culture of learning for our young.

This year, we will undertake the repair of all elementary and high school classrooms in the province. In June this year, all pre-school students will have books that will be comparable in content and quality in form and substance with those being used in private schools. I have successfully done this twice in Pangasinan’s 2nd District when I was a congressman, and now we will do this province-wide.

Also in June, so that we can raise the quality of instruction, all our teachers in both elementary and high school, pre-school will be provided with uniform Guide Books in all major subjects, if not in all subjects, so that the teaching of Pangasinan will be in uniform from barangay high school to national high school in Poblacion.

The fastest job-creating provinces are those with the most educated workforces, so our goal is to double as well as the number of college or post-secondary graduates.

As of December 28, 2007, the provincial government has allocated a total of P96 million under the Special Education Fund, the bulk of which went to construction and repair of school-buildings, the purchase of two L300 Vans for Pangasinan DepEd I and Pangasinan Division II so that they could visit their units in the province, in the purchase of supplies and medicines.

d) Agriculture

The Pangasinan economy remains Agriculture-based, and to increase our productivity, our farmers must learn new, effective farming techniques which the provincial government, through its technology-transfer programs and facilities is now expanding and strengthening to realize maximum reach. Sinisimulan po namin sa buwan na ito ang pagtuturo sa ating mga tao para sila din ang magturo sa ating kababayan.

Our agriculture department will now be production and technology-oriented, unlike last year when P41 million, or 91 percent of the total P45 million budget allocation for the provincial agriculture office went to personnel services, leaving P4 million for projects and operations.

So, we have tapped the support of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) to help assess and improve production and technology in the eight fishing stations of the province.

Of the four existing fish farms, we terminated the operation of one due to poor production. However, we are upgrading the other fish farms in Libsong, Lingayen and Malued, Dagupan as demonstration centers for fish breeding, while the Arnedo Farm in Bolinao will be primarily for mangrove production and the raising of rare species of deep-sea fish.

The Anda and Bolinao farms will be devoted to oyster production, while the San Quintin Nursery will now breed fresh water fish like hito or catfish and tilapia.

The Sta. Barbara agricultural project will be expanded into an agriculture satellite facility for palay and corn, while the Dasol and Malabobo, Mangatarem farms will concentrate on livestock production and demo farm.

All oyster and fish farms, except in San Quintin, which runs on freshwater will be utilized as mangrove propagation area.

In upgrading to full potential all the provincial government-owned farms, you can expect in the next few months a drastic increase in quality of fish production, which will translate to additional earnings for our farmers, lower cost and fresher fish products.

For the period July to December 2007, palay production in the province has reached 811,037 metric tons planted to 181,345 hectares. This translates to 10,543,492 cavans of rice produced for the period. Corn production this year reached 5,655.85 metric tons from a total harvested corn area of 1,015 hectares.

e) Jobs and income opportunities

Our approach to the creation of jobs and income opportunities is anchored on two things — preparing our workers well and bringing in investors to Pangasinan where they will have the advantage of rich natural resources and cheap, skilled labor.

I will continue to go to many places and do everything to bring new jobs to Pangasinan. We will target both local and foreign companies to broaden our investments. We have agreed with the Vice Governor and Members of the Board that they too will look for opportunities.

In my recent trip to the United States, I convinced a big number of Pangasinan expatriates who have been doing well to invest part of their savings in Pangasinan projects like the building of tourism facilities and retirement villages.

The potential foreign investors we have been consulting have made promising commitments.

Early this year, the chief of the Chinese consulate based in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, had urged a strong China-Pangasinan relations and identified businesses where the Chinese government and Chinese business can come in. Among these are vegetable and fish terminals, food processing plants, tourist resorts, transportation and accommodation facilities.

But even today, while we are working out the influx of more industries and businesses to Pangasinan, we have been exerting more aggressive efforts to link up with many industrial companies and as a result, the Provincial Employment Services Office or PESO has placed an unprecedented number of 788 Pangasinan workers with a number of big businesses, a record since its establishment in 1993.

Only recently, the Pangasinan PESO was adjudged the best in Region One and I supposed it will come the best in the whole country.

Of the initial requirement of 1,000 welders and 500 engineers of Hanjin Shipbuilding project in Subic, 214 had been trained and hired and 89 more in training. At yong iba na galing doon gusto pang bumalik, according to PESO Chief Alex Ferrer. Sixty-two engineering and Architecture graduates are being trained by Hanjin in shipbuilding design.

Hanjin and K-Tech will again interview Pangasinan applicants in forthcoming job fairs on January 31 and in anticipation of a big demand of workers for the China Olympics, the PESO has started special training of would-be China locatees, such as Hotel and Restaurant and Management graduates.

I am proposing the development of a grant program to encourage job training for our people in low-income communities.

In fact, PESO, in coordination with Pangasinan schools, have been doing career guidance and employment counseling testing for about 3,000 tertiary and secondary students.

f) Youth Development

Pangasinan will embrace new industries, new technology and a new economy. But our greatest STRENGTH will always be our PEOPLE.

So, to supplement our educational systems, we are providing our young excellent opportunities not only to develop the mind but also to stay fit and healthy through sports activities like regular competitions which we will be doing very, very soon.

We have one of the best sports and cultural centers in the country, with the Narciso Ramos Sports and Cultural Center in Lingayen, but we have not maximized its use, especially for training potential champions.

