LGU-Roxas receiving national recognition: It's not overnight, we’ve done these over the years, says town Mayor

PRES. MANUEL ROXAS, Zamboanga del Norte, Dec. 19 (PIA) - Pres. Manuel Roxas town is taking the spotlight among other municipalities with all the recognition its getting from the recent 8th Regional Competitiveness Summit Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index held recently by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The town bested all other 5th and 6th class municipalities in the national awards ranking first as the Overall Most Competitive Municipality in the Philippines and Most Competitive: Economic Dynamism. It also bagged the third rank in Most Competitive Government Efficiency and 16th rank as Most Competitive Infrastructure.

Mayor Jan Hendrik Vallecer, during an interview at the Laging Handa Network Briefing, shared “despite being a 5th class municipality, we gained a lot of local income comparable to 1st class municipalities here in Zamboanga del Norte province.”

He emphasized they did not accomplish all the achievements overnight but has worked on it over the years.

“Roxas is an agricultural area. Copra or coconut is our main product. We have two coconut oil mills for product export; now we have Petra Cement, a cement factory, and the biggest sea oil depot in Mindanao which just started last year,” shared Vallecer.

Moreover, he added the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has already been eyeing to put investors in town noting “Roxas should just be ready for the conversion of agricultural land to industrial”.

“We’ve offered the lands here to PEZA already and the owners are willing to sell their land to PEZA. 3 years ago the price of land is only P200 per square meters, now they’re selling it for P2,000 to P3,000,” he said.

Roxas town has one public port managed by the local government unit and three private ports for international going to Europe and Southeast Asia.

“Seaoil has their own port, Vicome’s product will go to Singapore, Thailand, and Wilmar’s goes to Europe, Norway, Finland. We have many gateways to other parts of the world. We are an industrial hub,” said the Mayor.

In terms of peace and order, Mayor Vallecer said they are making sure that peace and order is contained. He reported there is no NPA in Roxas.

“I make sure our police and army are alert to make sure there’s no threat to our companies and investors here,” he said. (NBE/EDT/PIA9-Zamboanga del Norte)

Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)