CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Pres. Aquino has reappointed Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado as chair of the Central Luzon Regional Development Council (RDC), the highest policy-making body in the region.
RDC Vice Chair and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Regional Director Severino Santos said the President signed Alvarado’s appointment last week.
“The RDC is the highest policy- making body in Central Luzon and serves as the counterpart of the NEDA Board at the subnational level,” he explained. Santos lauded the appointment, saying this would speed up “the direction of all economic and social development efforts in the region” and boost RDC as “a forum where local efforts can be related and integrated with national development activities.”
RDC members include all governors, city mayors, municipal mayors of capital towns, presidents of municipal mayors’ league, regional directors of national government agencies and representatives from the private sector.
Even before Alvarado’s appointment, the RDC based here already endorsed a P3.7 billion 2014 budget for all 12 state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the region. The RDC said the biggest budget allocation of P573.9 million was for the Bulacan State University (BULSU) and the lowest P92.1 million for the Aurora State College of Technology.
The other state schools with their corresponding approved budget include the Bulacan Agricultural State College (BASC) with P97.5 million budget, Bataan Peninsula State University (BPSU) with P473.1 million, Central Luzon State University (CLSU) with P547.7 million, and Don Honorio Ventura Technological State University (DHVTSU) with P411.3 million.
Also in the list are Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology (NEUST) with P315.7 million, Pampanga Agricultural College (PAC) with P238.7 million, Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) with P196.5 million, Ramon Magsaysay Technological University (RMTU) with P164.9 million, Tarlac College of Agriculture (TCA) with P231.8 million, and Tarlac State University (TSU) with P381.7 million.
Santos said RDC’s review of the budgets, as proposed by the schools themselves, “was mandated to ensure transparency as well as consistency of the utilization of funds to the development goals of Central Luzon in general as stated in the Regional Development Plan.”
