CITY of San Fernando mayoralty candidate Vilma Caluag is pushing for an eight-point agenda for a well-rounded development of communities.
Caluag has anchored her governance on education, health, infrastructure, social services, economy, environment, peace and order as well as programs for culture, arts, history, heritage and tourism.
“The City of San Fernando has diverse needs. Therefore it is necessary to create a governance approach that will cater to every need of the sectors and communities to be able to govern well. This means getting into every program that has impact on the immediate community,” Caluag said.
Caluag is advancing for scholarships for vulnerable sectors of the San Fernando community. He added that the construction of more school buildings is needed to cater to the need of a growing population of students each year.
“We are also looking at boosting the scope and capability of the City College to serve more students with free education,” Caluag said.
Caluag is also looking at more transparent spending of city government funds for health programs. She added that, if given a chance to govern, she will institute a city-wide improvement and support program for rural health units in the city.
Caluag also promised to put up a dialysis center for Fernandinos to offset the expenses of people needing dialysis treatment.
The mayoralty aspirant, who is also barangay captain of Dolores and an ex-officio member of the City Council, said that urban development should meet halfway with the need to maintain a considerable farming sector in the city.
“Farmers here told me of their problems in terms of loans and financing as well as being provided with a direct access to the market chain. I believe farmers should be more empowered in terms of how they are going to market their produce as well as given access to financial support,” Caluag said.
Caluag is pushing to make farmers of this city into agri-entrepreneurs.
She added that to protect farmers from middle men and to enable them to command better market prices, farmers should be given the skills and know-how in terms of marketing and diversifying their agricultural options.
The mayoralty-aspirant added that farmers should form groups and look after one another in order to create a considerable representation in the city.
She added farmers must realize that as future farmer entrepreneurs they will look at farms as businesses.
Another area that Caluag is also focusing on is ensuring that transactions with the government and investors of the city are bereft of corruption.