• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Regional Development Council (RDC) 6 (Western Visayas) is set to submit to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) next month a funding request for priority projects, including the 17-kilometer Bacolod Coastal Road, according to its chairman, Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez.
The coastal road which will run from Brgy. Banago to Brgy. Punta Taytay in Bacolod City, is expected to decongest traffic in Bacolod City.
“We made a selection. These are mostly on social services and infrastructure,” Benitez said.
Other projects identified by RDC 6 for being pushed for funding are the Aklan cruise port hub; the modernization of Guimaras’ parola ports; the heart, lung and kidney center; shared service facilities for solid waste management; farm schools; smart agriculture system; regional warehouses for disaster response and management; the Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project; the Iloilo-Capiz-Aklan Expressway; Iloilo Circumferential Road, and other vital/strategic road networks.
The priority projects were identified during the RDC-6’s first full council meeting held in Macau, China last week.
Benitez was joined by heads of the regional line agencies, representatives of the private sector, and several local chief executives in the meeting and learning visit in China’s special administrative region from December 5 to 8.
“We understand the DBM and the National Economic and Development Authority are asking RDCs now to prioritize 10 projects that will be automatically funded by the DBM. We will submit it next month since there’s already the budget call for 2025,” he said.
Benitez underscored the need for the RDC-6 to be “more relevant to nation-building” with a shared responsibility and a vision for a “more inclusive and proactive Western Visayas.”
“It is not just in policy-making but also in investment programming, project implementation, and monitoring and evaluation,” he said.* with PNA reports
