SEALED. San Miguel Corporation president Ramon Ang (in white, wearing cap) and Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico III shake hands after the signing of the Joint Venture and Tollway Concession Agreements for the 42.76 kilometers Pangasinan Link Expressway project worth PHP34 billion at the Sison Auditorium in Lingayen, Pangasinan on Oct. 19, 2023. Guico said it will reinvent transportation, enrich tourism landscape, prioritize accessibility of citizens to major towns and cities, and magnify business and livelihood opportunities in Pangasinan. (Screenshot from Province of Pangasinan Facebook)
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Infrastructure, food security, and power supply took center stage in Pangasinan in 2023 and will remain the focus in 2024 to sustain the province’s growth.
“Much of what we’ve done is on planning and funding and laying of legal frameworks to engage in the different modalities of implementing projects,” Governor Ramon Guico III told the Philippine News Agency.
One of such projects is the PHP34-billion joint venture and tollway concession agreements with San Miguel Holdings Corporation (SMHC) for the Pangasinan Link Expressway project Phase 1, signed on Oct.19.
The 42.76-kilometer (km) expressway project, which will connect the province’s eastern and western parts, is a game changer, Guico said.
“It will reinvent the transportation and enrich tourism landscape, prioritize accessibility of citizens to major towns and cities, magnify business and livelihood opportunities, multiply economic activities, build more infrastructures, facilitate province-wide travel, and protect our environmental resources in Pangasinan,” he said.
Once completed within the four-year target construction period, the first phase of the expressway is expected to shorten travel time from the Pangasinan-La Union Expressway exit in Binalonan town to Lingayen from 90 minutes to just half an hour or less, he said.
The first phase covers 6.9 km from Binalonan to Manaoag, 11.30 km from Manaoag to Calasiao, and 22.17 km from Calasiao to Lingayen, with a 2.39-km spur road in Calasiao.
Under the agreement, the province will be entitled to a 5 percent share in the toll revenue and commercial development revenues from the start of the concession period.
Another project that is underway is the PHP800-million Bolinao Airport. To date, proponents are in the process of land acquisition.
Guico said the airport will have a 1,500-meter runway that is large enough to accommodate propeller-type commercial aircrafts, like Airbus a320.
"Phase Two will expand to 2.5 kilometers the taxiway for smaller aircraft, ramp, apron, and terminal as well as the roads going to the main road that needs development," he said.
Funding will come partly from the provincial government and a loan from state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines.
To further encourage more infrastructure investments in the province, Guico said they plan to file the Joint Venture for Innovative Start-Up Ordinance measure.
“We’re proposing another type of Private Public Partnership (PPP) and Joint Venture (JV) code for innovative start-ups. This way we can involve a lot of private corporations and firms to help us develop a lot of our infrastructure projects and services as well,” he said.
Guico said existing PPP and JV codes are strict and somehow prohibit smaller corporations from joining since these require a minimum of five-year good financial status and high capitalization.
“But there are smaller corporations that have the fund and are on the same page as the province and some of them are our kababayans (province mates) who want to help,” he said.
Guico said a build, lift, and transfer scheme will be implemented through a joint venture with start-ups.
“Di natin kailangan umutang. Ito ‘yung gusto namin project, turn over mo sa amin. We pay them monthly and then over the course of years turnover na sa atin (We don’t have to take out a loan. We will tell them: This is the project that we want and then turn it over to us. We will pay them monthly and over the course of years, the project will be turned over to us),” he said.
Among the projects that could be under the JV agreement are hospitals and classroom buildings as well as iconic buildings that will boost tourism and economic enterprises, he said.
Guico said the province welcomes investors that have signified intentions to build ports and economic zones and to create 100,000 jobs.
Food security
In terms of food security, the provincial government, in coordination with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has started to harvest salt from the 473.8-hectare Pangasinan Salt Center in Barangay Zaragoza, Bolinao town.
From Dec. 21 to 29, around 33 metric tons of salts were harvested.
The provincial government aims to produce around 15,000 to 20,000 metric tons of salt for the second harvest cycle on February to May 2024, if weather permits.
The said volume is estimated to cost between PHP75 million and PHP100 million.
The provincial government likewise launched its flagship corporate farming program, primarily aimed at enhancing food production.
"Under the corporate farming program are major projects to include rice production, corn production and high value crops production," the Provincial Information Office (PIO) said.
Under the program, private entities were tapped to collectively address the gaps in the food value chain through farm consolidation, which, in turn, will lead to corporate farming.
The provincial government and the Rice-to-Rise Program of TAO Foods Company, Inc. have signed a memorandum of agreement for contract growing with farmers associations.
"To increase production yield and income of farmers, the Provincial Government of Pangasinan distributed significant amount of high quality palay and corn seeds as well as other production inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides," the PIO said.
Farm mechanization was boosted thru the support of national agencies, notably the Department of Agrarian Reform and the National Irrigation Administration that supplied pump and engine sets to associations.
In support of the fishery sector, the provincial government distributed gill nets, fish coolers, and fiber reinforced plastic boats to various associations.
Skills training on crops and fishery production, food processing, packaging and technologies, and institutional and entrepreneurial capacities were held to equip farmers with modern and appropriate technology and enhance their management and marketing skills, preparing them to become agri-preneurs.
The provincial government targets to produce over 100 million bangus (milkfish) fry and 48 million bangus larvae annually with the construction of a breeding and hatchery in 2024 to provide the need of local producers.
Components of the project include seven units of broodstock tanks, 120 units of larval rearing tanks, 24 units of rotifer tanks, an administrative and laboratory building, staff quarters, a triplex building, a two-unit pump house and an intake pump, according to the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist.
Construction of the bangus breeding and hatchery project at the agriculture field station in the village of Arnedo in Bolinao town is a World Bank (WB)-assisted project worth PHP239 million.
The WB will shoulder 80 percent of the cost, while the share of the national government and the provincial government will be at 10 percent each.
The project is under the Philippine Rural Development Project Scale-Up of the Department of Agriculture.
Medical-related programs
This year, the 14 provincial government-run hospitals in the province received subsidy for medical assistance to indigent and financially incapacitated residents from the PHP287-million financing from the national government.
The fund is part of the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) and Financially Incapacitated Patients program, a national government program.
According to the Department of Health, MAIP funding should cover “essential and life-saving medicines, services, and other medical products as prescribed by a licensed physician or health professional.”
“Indigent patients are the primary recipients of the program,” it said.
Renewable energy
By 2025, the provincial government eyes to produce 1.5 gigawatts of solar power capacity from the five renewable energy companies that are set to construct solar farms in the next few years.
This year, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Council) approved the permits of Sinocalan Solar Power Corporation, for its 60-megawatt (MW) solar power project in Barangay Sto. Domingo, San Manuel; Renovable Earth Corporation, for the development and operation of 75.014MW peak (MWp) and 49.500 MW alternating power (ac) project in the villages of Pangascasan and Capantolan in Sual; and PV Sinag Power Inc., for the development and operation of 75 MWac and 146 gigawatt hour (GWh) generation capacity of Cayanga-Bugallon Solar Power Project in Barangay Cayanga, Bugallon.
PV Sinag Power Inc. proposed the development and operation of 128 MWac and 254 GWh generation capacity of Laoag-Aguilar solar project in Barangay Laoag, Aguilar; and 3 Barracuda Energy Corporation, for the development of a solar energy plant that have up to 650 MWp with an attached energy storage plant of up to 200 MW. (PNA)
