BONTOC. Provincial Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. delivered his State of the Province Address (SOPA) before the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and selected audience composed mostly of heads and assistant heads of offices of the provincial offices last January 16, 2018.
The SOPA, which took more than an hour, is a mandated task of the provincial executive per the Local Government Code to narrate the accomplishments of the provincial government and supposedly to ask the legislative body on actions needed to help him in governance.
He said in his message, among others, that “on top of our signature programs is the Barangay Muna Program where we were able to implement special programs and various assistance” to the barangays and civil society groups.
The provincial executive cited the P6.7 Million as aid to the barangay program in the form of financial aids and in kind.
Aside from the foregoing, his office has distributed to 44 barangays and civil society groups equipment and supplies in the amount of P1.9 Million.
This is also aside from the infrastructure projects that were implemented in the various municipalities and barangays in the past year.
In the poultry and livestock development program lodged under the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian, a total of 9,250 heads of 3-4 weeks old bounty chicken were dispersed to 1,467 beneficiaries from the 86 organizations in seven municipalities.
Meanwhile, 19 heads of goats were dispersed to beneficiaries in Paracelis.
According to Executive Assistant June Pinayakan, Focal Person on Poultry and Livestock Development Program, there are still fifteen goats to be given to Sagada, Bauko, and beneficiaries from other municipalities.
“The program on livestock will be the same for 2018”, he said.
On tourism, it was reported that validations and geo-tagging of tourism spots have been undertaken by the Provincial Tourism Office, preparation of tourism development plan, and continuous promotion activities for tourism, in print and broadcast, are being conducted.
File from the tourism office revealed a total of 193,702 tourist arrivals for the province in the whole year 2017 indicating a 15% increase from year 2016.
The office is also spearheading the preparations for the twin celebrations of Lang-ay Festival 2018 and the 51st Foundation day of the province come the first week of April 2018.
“We are optimistic that the Lang-ay Festival will be an avenue through which we could showcase our tourist spots, culture and of course, our beautiful Mountain Province as a whole”, the governor said in his message.
By Roger Sacyaten
