VILLANUEVA mayor Jennie Rosalie Uy-Mendez on Monday is seeking an equal opportunity to the existing town's economy this year following the effects brought by community quarantine imposed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Uy-Mendez said the Villanueva town in Misamis Oriental has two economic opportunies, the Phividec Industrial Estates and agriculture.
Mendez, guest in the first episode said in a webinar with Communications Secretary Martin Andanar’s news briefing on Monday said there is a need to balance between the industrial and agricultural sector.
The choice to become industrial, she said, was not from the local government unit but in the 1970s and 1980s when Villanueva and Tagoloan was chosen to become Phividec areas now known as Phividec Industrial Authority.
“It has such a positive influence in our community in terms of giving employment opportunities to our people, but I also want to develop our agricultural sector together with the industrial sector," said Mendez since many industries have existed.
Our products are rice, corn, banana, mangoes, cacao, and these products I believe can also be used in food processing, according to Mendez.
She added that they have two public markets that are in the works for 2021.
One is the existing public market in Barangay Katipunan that is undergoing a major renovation with a terminal for tricycles, trisikads and habal-habal, for easier access to the markets, and has its parking space.
She said the town is also developing a new market near the national highway, municipal hall complex, and to a public terminal soon to rise this year.
The town is 100 percent electrified, according to Mendez.
The upgrading of power sub-station in Villanueva as a project of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Mindanao backbone was installed in the last sitio of Villanueva town that had no electricity.
Since putting up the substation, investments will expand, businesses will boom even the rural areas, said Mendez.
"Now that it has power, I know investment and developments will expand beyond the Phividec Industrial Authority," she added.
Meanwhile, the Villanueva Food Market has been one of the programs of the local government of Villanueva that has done amid the pandemic.
She said with the use of social media, the LGU’s Food Market is able to sell online using social media with local goods such as processed fish, bagoong, kakanin, handicrafts like lampshade paper, rugs, etc.
"This time, the town’s products are known. They have seen our products because of social media when we go live. These are products of fishermen’s wives," Mendez said.
Before the pandemic they wanted to make use of social media but people wanted to see in person the activities and products, but during the pandemic, they were able to push social media marketing.
The mayor said, "Life has its ups and downs and its seasons, but in every season, there is wisdom and that it is important to always be positive to receive even more blessings." (Recthie Tolinero/Jasper Marie Oblina-Rucat/PIA-10)
