Why our hometown remains to be 3rd class? by JAJ

I almost forgot the 58th foundation anniversary of our hometown Maria Aurora lasy July 21, thanks to the article written and sent to me by a Quirinian.

Though the author himself identified his essay as an article, in my point of view I want it to be called “an open letter of Qurinians to our Government officialls”. I hope this article will reach the PC monitors of our leaders such as Governor Bella Angara, Rep. Sonny Angara, Mayor Bitong and Senator Edong Angara, or please send this to them.

Anyhow, I’m sorry JAJ for posting it behind your request because I did not open my e-mail last weekends.

Here is the article…

Dear batangbalete,

This July 21, Ma. Aurora will be celebrating its 58th foundation anniversary. Here is one political article I want to contribute to our site. Hope it makes sense. If ever you will publish it, please do it before July 21, in time for the said event.

Thank you very much!

JAJ

Why our hometown remains to be 3^rd class?

We have been popular during the times of Yoyong and Winnie, the two strong typhoons that struck the province several years ago that claimed several lives. For people who never mastered geography during high school, those two typhoons introduced our province to the rest of the country.

We live in an isolated and unknown province. A province that has long been a member of the 20 poorest provinces in the Philippines. The province where the richest towns are only third class in terms of income generation.

It’s a fact, not hearsay, not an impression. Maria Aurora is one of the three 3^rd class¹ municipalities in Aurora Province. All the rest are 4^th class, including Baler, the capital town. The question is shall we celebrate for this?

The answer is a big, big NO. First, it is not worth celebrating for. The fact that we are far ahead in terms of income generation as compared to Baler is not a reason for us to celebrate. It should be a reason for us to be ashamed, not for our town, but for our province. Being the capital town, prices of real properties², particularly commercial, are far high compared to other municipalities. Yet Baler remains as fourth class. It, in itself, indicates a very big problem – inefficient tax collection, or worse, rampant graft and corruption among BIR officers. Shall we celebrate for this?

Second, the vast resources – natural and human – of our town should have given us more. Our town had the highest population in the province. We also have various natural assets that have potentials to become tourist destinations. Our geographical location should have given us even more. Being the first town to land from mountainous road should’ve made us the center of trade in the province. Being only a third class municipality is an indication of mismanagement of our resources.

Maria Aurora is rich pretending to be poor. This great municipality deserves to become a city. But what makes us a third class municipality? The answers laid here are only my observations, and are based on my judgment and belief.

Expense-oriented

Most of our leaders are expense-oriented. You can infer that with their platforms during elections, and their subsequent actions when they get elected. They promise to build structures which, most of the time, are unnecessary. Most barangays in the province receive projects they don’t need. Let’s take for example the palengke built during the time of Cong. Miran. So many barangays are beneficiaries of such infrastructure. It may be income generating, but they were built them at the wrong time. And see what happened to those structures now. Quirino is lucky because the palengke is being used as storage facility. Another example is the concreting of the road in front of San Jose Elementary School. The economic life of the concrete road was not yet utilized, but it was subsequently demolished when the national high-way was concreted, an absolute waste of public fund. Another is the numerous barangay halls being built during the last term of Gov. Angara as congresswoman. Quirino, despite having one, still received another. The same is true with San Leonardo.

Leaders should not be expense-oriented. They should also try to study the implications of the expenditures they are to undertake. They should know first if the expenditure will redound to the benefit of the society, or for themselves only because their names will be immortalized in the structures they built. As much as possible, since we are still a poor province, the expenditures the government will make, should be value-adding to the residents. What I mean is, at the very least, the projects should generate income for the people. Not an income for the politicians. The wealth of the people will create wealth for the town. I will not generalize, but it seems that the municipal council members are not doing their job well in making the annual budget.

If only the money spent on the construction of the palengke’s were used to build an efficient and effective irrigation system, the farmers should have long benefited from it. “Tanggal” should have not been destroyed. And farmers should have not tried to plant ‘camote’ in their farms. And they should have paid their taxes promptly and faithfully.

