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| The Governor at work. (Photo by WQT) |
LEGAZPI CITY--Albay Governor Joey Salceda has been elected national president of 17 Regional Development Councils.
An economist and former Presidential economic adviser, he has led the
Bicol chapter for over four years now, and was cluster chairman for
Luzon, presiding over 38 provinces and 67 cities.
As president of the RDC chairmen, Salaceda will sit at the National
Economic Development Authority board to help plan and steer the regions’
development direction, along with Cebu City Michael Rama and Davao City
Mayor Sarah Duterte as cluster heads for Visayas and Mindanao areas,
respectively.
The RDC national election was held at NEDA headquarters in Pasig City
early this week, during the NEDA Regional Development Committee 10th
board meeting where Salceda was requested by NEDA Director General
Cayetano Paderanga Jr. to preside.
During the meeting, the committee approved Salceda’s proposal to
organize a Special Committee on Mindanao Power to tackle the continuing
power instability in the area, as well as the threat of illegal logging
in the watershed around Lake Lanao, which contributes almost 54 percvent
of the energy supply in Mindanao.
Salceda steered the committee in formulating measures to tackle high
power costs, which he referred to as “the biggest single stumbling block
to a more sustained and more inclusive economic growth.”
He said the power sector is a “conduit of inequity as in the case of
his province, Albay which has been providing the Luzon grid almost 464
megawatts of cheap geothermal energy but gets virtually nothing.”
Under the EPIRA Law, Albay is compelled to purchase the same power from WESM at P7.80 per kilowatt-hour.
As Bicol RDC chairman, Salceda has initiated flagship development
projects particularly on multi-modal transport infrastructure.
Among these projects which are now underway are the P3.4-billion
Southern Luzon International Airport; the modernization and expansion of
the Philippine National Railways especially its Bicol Express, Mayon
Limited and Matnog extension; the Bicol Alternate Highway; and the Bicol
River Basin program, which integrates Region V’s ‘food basket’ flood
control, watershed management and irrigation programs.
*Article written by Florencio P. Narito as published in Manila Standard Today, Thursday January 19, 2012
