Villareal Samar conducts Comprehensive Development Plan

By NINFA B. QUIRANTE
October 7, 2010

CATBALOGAN, Samar  –  Villareal, Samar a 4th class municipality has convened its municipal development council to formulate a Comprehensive Development Plan that will benefit some 25,135 Villahanons.

This is in compliance with Republic Act 7160, known as the Local Government of 1991.

The comprehensive multi-sectoral development plan was initiated by the development council and approved by the Sangguniang Bayan. Some 14 department heads and SB members were holed-up at the Jasmin Beach Resort in Marabut from October 4 and expected to end October 6.

According to Joy Monsanto, speaker lecturer of DILG Samar, the CDP will strengthen the structure of the Local Development Council to guarantee the inclusion of sectoral concerns and integrate population development as its principal element.

“We have included some plans for agriculture like corn and abaca production for our people,” SB Bienvenido Reposo confided to PIA. He added that rice farming yields are low because the town has no irrigation facility. He then proposed corn and abaca instead which do not require too much water to grow. Villareal is a coastal town along the Samar Sea and has fishing and farming as the chief sources of livelihood.

“Vegetable farming will be another option,” Reposo added. “If Sta Rita can grow vegetables and supply the regional capital Tacloban, I don’t see why Villareal cannot,” stressed the senior SB member.

Health sector could not be ignored too.

A member of the health sector said they plan to improve their birthing facility to reduce maternal mortality rate in this remote town. Villareal’s health sector came in full force with their Municipal Health Officer who belongs to the Doctor to the Barrios program. When asked if Mayor Reynato Latorre will support the plan, the ‘planners’ believe so.

Mayor Latorre is presently the League of Mayors (LMP) President for Samar and has been hailed as a pro-active local chief executive.

Based on an article by writer Rosario Nabong-Cabardo, Mayor Latorre has mobilized his fellow Villahanons here and abroad to contribute sacks of cement and harnessed tiklos labor (the traditional practice of helping one another in times of harvest).  The article further said that contributions poured in and people turned up for the tiklos now known as the “Villareal Bayanihan Road” have been cemented. Mayor Boy Latorre has demonstrated people power in action in his municipality. The project continues and so thus the tiklos spirit.