The Municipality of Tapaz Formulated its Executive and Legislative Agenda ( ELA ) for the years 2019-2022 in Smallville 21 Hotel , Iloilo City last October 16-18 , 2019 .
The Local Government Unit, headed by Municipal Mayor Hon. Roberto O. Palomar and Municipal Vice-Mayor Hon. Ma. Fe G. Gardose, together with the Members of the Sangguniang Bayan, Department Heads, Representative from Elementary and Secondary Schools , PNP, BFP, AND NGOs were the participants for this 3-day seminar / workshop .
The speakers were from DILG Provincial Office namely: LGOO VI Mr. Joey Almanzor and LGOO VI Mr. Joy Rino Balad-on and weres assisted by the MLGOO Mr. Vito Navarra and LGOO II Ms. Marnie Gatoteo.
ELA is a medium- term plan which harmonizes the priority Executive and legislative thrusts and agendas. During his Welcome Message, Mayor Palomar said that Tapaz will retain its vision from last ELA and will prioritize Health, Agriculture and Infrastructure Sector for the next three years . The vision is: “Tapaz : a center of culture coupled with tourism in the provine ; inhabited by God-loving and healthy citizenry ; working towards an emerging economy , in a safe protected and climate-resilient environment ; inspired by a pro-active , construction and transparent governance.”
He also recalled the projects and programs done for the last three years – road concreting and cementing, installation of solar streetlights, road opening in upland barangay, construction of the bus terminal and the construction of the Municipal hall.
“Hindi natin ‘to magagawa kung hindi tayong lahat magsama-sama at magtutulungan,” he said, encouraging everyone to cooperate, participate and show the same dedication to attain the vision.
Together with the Formulation of ELA is the CapDev Formulation as well.
For the first day activity, the participants were grouped into five sectors: Institutional, Social, Economic, Environment and Infrastructure. LGOO VI Joey Almanzor spearheaded the seminar / workshop. He presented the Overview, Rationale, Legal Basis and Objectives of the ELA / CapDev Formulation. The first workshop was Revisiting the Vision and Identifying the Vision Reality Gap (VRG) and LDIS / RaPIDS indicators (with Workshop). In the afternoon, the second workshop was the Settings of Goals, Objectives & Strategies and Project Prioritization. Representative from the five sectors reported their outputs after the workshop.
For the second day, Mr. Joey Almanzor still spearheaded the workshops. The first workshop was the casual loop. Each sector, according to their prioritized needs, created casual loop and then later their outputs were presented. In the afternoon, the workshops were Synthesis of the Executive & Legislative Agenda Priorities vis-à-vis the Goals, Objectives & Strategies. In the later part of the afternoon, LGOO VI Joy Rino Balad-on spearheaded the training/workshop. The workshops were: CAPDEV Framework, Capacity & Performance, and CAPDEV Agenda Formulation Process (CAPDEV Planning & Integration).
For the last day, it was the continuation of the yesterday’s workshop. Since there are still needs to finalize all the sectors output, the majority decided that October 25 will be the date for the final submission of the sectoral outputs.
For the past three years, the Municipal Government of Tapaz has done everything to put the municipality into the limelight of progress and development. A once obscure town is now one of the municipalities with leading economic growth and progress in the province and has received distinctions from Region and National.
In terms of collection of local revenue of the Municipality, there is a steady increase every year: for 2016, an increase of 67.61%, for 2017, an increase of 62.19% and for 2018, an increase of 21.81%. Below is the table showing the Local Revenue Collection every year with percentage increase/ decrease.
| Year | Local Revenue Collection | Percentage Increase/ Decrease |
| 2010 | 2, 652, 146.18 | |
| 2011 | 3, 655, 922.61 | 37.85% |
| 2012 | 4, 039, 002.66 | 10.48% |
| 2013 | 5, 525, 131.41 | 36.79% |
| 2014 | 5, 956, 598.85 | 7.81% |
| 2015 | 5, 150, 995.20 | -13.52% |
| 2016 | 8, 633, 480.80 | 67.61% |
| 2017 | 14, 003, 013.07 | 62.19% |
| 2018 | 17, 057, 501.64 | 21.81% |
Source: Municipal Treasurer’s Office
Since there are still a lot of needed projects identified during the workshop, the challenge now primarily rests to the Local Economic Enterprise and Municipal Treasurer’s Office to sustain and increase the collection of the local income. This is to ensure that everything planned in the ELA will materialize.
Afterall, ELA isn’t just a compilation of ink and paper but this is the LGU’s concrete plan to achieve the vision stated in the CDP. It is the tangible commitment of the Municipal Officials to continuously improve this town and the lives of the Tapaznons.
