LOOKING UP. Mayor Maglanque and VM Evangelista envision a Candaba renewed. Photo by Bong Lacson
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Befitting his civil engineering degree and his professional career in infrastructure enterprises, Candaba Mayor Rene Maglanque sees roads as the key to his town’s development.
Thus, at the top of the agenda for the first-time mayor and former assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication is “Connect Candaba to Candaba, “ which seeks to complete the nexus of roads between the town’s Tagalog and Kapampangan regions.
“Intra-town trade and commerce will be expanded with the completion of the improvement of the Candaba-to-Baliuag and Candaba-to-San Miguel roads,” Maglanque said in an interview here Friday evening, referencing Candaba barangays at the Bulacan boundary.
He added that the delivery of basic services from the seat of government in the Poblacion area to the “remotest corners” of the town will also be facilitated, “as well as quick response in times of calamities and disasters.”
“In effect, our constituencies there get re-connected with the heart and nerve center of the town,” he said.
The mayor expressed strong determination to build up the town center as well with the establishment of a community hospital “either in what is now the Mayor’s Action Center at the compound of the Ms. Earth Park in Barangay Mandasig, or in the Pansol area which the municipal government is planning to purchase.”
Maglanque was quick though to credit his predecessor’s establishment of satellite municipal halls in three strategic points of the 176.4-square-kilometer municipality comprising mostly of swampy wetlands.
“Mayor Jerry (Pelayo) did indeed bring the local government to the town’s remotest areas with his satellite town halls, and we aim to further improve on what he initiated,” Maglanque said. “We plan to bring bureaucratic paperwork like the issuance of permits, civil registration, and the like there, plus of course, regular health services, livelihood trainings and agricultural extension services.”
Asked of the state he found the municipality upon his assumption of office, Maglanque said the local government unit is “financially sound” with the remaining budget for the rest of the year “intact.”
“Only P200,000 in maintenance and operations and P6.1 million in road concreting make up the financial obligations,” said Maglanque. “Fairly easy to meet, especially so with incoming P3.75 million from the Capitol.”
Candaba generates some P146 million in local revenues and its internal revenue allotment (IRA).
Ibon-Ebon
Maglanque’s theme of reconnection with the townsfolk recurs in his controversial “downgrading” of Candaba’s signature festival, “Ibon-Ebon” largely credited for putting the town in the national tourism calendar.
“I think the festival’s budget of P6.5 million is just much too much,” Maglanque said, disclosing that some P410,000 were left at the municipal coffers from this year’s staging.
Instead of spending “all that precious resource for one social event,” Maglanque said he would rather re-align the greater part of its budget – P5 million – to scholarship grants, with just P1.5 million for a festival.
“I have to consult the people whether they would like to continue with Ibon-Ebon or mount a totally different festival, or altogether scrap festivals in favour of a continuing scholarship program for the youth,” Maglanque said.
While conceding that Candaba did indeed become known nationwide for Ibon-Ebon, he said the festival “did not make a major impact in the lives of the local residents.”
“As a matter of fact, many expressed shock upon knowing the festival cost P6.5 million, which they said could have been used for more productive ventures that would have benefited them,” the mayor said.
Eco-tourism
Still, migratory birds will remain a major factor in the development of Candaba, Maglanque said, dispelling reports that he has been lax in the implementation of the ordinance on (banning) bird hunting with reports of poachers and hunters again operating in the wetlands that have been declared as bird sanctuaries.
“There was no evidence to substantiate so-called reports of hunting and poaching in Candaba, still I have standing orders to the police and barangay officials to be ever-vigilant in guarding our bird sanctuaries,” he said.
Meanwhile, Maglanque rued what he called a “major constraint” in promoting Candaba as a bird-watching destination.
“The current center of bird-watching activity , the 80-hectare Dona Simang area is private property of the Pelayos.” Manrique revealed. “The municipality has to get permission every time it has to guide bird watching groups to the area.”
Vice Mayor Babes Evangelista talked of a “Pinac development” for eco-tourism which she said will expand the bird-watching areas in the town. “Pinac” is swampland in Kapampangan.
A former mayor herself, Evangelista said they have laid out the legislative support agenda to Maglanque’s development programs.
“Education and health are the top priorities, as they make the fastest connections with the majority of our people and the spark for the renewal of Candaba as a progressive community,” she said.
The mayor is also determined to establish a community hospital in the town, either inside the compound of the Ms. Earth Park in Barangay Mandasig to be housed in the existing Mayor’s Action Center or in the Pansol area which the municipal government is planning to purchase.
