LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government is working out with the administration of the State-run Benguet State University (BSU) the possibility of using a portion of the latter’s land for the put up of its required abattoir to enhance the town’s competitiveness.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda expressed optimism the present members of BSU’s Board of Regents will confirm the action of the previous members in allowing the municipal government to use a 2,000-square meter land within the institution’s property in the municipality to construct its own abattoir to serve the needs of the people in terms of the butchering of animals authorized by concerned government agencies.
He said the agriculture department is willing to extend the appropriate technical and financial assistance to the municipal government to facilitate the construction of the abattoir, provided there is an available land where the same can be constructed and eventually become operational the soonest to increasing the municipal government’s competitiveness ranking.
“We hope the members of the BSU Board of Regents will immediately act on the matter, especially that the issue has been acted on favorably by the previous members of the board, to allow us to start sourcing out the funds and appropriating our counterpart for the realization of our long overdue slaughterhouse to be managed and operated by the municipal government,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The municipal chief executive admitted based on the assessment of the evaluators of the Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), one of the reasons why the municipality ranked low in the pillar of infrastructure under the 4 pillars of the competitiveness rankings of local governments is the lack of a government-operated slaughterhouse in the locality.
According to him, there is a privately-owned slaughterhouse in the municipality but the same will not qualify the municipal government for improved rankings on the pillar of infrastructure, as what is required is an abattoir managed and operated by the municipal government which it currently does not have..
He disclosed BSU owns a huge portion of the town’s land area thus government agencies and institutions wanting to establish their operations in the municipality must deal with the administration for the leasing of lands within the institution’s property.
La Trinidad landed in 12th place overall among the over 1,500 municipalities in the country which were evaluated and assessed by the National Competitiveness Commission (NCC) on their performance on the 4 pillars of competitiveness that included government efficiency, economic dynamism, infrastructure and resiliency.
Mayor Salda explained the municipal government will continue to explore strategies that will contribute in continuously improving the town’s competitiveness ranking despite existing limitations.
By HENT