This year, the provincial government will launch a province-wide sports development program at all levels. This will entail close coordination not only with school authorities but also various civic groups, and at the grassroots level down to the barangays.

I have been a avid sportsman in my youth and I know pretty well that sports teach us big lessons for life. Sports involve teamwork, teaching us how to get along with others, working together to achieve a common goal, and about trust and responsibility.

In other words, sports when given enough and proper attention will be a strong and effective producer of good, productive and law-abiding citizens and future leaders.

There are many other activities the provincial government can take up and promote for our young. We have enough mountains and beaches where our young can regularly meet for group activities. For instance, we must revive among the young the true spirit of scouting.

g) Tourism

We always maintained that tourism can be one of our biggest chances for economic advancement. Aside from the One Hundred Islands, which is one of the best in the world, we possess some of the most beautiful and scenic spots in the country and if properly developed and promoted, they could become world-class tourism destinations.

Tourism development, of course, entails massive investments, that is why I have made it a top priority of our long-term programs the setting up of support facilities such as domestic or international airport here and seaport so we can launch aggressive marketing initiatives to promote investments and tourism in Pangasinan.

But meanwhile, even with limited resources, we focused on our immediate surroundings — the Capitol building, its grounds, offices and the nearby beach area fronting the Urduja House.

We tried to put sense to some irrational locations of offices and integrate those that are operationally related in the various buildings of the provincial government at the capitol complex. Tatapusin namin lahat ang pag-aayos sa lahat ng opisina sa taong ito sa Kapitolyo.

We now have a cleaner, more beautiful capitol grounds which have regularly attracted promenaders, vacationists and, yes, tourists.

h) Housing

Under the program of creating livable communities, we are pursuing socialized housing and an effective resettlement program for displaced families.

Through the Pangasinan Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Office (PHUDCO), we have laid the ground work for a comprehensive shelter program by updating the inventory of lands suitable for socialized housing, low-cost housing and resettlement.

Currently being completed is the provincial government’s Villa Maniboc Socialized Housing Project, where 257 housing units will be built for government employees such as public school teachers, PNP and AFP members and also the employees of the provincial government.

As of today, land development in the project has been completed, 106 beneficiaries have been issued individual lot titles, while 35 additional beneficiaries have been pre-qualified by the National Housing Authority or NHA.

Another on-going housing project is the 13-hectare Lingayen Gulf Resettlement Project at Barangay Pangapisan Norte in Lingayen which will provide 600 home lots to homeless families.

We are currently developing a new resettlement project in collaboration with the Gawad Kalinga Foundation. Called GK-ATEP, the project literally means roof in our vernacular and ATEP is the abbreviation of Abong Tayo Eletneg Project.

Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto recently came and he was impressed by the provincial government’s initial preparations, commitment and resolve to provide the poor their own homes. He said our project could become a model for other provinces in the country to follow.

We have allocated a budget of P10 million for civil works and site development of the 10-hectare GK-ATEP project at Barangay Pangapisan Norte which will start the following week. The housing project is intended for informal settlers who have been occupying danger areas and those to be displaced by government infrastructure projects.

One other housing project is the proposed Libsong East Resettlement Project that will stand on a 1.61-hectare lot at Barangay Libsong East, Lingayen.

The provincial government project is intended for some 118 members within the Poblacion area, identified as on-site informal settlers, and others occupying government lands.

We have likewise identified an initial 120 hectares of land throughout the province that will be the target sites for future socialized housing projects.

i) Fiscal Management

A key to all our plans and programs is finding more resources, making more capital and start-up funds for target projects.

This year, the provincial government has registered a marked fiscal improvement.

It now operates on a P1,321,049,255 budget, an increase of P181,821,025 over last year’s budget.

From July to December 2007, the Provincial Treasurer’s Office had a gross collection of more than P200 million, making Pangasinan the top real property tax collector in Region I. The provincial assessor’s office has worked out the collection of P160 million representing unpaid real property tax of the Sual Power Corporation.

Collection efforts are also being made on the tax obligations of the San Roque Multi-Purpose project in San Manuel.

The Provincial Accountant’s Office has corrected financial mismanagement and fiscal irregularities, enhancing the fiscal standing of the province.

By religiously paying the monthly amortizations and interests of the P650 million loans secured by the previous administration, our outstanding loan obligations have decreased to only P360,959,761.62 as of the end of 2007.

We have also set in motion a centralized procurement system to purchase in bulk all supplies and related requirements of various offices and departments, resulting in big savings for the province.

Conclusion

Ladies and Gentlemen:

As may be gleaned from this report. the workings of the provincial government for the past seven months have been marked by substantial progress. We can all be proud of what we have accomplished.

But the people demand more from each of us.

They demand more to make our province better in every area that counts.

So today, I propose that the initiatives we have outlined here should be our SHARED AGENDA — not for you and me alone, but Pangasinan’s blueprint for progress.

And now our job is to keep it on the right track.

And this means none of our goals will be accomplished if we don’t find a way to work together.

Many challenges are yet to be overcome. There are many more problems to solve and so much more have to be done.

My kabaleyans, we are at a turning point — a decisive moment in Pangasinan’s journey. The decisions we make in the next months will help shape Pangasinan’s future for decades to come. Our people expect much from us.

Let us not fail them.

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