Lingayen, Pangasinan— The provincial government of Pangasinan’s success in managing quarry operations in the province has caught the attention of the Provincial Sand and Gravel Task Force (PSAG TF) of Leyte.
In fact, PSAG TF visited Pangasinan for their two-day benchmarking activity held February 26–27.
Atty. Jose Raymund A. Acol, Overall Supervising Team Leader, PSAG TF—Province of Leyte, said that they chose to benchmark Pangasinan following the province’s impressive sand and gravel implementation, operation, management, and monitoring, among others.
Their benchmarking visit was to learn, examine best practices, and possibly replicate them in the province of Leyte.
“We are here to learn from your processes and other policy reforms,” Atty. Acol added.
Apart from this, he stated that he was more than impressed by the political will of the governor, vice governor, and provincial board, the innovations, and the policy reforms because they reflect the real intention and determination of the leaders for real change.
“With this benchmarking, we hope that we can learn many things and convince the members of the Provincial Board of Leyte to adopt what the Provincial Board of the Province of Pangasinan has adopted. The governor is very impressed by the increase in collection from 12 Million to 200 million through technological innovations and policy reforms. He said to me, go ahead. Go to Pangasinan and study, learn, and implement it in the Province of Leyte,” Acol further said.
In his message, VG Mark Ronald DG Lambino shared the start of a semi-success story of how the province increased its revenue collection and how the monitoring system was modernized.
“We already initiated several benchmarking activities on how to improve the monitoring, collection, and even, if necessary, operations of the sites here in the province,” the vice governor said.
He cited having benchmarked Pampanga and found it to be one of the best models for revenue generation in terms of the extraction of natural resources.
“So itong pong ginawa naming change here in the province is a combination of several systems. A lot of systems were implemented, and at the same time, a lot of national policies were also applied. It is not just one system, not just one policy, not just one direction, but a series of actions na plinano pong mabuti at iniimplement po ng mabuti,” VG Lambino disclosed.
Discussed during the activity were the best practices for management and monitoring of sand and gravel operations, the best practices in the collection fees by the Provincial Treasury Office (PTO), and benchmarking of best practices, including strategies and systems for effective revenue collection from sand and gravel/quarry operations in the province.
Meanwhile, the Leyte delegates were welcomed at the Provincial Capitol by Vivian U. Oamil, Officer-in-Charge, PG-ENRO.
They were likewise toured to the Office of the Governor, Session Hall, and Office of the Vice Governor, and proceeded to the Ceremonial Hall of the Urduja House, where they were welcomed by some department heads led by Provincial Administrator Melicio Patague II.
The provincial administrator bared some of the province’s gigantic programs and projects under the leadership of Gov. Ramon V. Guico III such as the Solar Salt Farm at Barangay Zaragosa, Bolinao, Pangasinan, Pangasinan Link Expressway (PLEX), and Pangasinan Polytechnic College, among others.
Ending their benchmarking activity in Pangasinan was the site visit at the North Star Aggregates and the San Hai Crushing Plant in Sison, Pangasinan, on February 27.
(Chona C. Bugayong, Omar Cruz, Jairus Sibayan/PIMRO)
