Author: Jerome Marzan

Governor Francisco Emmanuel “Pacoy” Ortega III lauded the Duterte Administration’s commitment in sustaining peace, order, and development in the regions. He believes that one of the greatest legacies of this administration is the establishment of local councils Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC). This project paved way for harmonized agency interventions in response to the insurgency problem.
Gov Pacoy expressed his support to this initiative during the conduct of “Kasama sa Pamana: Regional Pre-SONA Series” yesterday, June 15, 2021 in the City of San Fernando, La Union.
This is the seventh leg of the series of regional dialogues as part of the 6th State-of-the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte being conducted by Office of the Cabinet Secretariat (OCS) and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr, and PIA Director General Ramon Cualoping III presented during the forum the numerous accomplishments of the Duterte Administration in various sectors paving progress in Region 1. A comprehensive report on programs to combat the CoViD-19 pandemic and the roll-out of CoViD-19 Vaccination across the Ilocos Region was also provided by officials of the Department of Health.
Meanwhile, during the Media Briefing, Gov Pacoy highlighted the the Provincial Government of La Union’s initiatives in intensifying health provider network in delivering medical services to the constituents most especially in this time of crisis.
The pre-SONA forum was attended by key officials from the national government agencies (NGAs), local chief executives and punong barangays, non-government organizations (NGOs), academe, media, and the business sector.

In a regular session conducted last June 15, 2021, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of La Union approved the Ordinance Establishing the Comprehensive Youth Development Code of the Province, under the leadership of Sangguniang Kabataan President and Ex-Officio Member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Hon. Alyssa Kristine B. Sibuma, of whom she receives the total backing of all her colleagues in the August Body on the passage of the said ordinance authored by her.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved on June 15, 2021, Resolution No. 887-2021 encouraging food establishments in La Union to patronize produce of local farmers and fisherfolks.

Board Member Geraldine Ortega, who authored the said resolution, recently has called on all food establishments in the province to help local fishermen and farmers recover from the onslaught of the pandemic.

In a statement, she said that the province is basically an agricultural province with 54,701 hectares or 36.64% of its total land area is devoted to agriculture and as conferred by the Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Unit, through the High Value Crops Development Program, the llocos provinces are the country’s largest producers of high- value crops such as mango, tobacco, peanut, mungbean, tomato, garlic, onion, eggplant and pepper and second top producer of cabbage, water melon; and third top producer of bitter gourd (ampalaya), okra and string beans, among others.

BM Ortega cited the vision of the Province of La Union to be the “Heart of Agri-Tourism in Northern Luzon by 2025,” a La Union Transformative Agricultural Framework for Self-Sufficiency was developed to attain its vision, and one strategy is to empower farmers and fisherfolks and intensify marketing of their agricultural products.

“Purchasing goods and services of our province has economic impact, it gives more income to our farmers. Patronizing our locally produced products, we are also helping small businesses remain viable in a competitive market, increase local employment and our local economy will be able to survive,” BM Ortega added.

Further, she emphasized that since the pandemic began last year, many businesses in the province have closed and the immense increase of unemployment was remarkable.

“We need to urge these establishments to support and patronize the products in the province to help the province’s economy bounce back, and as the saying goes, charity should begin at home and promoting/ supporting will surely help our farmers and fisherfolks in these challenging times,” she said.