THE Local Development Council (LDC), composed of City of San Fernando officials and department heads, barangay captains from the 35 barangays of the city, civil society organizations and public-private partners, held their second meeting at Heroes Hall recently.

The highlight of the said activity was the presentation of the proposed utilization of the 2019 20 percent Local Development Fund (LDF) of the city.

According to the Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2017-1 of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the 20 percent of each local government unit’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) should be appropriated and utilized for their development projects.

“The city’s IRA for 2019 reaches to P776, 933,487.00. The 20% of it amounts to P155,386,697.40.

This amount will be our local development fund and will be used for the development projects,” said Eda Panganiban, city budget officer.

Encompassing three core sectors such as social development, economic development, and environmental management, the city plans to build and repair multi-purpose halls, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects in various barangays, and the provision of equipment and materials for different projects.

In his speech, Mayor Edwin Santiago expressed that “in order to have sustainable development, we have to nurture our community, build an efficient economy and a viable natural environment.”

Under the social development sector, various barangays will be built with health centers and multi-purpose halls, and the installation, repair and maintenance, electrification, power and energy structure is also included.

With the economic development sector, roads and bridges in 25 villages will be improved and constructed, 2) will benefit from the construction and rehabilitation of drainage systems lined canals, while the repair/maintenance of street lights, declogging/desilting of waterways, and rehabilitation of material recovery facilities (MRFs) will be done in remaining villages.

Environmental management programs, on the other hand, include the development and operating expenses of ecopark, food waste recovery program, improvement of the city transfer station, and upgrading/provision of equipment for the City Engineer’s Office maintenance unit.

Also included in the said sector is the construction/improvement of lined canals in 17 barangays.

“In making a primary step towards building development as a whole, we start from the smallest into biggest—we examine the needs of our barangays and once our barangays are performing well, it will reflect on the city, wholly,” Santiago expressed. (CSF-CIO)