Officials on future of Zambales

CANDELARIA, Zambales – Zambales marked another historic first on Tuesday as officials from all the 13 municipalities here sat together to map out long-term development plans for their communities in accordance with the provincial government’s development masterplan.

The two-day training workshop was held under the sponsorship of the Sulong Zambales Party (SZP), the first local political party organized in Zambales, which has attracted the majority of incumbent local officials into its ranks.

According to party vice-chairman Jessu Edora, Gov. Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr., who is also party chairman, called for the planning workshop among members of the party to create a common and coordinated program of government that provincial and municipal candidates will present to the voting public during the election campaign next year. The program of government, Edora added, will be based on the Blueprint 2020 master plan that was formulated for the Zambales provincial government after Ebdane took over as provincial executive in 2010.

In his message at the opening of the two-day workshop held December 10 and 11, Gov. Ebdane said he believes that the formula for success calls for a coordinated and concerted effort among all local government units (LGUs) and agencies in the province. “The Blueprint 2020 strategy is geared towards the development of seven focus areas: tourism, social welfare, health, infrastructure, revenue generation, environment, and youth and sports development,” the governor said. “I am calling for a unified agenda among all the LGUs so that projects are properly coordinated, priorities are correctly identified, and conflicts are explicitly avoided,” Ebdane added.

Edora said that during the workshop, representatives from all the 13 Zambales towns were divided into committees to tackle each of the six
focus areas.

Experts and resource speakers from these various fields then discussed program strategies with the participants and assisted them in laying out their own municipal blueprint that adopted the cores strategies and approaches of the provincial development plan.

The local strategies adapted and integrated the provincial agenda Blueprint 2020. “It was a very rewarding activity for all of us. The workshop participants are actually already excited to implement these programs,” said former Castillejos town mayor Wilma Billman. Billman was formerly allied with former Gov. Amor Deloso, but who had since joined Ebdane’s Sulong Zambales Party because of its “clear vision for the development of Zambales.”

“This planning exercise is really something that is new to us,” Billman acknowledged. “In the past, each town had its own agenda, and practically every municipal official had his own personal agenda as well.”  “This effort by Gov. Ebdane to come up with a coordinated development strategy is inspiring us to work more for the progress of Zambales, to become one team that would build bridges and blur traditional party lines. In the past, patalbugan pa nga ng agenda at programa na hindi naman viable. But now, we’re learning to build dreams that are viable,” Billman said.

Meanwhile, Edora said that “a little more fine-tuning would be made” before the results of the workshop become the finished program. “But essentially, all the development ingredients are already here,” he said.

The Sulong Zambales Party, the first provincial political party was established only last September. Its members included the majority of incumbent officials in the 13 towns of the province, who have previously ran for election under the various national political groups.