OROQUIETA CITY, Misamis Occidental (PIA)--Highlighting major accomplishments for the province in his first year, Misamis Occidental Governor Henry S. Oaminal delivered his 2nd State of the Province Address (SOPA), July 1, at the Bayfront Arena, here.
Oaminal reported before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan members and the entire populace of Misamis Occidental the accomplishments of his 5Ms thrust of Misamisnon Magpuyong Malinawon, Malambuon, ug Malipayon for the first year of his term as Misamisnon’s leader as well as his prospective direction for the succeeding year 2024.
In terms of peace and order, "The goal of the administration is to be a drug-free, crime-free, and insurgency-free Misamis Occidental," he said.
To win the hearts of the Guerilla members and go back to mainstream society and live a peaceful and progressive life, the provincial government is offering cash rewards to rebel surrenderees like the two high-ranking and two members of the CPP-NPA who acceded to this call, extending a total of P500,000 each for the high-ranking CPP-NPA and P300,000 each for the rank-and-file members.
As part of the maintenance of peace and order and to provide the barangay with vehicles that they can use for mobilization, especially during emergency and peacekeeping activities, Governor Henry Oaminal shared that the provincial government has already distributed 100 rescue and patrol vehicles to different barangays in the province.
During his SOPA, the provincial government also distributed another 100 vehicles to the second batch of recipient barangays.
Making health and social services his priority, the province was able to obtain P266.5 million from the DOH Health Facility Enhancement Program for the construction of 43 barangay health stations. The DOH, through its HFEP program, also allotted P55 million for the completion, repair, and renovation of Misamis Occidental Provincial Hospital.
On the education program, Oaminal said education is one of the most important investments that a society can make in the future.
"I am happy to inform that our Asenso Pamilya: One Family, One Professional Program will commence this coming 1st semester, school year 2023, where we target to more or less 3,000 students who will benefit from the program by giving them monthly allowance in the amount of P5,000 or a total of P25,000 per semester to cover for their board and lodging, transportation and other educational expenses," the governor said.
He added that they are confident that through this program, they can provide the poor but deserving students with the knowledge and skills they need to secure stable employment. This is one of their strategies to reduce poverty in the province.
"We target that within three years, we can have 9–10 thousand professionals and 30 thousand professionals in 10 years with stable jobs. Furthermore, we strengthened our collaboration with our partners in the educational sector," he said.
Also, one of the notable accomplishments of Oaminal is the Agricultural program, which is the Asenso Misamis Occidental Rice Farmers Full Assistance-Fertilizer Subsidy (ARFFA) program.
"The program involves the provision of free fertilizers, mechanization assistance from land preparation-planting to harvest, provision of rice seeds, and technical assistance and training for rice farmers," he said.
On tourism, Oaminal aims to make Misamis Occidental a leading tourist destination in Mindanao.
"Our vision for economic growth in the province can hardly be attained if we will only depend on our agricultural sector. For this, we need to invigorate our tourism industry to work in tandem with our agricultural sector because of its great potential towards economic growth and development," he said.
