BONTOC, Mountain Province”•Gov. Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr. recently delivered his State of the Province Address or SOPA before the members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and a select audience of mostly heads of provincial offices.
The SOPA, which took more than an hour, is a mandated task of the provincial executive per the Local Government Code to narrate the accomplishments of the provincial government and to ask the legislative body for actions needed to help in governance.
“On top of our signature programs is the Barangay Muna Program, where we were able to implement special programs and various assistance to barangays and civil society groups,” Lacwasan said.
The governor said the province extended P6.7 million in aid to the barangays, and distributed equipment and supplies to 44 barangays and civil society groups worth P1.9 million.
This is aside from the infrastructure projects that were implemented in the various municipalities and barangays in the past year, Lacwasan said.
In the poultry and livestock development program lodged under the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian, a total of 9,250 heads of bounty chicken were dispersed to 1,467 beneficiaries from the 86 organizations in seven municipalities, the governor noted, along with 19 goats dispersed to beneficiaries in Paracelis.
According to executive assistant June Pinayakan, the focal person of the provincial Poultry and Livestock Development Program, 15 goats remain to be given to Sagada, Bauko, and beneficiaries from other municipalities.
“The program on livestock will be the same for 2018,” he said.
On tourism, Lacwasan said the Provincial Tourism Office made validations and geo-tagging of tourism spots as part of the preparation of the tourism development plan, and continued promotion activities for tourism in print and broadcast media.
Mountain Province hosted a total of 193,702 tourist arrivals for the year 2017, a 15-percent increase from the previous year, the governor noted.
The provincial government is also spearheading preparations for the twin celebrations of the Lang-ay Festival 2018 and the 51st Foundation Day of the province come the first week of April.
“We are optimistic that the Lang-ay Festival will be an avenue through which we could showcase our tourist spots, culture and of course, our beautiful Mountain Province as a whole,” the governor said.