They should not only think of how much to spend for what. They should also think of ways how to get the amount. As far as I know, the town relies heavily on Internal Revenue Allotment from the national government. There was a time that town hall employees’ salaries were delayed for months because of the delay in the release of the IRA. The town looked like a dependent college student that has not received his monthly allowance. That incident should not have happened if we have enough funds generated internally that can be legally used for the town’s cash requirements. Local leaders, I pray, should realize that in this country of fake leaders, we should learn to be self-reliant, i.e. it could survive even without the assistance from the national government. We should be like self-supporting college students – we have enough for our own expenses.

Local leaders don’t even emphasize their plans, if any, to drive our province out of the 20 poorest provinces. I will salute a local leader who does not boast how much he will spend for his projects in his campaigns, but will lay down concrete plans to make the town an economic leader not only in the province but in the region. They should get rid of petty projects that can never do good things for local folks.

Business unprofitable

Most of the developed towns in well-developed provinces are business hubs. Business establishments contribute most of their income. Aside from annual income tax corporate businesses pay to the BIR, they also pay municipal taxes such as mayor’s permit, sanitary permit, building permit and others. More businesses mean more income. This is in direct contrast of our town’s condition. Doing business here is hardly profitable. Businesses open, and after several weeks of operation, they close.

I want to laugh when our mayor cited one benefit of conducting Division meet in Quirino – “magkakaroon po ng pagkakakitaan dito sa ating barangay, mga nagtitinda ng palamig.” Not so bad. But his focus should not be towards short-term livelihood for the people. He should have done steps to bring business establishments in the town.

First of all, what hinders businessmen from operating or continue operating business here are as follows:

• Aurora, especially our town because of its geography, is notorious havens of NPA, which collects revolutionary taxes and have threatened many business establishments here.
• Insufficient infrastructure – the harsh condition of the road networks, lack of telecommunication facilities, are few of the reasons why our town is not a suitable business site.
• Limited market – Business will not thrive without its customers, who are very limited in the province. And we cannot consider nearby province as potential market because they have those establishments already. Moreover, operating business here is more costly in terms of transportation compared to other provinces. It will not be the case if the road networks connecting the province to the rest of Luzon are in excellent condition. Also, due to lack of jobs among the residents, the purchasing power of the people is not comparable to other provinces.

These causes should be addressed for us to attract investments from big business firms. I would like to knock the hearts and heads of our policy makers, address these immediately.

Agricultural lands not utilized efficiently

Most of our agricultural lands are not efficiently utilized. Compared to other municipalities outside the province, our lands are less productive. A hectare of land can yield an average of 50-70 sacks of fresh palay compared to near a hundred to two hundred and above in Nueva Ecija. This might be caused by lack of technical assistance by the government agencies to the local farmers, or lack of technological knowledge in farming, or lack of excellent irrigation system. Our agricultural lands are our greatest asset. If the town people could only utilize it effectively, we could unsurprisingly become a major supplier of food in Central Luzon. And eventually become an economic leader.

Most of our residents are farmers. More income for our farmers will mean more tax collections.

58 years of poverty and remoteness

This coming July 21, we will celebrate the 58^th foundation anniversary of the town. Let us hope that in entering the 59^th year as a town, we will be saved from decades of poverty and remoteness. Let us hope that we are still able to grace it to rise from years of muddy journey towards full development.

I love our town. I love to see it shining in the near future. I hope you do, too.

[1]Source: NSCB – Provinces, cities and municipalities are classified according to income. Third class municipalities are those that earned an average of P30,000,000 or more but less than P40,000,000 during the last three calendar years.

[2] Real Property taxes are computed based on fair market values of real properties. It is one of local taxes as described in the National Internal Revenue Code. Being local tax, it flows into the finances of the municipality.

Author : JAJ