LUCENA CITY—The Quezon Provincial Development Council (QPDC) has approved the Supplementary Annual Investment Plan (SAIP) worth P365 million to address additional development programs, projects and activities for the whole province this year.
The SAIP for 2015 was passed during the first full council meeting for this year and was held at the Bulwagang Kalilayan here, led by Quezon Gov. David “Jayjay” Suarez and attended by various municipal mayors and municipal planning and development council officers, last Friday.
“I will have to request the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to pass a supplementary budget to cover the SAIP to sustain our development programs and projects for the welfare of our constituents,” Suarez told the participants of the council meeting, which, aside from various municipal mayors, included his provincial engineer and concurrent provincial planning and development officer Johnny Pasatiempo, provincial administrator and former provincial board member Rommel Edano, CEO Webster Letargo, who sat at the presidential table beside the governor, and provincial agriculturist Roberto Gajo and other provincial government department chiefs.
Among the programs and projects for funding allocation by the SAIP included the P22-million computer literacy program for Quezon National High School, P25-million construction of Quezon Provincial Relief Warehouse building, P15-million restoration and improvement of Perez Park, P25-million rehabilitation and improvement of Pagbilao Mangrove Experimental Forest Park in Barangay Palsabangon in Pagbilao, and the P30-million which Suarez dubbed “Quezon 1K” or the provincial government intervention program for the 1st 1,000 days of the newly born child as part of the early childhood care and development program, which included vaccination, proper nutrition, among others.
“Based on a study by the United Nations Development Program on why there is poverty in all countries or why the poor gets poorer and the rich richer stems from the first 1,000 days of the newly born child and that if there is a lack of intervention program by the government, the result on the poverty situation would be irreversible so that, I believe, that if one has to have a real development agenda one needs to start right at the first 1,000 days of the child,” Suarez explained about his Quezon 1K program.