Aklan needs P1 billion for infrastructure to survive climate change

The province of Aklan needs billions of pesos worth of infrastructure projects to survive the continued onslaught of climate change.

Leo Bionat, assistant district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Aklan, said they are already using a P50-million road concreting project at the boundary of the diversion road of Barangays Jawili, Tangalan and Bugtong Bato in Ibajay.

“The incidents of falling rocks and scouring has been a perennial problem every time there is a heavy downpour of rain [brought about by climate change] in the area. We had initially allocated P50 million to fix the area, but the problem continues to worsen,”  he added.

Bionat said they also asked the DPWH to increase its budget for the province to stabilize the highway. The diversion road is being used by tourists bound to Boracay from Kalibo, especially those who have private cars.

“The diversion road is currently only partially open for transport. We hope to open the diversion road fully by September,” he said.

Earlier, the local government of Kalibo sought the help of the DPWH to provide funds for the full operation of a municipal-wide drainage system to fix the flooding problem of Kalibo.

In a report of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the towns of Kalibo, Banga, Madalag, Balete, New Washington, Libacao, Lezo and Altavas were the most prone to flooding in the province.

“In the past few decades, because of climate change, our storm drains as big as 10 to 15 inches in diameter, which have been replaced with box-culvert types of 4 to 6 feet deep, are still not enough to prevent two months worth of rain with a worst-case scenario of 100 years worth of rain,” said Terence Toriano of the Kalibo Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Office.

“Prevention is impossible, as we do not have the type of budget needed amounting to billions of pesos, while mitigation like the regular drainage declogging is not enough with the amount of rain similar to the ones we frequently experience during heavy rains,” he added.

The town is located in an average of high to very high flood-susceptibility tract of land, while only parts of Barangay Tigayon and most of Barangay Linabuan Norte are located in a low flood-susceptibity area.

In Boracay, the local government of Malay,  Aklan, also needs billions of pesos to mitigate the problem of flooding in the  main road.

Complaints on Boracay’s slow Internet prompt governor to write telcos

Foreigners visiting the world’s best beach on this island have complained so much about slow Internet speeds that its governor is taking matters into his own hands.

No, he’s not putting up his own telecommunications company. But he won’t exactly be putting up with poor service either.

Aklan governor Florencio Miraflores said that the province will be “sending letters” to both Globe Telecom and Smart Communications, requesting faster Internet access after tourists have complained about Web connections slowing to a crawl.

“Our tourists who have been complaining that they need faster Internet while in Boracay both for leisure and business. This should be properly addressed if we need to maintain Boracay as a premier tourism destination,” he told Newsbytes.PH in an interview.

From January to June this year, the island has already attracted 1.1 million tourists, meeting a little more than half of Aklan province’s two million visitor target for 2017.

“Previously, we have been asking local and regional telecom managers [to do something about] slow Internet speed but they could not do anything. It is now the time that we will elevate this concerns to their national management,” he said.

In an earlier interview, Dennis Villorente an undersecretary of the Department of Information Communication and Technology (DICT) said the government is planning to have a national summit soon. To be held in Metro Manila, the summit is expected to discuss the mandate of the Duterte administration to speed up the Internet service in the country.

Panay emerging as 5th economic giant in PHL

The island of Panay, consisting of the provinces of Aklan, Iloilo, Antique and Capiz, is now being considered the fifth preferred economic destination in the country and still continues to grow.

Thus said Diosdado P. Cadena Jr., provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry  (DTI) in Iloilo, in an interview with the BusinessMirror.

The top 5 economic-giant regions in the country are the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, Davao Region and Panay representing Western Visayas.

Cadena was here as guest of honor representing the DTI regional offices for the culminating exercise of 20 Mentor Me Program in the province. Cadena was former DTI provincial director
of Aklan.

“Panay Island is becoming an economic giant because of the infrastructure boom in Iloilo being the center of trade and education, while Aklan complements economic growth because of Boracay Island. We expect more investors to come,” he said.

Maricar Iturralde, currently the DTI-Aklan provincial director, said she has a high hopes for the 20 Mentor Me fellows who graduated.

“The 20 Mentor Me fellows came from different sectors in the 17 municipalities of Aklan. They underwent trainings on business management, hoping to become upgraded entrepreneurs to further help the economy,” she said.

Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores in his state of the province address said the province continues to become a billionaire province.

“We also anticipate the entrance of big new investors, such as the joint-venture agreement with Mabuhay Maritime Express Transport Inc. for the Kalibo Reclamation and Development Project and the signed memorandum of understanding for the establishment of the cruise-ship hub in Caticlan,” he said.

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Aklan eyes developing ICT industry in province

The Aklan provincial government is converting its twin thrusts of agriculture and tourism into the development of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry.

In a weekly Kapehan media forum here, former Vice Gov.  Gabrielle Calizo-Quimpo, who now chairs the ICT-Aklan,  said the provincial government is bullish in embracing the ICT industry in the province.

“We are currently looking for locators who would be investing in a business-process outsourcing [BPO] to focus on tourism. I have also attended a training on precision agriculture recently in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore,” she said last Saturday.

The weekly Kapehan sa Aklan is held at the ABMC Building at Northwestern Visayan College here.

Marsh Bernabe, ICT Council secretariat, said as part of the campaign to promote Aklan is its hosting a Victor (Visayas ICT Organization) Conference in 2018, adding several ICT organizations from government and non-governmental organizations will be invited to join the summit.

Among those to be discussed are the different challenges and concerns ICT firms are facing in the Visayas.

“Aklan province is unique in terms of opening up to the ICT industry, which the provincial government is funding through the council,” he said.

As the province starts its ICT industry, Gov. Florencio Miraflores approved the construction of  a new P1.5-million ICT building. “In the budget, costs of facilities are not yet included. The building has at least 16 workstations,” he said.

Part of the ICT program of the province is to train an initial 500 participants to engage in the BPO industry.

“We are actually targeting around 3,000 recruits. Currently, we are looking for a locator who will invest in a travel BPO in the province,” he said.

Guidon de la Cruz, secretary of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Aklan, said the business community is supporting the plan to open an ICT industry.

“We anticipate economic growth. More investors and more employees could benefit, among others,” said de la Cruz, who is also a member of the ICT Council.

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Aklan’s power supply sufficient to continue lighting up Boracay

The supply of electricity in the province of Aklan is sufficient to continuously light up Boracay despite the power shortage still being felt in the entire Visayas area.

Engr. Alexis Regalado, general manager of the Aklan Electric Cooperative (Akelco) said last Saturday that Boracay Island and the entire province of Aklan is not affected by the intermittent power interruptions in the Visayas.

This was part of Regalado’s message during the 34th Akelco General Assembly  held at the ABL Sports Complex at the Aklan Provincial Capitol. The event was participated by around 13,500 member-consumers from Aklan, including consumers in nearby Antique.

“We were only required by the Department of Energy to contribute at least 1 percent of our overall total energy supply to the Visayas grid. Because of this, we have to do intermittent load shedding from time to time but our member consumers are not largely affected,” Regalado said.

He added they have attained sufficient energy by recently commissioning the new Nabas 10MVA Substation Capacity Project.

He also reported that in summer of this year, the power cooperative recorded a record breaking 61 megawatt (MW) of usage from member-consumers.

He also cited the contribution of the member-consumers of Boracay, where Akelco got 98.98-percent collection efficiency rate.

Currently, Akelco gets its electricity from the Green Core Geothermal Inc. (18 MW); Panay Energy Development Corp. (12 MW); Panay Power Corp. (5 MW); SPC Island Power Corp. (4 MW); and the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (7 MW). Akelco also frequently get its power from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, if needed.

Elena Panado, treasurer of the Board of Directors of Akelco, said the power cooperative is also financially healthy.

Earlier, Engr. Joel Martinez, chief of the Akelco Operations Division, however, said that Boracay may still experience fewer incidents of power failures because they are upgrading their current distribution facilities in Boracay.

“Boracay consumers have been complaining of frequent brownouts. Among the causes were the flying kites that touch the electrical wires, lizards, birds and snakes. Strong winds and climate change also contribute to these. To address this problem, we are now starting this year the upgrading of our system in Boracay,” Martinez said.

Akelco is initially allocating P19 million for these upgrade. They had already submitted the intent to the Energy Regulatory Commission for the project’s capital expenditure.

“We hope to finish upgrading our Boracay distribution system this year,” he added.