PRIORITY PROJECT. The Antique Provincial Development Council (PDC) approves the Supplemental Annual Investment Program (AIP) Number 2 during its 2024 first quarter meeting at the capitol in San Jose de Buenavista on Thursday (March 7, 2024). The plan identified the establishment of the PHP40 million hospital medical waste treatment facility and the procurement of a transporter as a priority project. (Photo courtesy of Paul Vincent De Guzman-OJT)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The provincial government here allocated PHP40 million for the establishment of a hospital medical waste treatment facility and the procurement of a transporter.
The project is part of the Supplemental Annual Investment Program (AIP) Number 2, approved by the Provincial Development Council (PDC) chaired by Governor Rhodora Cadiao during its first quarter meeting on Thursday.
“The Antique provincial government yearly has been allocating PHP10 (million) to PHP15 million to transport the hospital medical waste outside of the province so the establishment of our own hospital medical waste treatment facility is really needed,” said Provincial Planning and Development Officer Bienvenido Nallos Jr. in a media conference.
Currently, the provincial government is paying a contractor for the shipment of the hospital medical wastes. However, the wastes pile up at the back of the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in San Jose de Buenavista when the shipment gets delayed.
There is also a need to transport wastes from seven other district hospitals in the province.
Other projects identified as priority in the AIP are the provision of livelihood for indigents, installation of home solar systems in barangays without electrification, completion of the evacuation centers in the municipalities of Caluya, Sibalom and Anini-y, and provision of projects in the 79 remote barangays that have not received assistance from the provincial government in previous years.
“The 50th Binirayan Festival will also be grander this year,” Nallos said.
Nallos did not elaborate on the activities for the festival and left it to the Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office.
The budget for the event set in December is double the usual PHP10-million allocation for the provincial festival.
Nallos said the implementation of the projects has a budgetary requirement of PHP502.5 million, with the revenue collections, national tax allowance, and the PHP40 million savings of the provincial government in 2023 as fund sources.
Meanwhile, a 69-year-old member of the New People’s Army from Sibalom town surrendered to Cadiao and Antique Provincial Police Office director Col. Lea Rose B. Peña at the capitol on Thursday.
Cadiao gave PHP10,000 livelihood assistance, a sack of rice, and grocery goods to the surrenderee.
The governor said the surrenderee could also avail of benefits under the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (ECLIP). (PNA)
