TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The local government has embarked on a comprehensive lighting project along national roads within the city’s jurisdiction as part of the overall efforts to deter the commission of crimes and help in enhancing the illumination of most parts of the city.
Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero disclosed that city officials recently inaugurated the city’s P2 million lighting project along the Tuguegarao-Tabuk road, particularly in barangay Nambaran, to showcase the inherent beauty of the different parts of the city at night and help in significantly improving the peace and order situation in the city.
Earlier, the local government was able to complete a similar project along some national roads that are within the jurisdiction of the city to contribute in the government’s overall efforts to ensure stability in the city’s peace and order situation.
Mayor Estran֮ero claimed that the local government will continue to allocate funds to further expand the implementation of similar lighting projects using the cost saving and energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) until such time that all national roads within the city will be lighted.
According to him, the implementation of such lighting project will definitely help in elevating the city’s status as a component city and will be instrumental in being a deterrent to the occurrence of crimes that will have an impact to the overall peace and order situation of the city, especially that the city is fast developing as one of the urban centers in the region.
The Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera is setting its sights on Tabuk being the future regional center primarily because of the availability of adequate landholdings of the government that could be maximized to host development projects that will contribute in spurring economic growth in the region.
The local chief executive stipulated that the local government will continue to implement programs, projects and activities that will help in improving the state of development in the city using available funds that could be spared for the said purpose to continue to attract investors to put up their businesses in the city to be able to generate more jobs for the people impacted by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and spur economic activities beneficial to the greater majority of the populace.
He explained that at the moment, the city is implementing the lighting project by phases because of the limited funds that are available but efforts are being done to look for more funds that could be sued for the same to ensure that it will have a significant impact in further improvising the peace and order situation in the city.
Tabuk was declared as a component city of Kalinga on June 24, 2007 and it is the third largest city in the country in terms of land area having a total land area of more than 77 square kilometers. It is also the rice granary of the cordillera because of the existence of vast tracks of rice plantation sites being adjacent to the rice-producing provinces of Isabela and Cagayan.
Estran֮ero expressed hope that the ongoing pandemic will be effectively and efficiently addressed soonest so that the road to normalcy could start to pave the way for the eventual gradual and safe revival of the local economy that was heavily impacted by the health crisis that had been underway for over a year and a half. By HENT