MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government embraced land banking as one of its main thrust that will allow the realization of the programmed expansion and future development projects that will move the municipality to greater heights.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong said that the local governments intends to purchase available lots for the expansion of the municipal hall, put up of a new rural health unit, and Justice hall, relocation of the municipal fire station, establishment of a new site for its materials recovery facility (MRF), construction of hotels and cottages among others that will significantly increase the economic activities in the municipality that will translate to generation of more jobs and sources of livelihood for the people in the different communities.
“We still have available lands in the different parts of the municipality which could be purchased by the local government and will be used for its programmed high impact development projects that will make Mankayan as one of the progressive towns in Benguet,” Mayor Ayong stressed.
The local chief executive disclosed that the municipal government initially allocated some P10 million for the possible purchase of a 2-hectare property in Tubo which will be used for the expansion of the municipal hall and for the put up of the town’s proposed income-generating projects that will contribute in efforts to increase the ability of the municipality to internally generate funds to bankroll its proposed high impact development projects in the coming years.
According to him, one of the major thrusts of the local government is to establish income-generating projects like hotels, cottages and multipurpose halls that will make the municipality a convention area north of the province considering the enormous inquiries on the availability of convention facilities for them to hold their gatherings because of the scenery in the locality.
Mayor Ayong explained that it is high time for the local government to open its doors to the reality that it must be able to establish sustainable income-generating projects that will increase the locally generated funds to help in reducing the dependence of the locality to the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) being provided by the national government.
“If we want to be self-reliant in the future, we should start it now so that we will be able to establish the sustainability of the operations of the local government without solely relying on our IRA for us to be able to provide the basic services to our constituents,” Ayong added.
Mankayan is a first-class municipality that derives bulk of its income from the operation of large-scale mining companies that provide more than 60 percent of the real property taxes being collected annually.
Ayong underscored that the local government should not be dependent on the IRA and the taxes being paid by the mining companies because there will come a time that the same will no longer be realized, thus, the need for the municipality to face the reality by establishing income-generating projects at the earliest possible time which will be beneficial in sustaining the growth of the economy and providing more jobs and sources of livelihood to the people.
By HENT
