By Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY ,
Basilan – A team from the National Economic and Development
Authority Region (NEDA)-IX came here last week to conduct a consultation on the
draft Zamboanga Peninsula Regional Development Plan (RDP) for 2014-2016.
With the objective of generating more inputs
for the enhancement of the said document, the participants coming from the
different sectors and organizations in the city were divided into four major
sectors - social, infrastructure, economic, and development administration - to
review the proposed plans and determine some gaps, inconsistencies, and
suggested action points.
Engr. Vicente S. Fabian, NEDA-IX area team
leader said in his opening statement that the RDP is the region’s “bible” that
will guide planners, local government units, and locally based government
agencies in their pursuit for accelerated development in the different areas of
the region.
“This activity is undertaken to assess if the
region is within the track of contributing to President Aquino’s platform on
inclusive growth. Likewise, there is a need to evaluate if the interventions at
the regional level have contributed to employment generation and poverty
reduction,” Fabian explained.
He added that the updated Zamboanga Peninsula
RDP is being drafted after a series of sectoral consultations, and is targeted
for approval by RDC-IX and for submission to the Office of the President before
the end of this month.
During the five-hour consultation, Fabian
introduced the draft ZamPen Medium-Term Regional Development Plan 2014-2016
with the vision of being the Southern Agri-Fisheries Corridor of the
Philippines. To achieve the vision, the region must face the challenges that
dawdle growth in the region.
These challenges include the erratic trend in
the Gross Regional Domestic Product, high population growth, high poverty
incidence, high underemployment rate, presence of threat groups, and inadequate
infrastructure support. ZamPen is also challenged to elevate production ranking
in other champion products, such as abaca, coconut, mango, seaweeds, processed
fish, and rubber.
To confront the said challenges, the regional
development plan will employ the following strategies, namely: promotion of
broad-based, sustainable employment opportunities; better population
management; improvement of infrastructure facilities; strengthening of social
services; good governance; and peace initiatives at the local level.
If the neighboring Zamboanga City is the
region’s regional industrial and commercial center, the participants proposed
that Isabela City would be the agri-aqua marine sanctuary of Zamboanga
Peninsula.
Isabela City is peculiarly located in the
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the island province of Basilan,
but is under region IX. (PIA9)