“Bulacan is moving towards globalization” – Governor Alvarado
CITY OF MALOLOS – Bulacan Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado is continuously leading the province towards globalization as part of achieving its vision of having a vibrant economy.
Alvarado said in an interview that based on the 2012 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, Bulacan ranked 8th among the provinces in the Philippines with the highest HDI.
He also mentioned that, “Bulacan also consistently ranked as one of the ten least poor areas in the country”.
The governor’s statement is supported by the data from the 2015 Official Poverty Statistics of the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) that showed Bulacan ranked 5th least poor province in the Philippines with 3.3 poverty incidence. Bulacan’s poverty incidence has decreased by 2.1 percentage points from its 2012 poverty incidence of 5.4 which translates into 36 percent decrease in the number of poor families in Bulacan from 38,103 in 2012 to 24,359 families in 2015.
Alvarado also shared the other milestones that the province has accomplished.
“The Provincial Government of Bulacan is ISO 9001:2008 Certified for the provision of public service to the constituents and is likewise 2015 and 2016 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) passer, symbolizing the province’s journey towards good local governance upholding the standards of transparency, integrity, and service delivery,” Alvarado added.
The governor also shared some of the projects that his administration has lined up for the province this year such as the on-going rehabilitation and repair of the inflatable rubber gates of the Angat Afterbay Regulator Dam and the ongoing Plaridel By-Pass Road as Toll Road Project that will link the NLEX in Balagtas, Bulacan with the Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway.
“The North-South Commuter Railway Project will begin construction by the first or second quarter of 2019. The Malolos to Tutuban Railway Project, costing about $2.88 billion which will be funded by JICA through official development assistance (ODA) loans, the Manila-Bataan Coastal Highway, under the Build-Build-Build Program of President Duterte, and the North Luzon East Expressway Alignment that will serve as alternative route going to San Miguel,” the provincial chief executive said.
Also, the province is jointly working with the DTI-DPWH Convergence Program: On Road Connectivity for Industry and Trade Development Roads Leveraging Linkages for Industry and Trade (ROLL-IT) Program.
Further, the conjoint efforts of different offices under the PGB have been helpful in generating local revenues wherein the total generated revenues increased by 8.3% from 3.76 billion in 2015 to 4.07 billion in 2016.