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BY JOHNNY NOVERA
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
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WE ARE glad that the province of Iloilo now breaks into the list of top richest provinces in the Philippines by ranking seventh with assets of P8.14 billion or an increase of almost P3 billion compared to the 2015 audit.
Like the City of Iloilo, the province has also risen to the top among our provinces in the country.
We remember the occasion when Senate President Franklin Drilon was invited as guest speaker on March 12, 2014 at the Iloilo Business Forum held at Hotel Intercontinental in Makati, Metro Manila where he expressed his views before leaders of business and industry attributing our faster expansion and growth to the results-oriented and united political leadership we have in Iloilo.
However, it appears lately that under the new national administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte, our united political leadership now appears to have disintegrated with the migration to the party in power by many of our political leaders, first by Iloilo City congressman Jerry P. Treñas, and later followed by what looks like a mass movement to PDP-Laban which is the party in power by the Garin political faction in Iloilo, followed by the group led by Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. and his congressman son, Arthur Jr., and then later came an exodus of mayors, councilmen and other political leaders sworn into PDP-Laban during the latest visit of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
When our top leaders in the city and province were united under a single leadership then headed by Senate President Franklin Drilon, we saw Iloilo’ s faster economic development with widened roads and parks that completely changed the face of the city.
Aside from their own personal and political gains, will the migration of many of our local leaders to the party in power be good for our city and province?
We are glad that we nevertheless continue to attract more investors, with political adventurism among our leaders notwithstanding. We hope that whatever be their party affiliations, our public officials will continue to unite and uphold their loyalty as Ilonggo first and as politicians second.
It is important that we sustain the momentum of Iloilo’s growth, both in the city and province. Aside from the continuing expansion of old firms that have established roots in Iloilo, we are glad to see new ones setting up business here like the S&R drive-in grocers that developed a selected membership customer network, and the Pure Gold department stores that set up a big department store outlet in Pavia, Iloilo, and another one is being built in Oton, Iloilo, South of the city.
We are also pleased to note of the continuing growth of Megaword’s township, as more buildings are completed and immediately occupied by new establishments. It is likewise with the Ayala-Seda area at Pison Avenue in the vicinity of the Ateneo school, and developments here extend to Smallville and Boardwalk up to the bank of the Iloilo River. The road connecting from B. Aquino, Jr. Avenue to Pison Avenue up to the rotunda is now lined up with new buildings under construction.
On the suburbs, the towns of Pavia and Santa Barbara towards the Iloilo International Airport north of the city are the towns to watch, as well as the town of Oton, adjoining Iloilo City to the south. They are exhibiting faster growth because of their strategic location right next to the city.
We noted likewise new housing subdivisions now being built along the new Iloilo circumferential road. They are all very positive signs of growth! (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
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