LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government supports the proposal of Benguet State University (BSU) president Dr. Felipe S. Comila for the corporatization of the operation of the multi-million Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) to maximize its potentials of serving as a worthy link between the province’s vegetable farmers and the traders for the mutual benefit of concerned stakeholders.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda stated that the optimum operation of the BAPTC has been hindered by some influential people in BSU that hindered the supposed smooth implementation of feasible programs, projects and activities beneficial to the concerned stakeholders.
While he respects the present leadership of the State-run higher education institution, he pointed that being a member of the Project Steering Committee (PSC), he has seen that there are some offices and personalities in BSU who refuse to understand the prevailing situation and they simply refuse to balance practicality and legality because everything cannot be dependent on the book.
The municipal chief executive claimed the operation of the BAPTC will not be optimized for the benefit of concerned stakeholders if there will be no aggressive move to reshuffle personalities occupying key positions in BSU or eventually open the same for corporatization so that the facility will be effectively and efficiently managed to bring the province’s vegetable industry to greater heights.
According to him, the municipal government is interested to manage the facility as an expansion of the existing vegetable trading post but the same will still depend on the future actions of the members of the committee assigned to oversee the operation of the facility which is under the BSU.
Salda asserted that the government simply wasted close to P1 billion in the put up of the facility whose operation is not being maximized because of the failure of some key personalities to be open to the realities of the industry which led concerned stakeholders refuse to cooperate as they do not see the fulfillment of what was promised the during the conceptualization, planning, implementation and operation of the said facility which was designed to improve the vegetable trading in the province.
Salda also expressed his gratitude to Agriculture Secretary William Dar for supporting the long overdue proposal from the concerned stakeholders for the corporatization of the operations of BAPTC to ensure that the potentials of the facility as one of the province’s economic driver will be realized the soonest as the same will also contribute in efforts to improve the town’s economy.
He stipulated that BAPTC’s corporatization should already be discussed in the upcoming meetings of the members of the steering committee so that it will be executed the soonest to avoid unnecessary delays in the implementation of short, medium and long-term projects that will uplift the status of the facility in terms of advancing the province’s agriculture sector.
By Hent
