BUGUIAS, Benguet – Mayor Ruben Tindaan disclosed that Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap committed to provide more or less P13 million to complete the put up of the town’s socio-cultural center in barangay Loo here.
Tindaan, who joined the lawmaker in the recent distribution of financial assistance to some 500 initial beneficiaries of the labor department’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay Para sa Ating Disadvantaged and Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program, claimed that the availability of the amount as committed will definitely help in the completion of one of the local government’s projects that had been delayed because of the insufficient funds.
He added that the completion of the socio-cultural center or multipurpose facility will allow the local government to have its convergence area for its future activities so that it will not rely on the use of the facilities of other institutions in the municipality as venue for the conduct of private and public events in the future once ongoing restrictions to contain the Corona Virus Disease (COVID) pandemic shall be relaxed.
For his part, Congressman Yap assured municipal officials and the people of Buguias that he will do his best to source our from concerned government agencies and even in his private capacity resources that will be used to extend whatever assistance that will help the vulnerable and marginalized sectors cope up with the negative effect of the pandemic to their employment and economic activities.
According to him, the distribution of financial assistance to the identified recipients that pass the prescribed screening process will continue up to the end of the year and even during next year because he will make sure that funds for the various programs logged with the different government agencies will be made available in their annual budget.
Further, he will also closely work with the public works department to ensure that priority road opening projects will be provided the needed funding in next year’s annual budget to help in enhancing inter-barangay-inter-municipal, inter-provincial and inter-regional linkages to hasten the movement of goods and services in the countryside.
Mayor Tindaan expressed his gratitude to Congressman Yap for his commitment to provide the required funds for the town’s major projects because it will definitely be a big boost in helping provide adequate venues for the conduct of private and public initiated activities.
He admitted that despite being one of the 5 first-class municipalities in the province, it cannot afford to fund the implementation of high impact development projects that had been programmed that is why it is treating the implementation of the same on a multi-year basis until such time that the development projects will be completed.
However, Tindaan stated that the people of Benguet are so lucky with the appointment of Congressman Yap as the province’s legislative caretaker because he was able to be instrumental in working out the implementation of more development projects and inclusion of most of the households in various government programs to be recipients of available assistance for them to be able to cope up with the pandemic.
By Hent