by Peter A. Balocnit

TABUK, Kalinga (16 October) -- The provincial government here is looking for development partners, foreign or domestic, to finance projects in the province with peace and order is now stable in the area.

Board Member Antonio Bakilan Sr. said the LGU is operating on meager funds and the financial needs of its programs and projects are dependent on its internal revenue allotment share. Therefore, possible sources of assistance have to be sought and tap these sources of financial packages or direct project grants.

Bakilan sponsored Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 165 requesting the Japan for International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to implement its micro-hydro projects in the municipalities of Balbalan, Pasil and Tanudan.

These municipalities were identified by JICA as beneficiaries of its present programs in the rural areas. JICA has been a benevolent donor of projects to the province in the past years with several projects already implemented including construction of farm to market roads and bridges costing millions of pesos.

It can be recalled that said projects were suspended because of news reaching the donor-country that the peace and order in the province is volatile.

In another legislative act, the SP approved Appropriation Ordinance No. 32 through Resolution No. 173 sponsored by PCL President Alfredo Malannag Jr. realigning P120,455.00 intended for the rehabilitation of the Dangtalan Power House in Pasil instead to the fencing of the high value commercial crops demo farm in the same barangay.

The SP and whole provincial officials vouched that the situation in Kalinga is stable. Police reports on the situation show that crime volume significantly decreased during the first half of the year after the arrest of wanted criminals.

Military personnel in the province also reported they have decimated the force of the communist dissidents and neutralized the threat from them. Vital infrastructures, facilities and on-going projects are well guarded.