Mayor lays groundwork for prosperous Malabon

UNDER Mayor Jeannie Sandoval’s administration, the local government of Malabon has been laying the groundwork for prosperity. Major w orks to rehabilitate its roads and drainage have just been completed. The work covers pothole patching, resealing of paved roads, re-gravelling, and construction of a proper drainage system outlet.

Following the rehabilitation of its roads, both Gabriel and Florante Street at Hulong Duhat as well as Mangostan Road at Potrero are now open to motorists. The upgrade and rehabilitation projects will help ease traffic congestion and address flooding in the communities.

Malabueños will also see the lighting of hybrid solar streetlights on Friday, June 30, 2023. Thirty of the 378 smart solar streetlights will be initially installed under the Street Lighting Project designed to ensure that no street in Malabon is “left in the dark,” supporting Mayor Jeannie’s vision of having a safe, walkable, and vibrant Malabon.

The innovations that the administration of Mayor Jeannie initiated will surely benefit both residents and businesses. Delivery of service is expected to be far more efficient with the renovation of its Business One Stop Shop (BOSS) designed to prevent unnecessary delays when transacting and securing permits and licenses. crease in national government spending in April is expected to boost aggregate demand in the Philippines. Consumption spending is expected to improve as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas lowered its inflation projection for 2023 to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent a month earlier.

The technology we are putting in place is critical to improve efficiencies that will benefit the entire city,” said Mayor Jeannie during the inauguration.

Nonetheless, FMIC-UA&P Capital Market Research noted that BSP still recognized that upside risks are still present, which could prompt inflation to increase anew. These upside risks include those coming from food supply bottlenecks, crude oil and commodity prices with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and other geopolitical conflicts.

By Samuel P. Medenilla

PRESIDENT Ferdinand

R. Marcos, Jr. is eyeing to boost the country’s coconut exports by accelerating the modernization efforts of the coconut industry.

“There is no reason why the Philippines should not be the biggest producer of export in terms of coconut products,” the President said during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) last Thursday.

He instructed the PCA to intensify its implementation of the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Plan, which aims to boost the competitiveness of the country’s coconut industry by improving the capacity of farmers and the use of new technology and facilities.

Efforts to boost the productivity of the local coconut industry includes replanting old and unproductive coconut trees and planting of coconut seedlings as well as the establishment of mills and other post-production facilities to process coconut by products.

Currently, Marcos said the Philippines is a major exporter of coconut oil and other products, such as copra meal and desiccated coconut.

“We will no longer export the raw material, which will then be processed in other countries. Then later on we will buy the end product,” Marcos said.

“We cannot allow this very, very grand opportunity for our farmers to slip by. And we have now come to the point where we have been looking at the coconut industry as an industry. And it is now time to revitalize that economy,” he added.

The efforts, he said, will also help make the coconut industry resilient to emerging threats such as effects of climate change, pests, and diseases.

“So, let us double our efforts to tackle these issues and invest in technologies and initiatives that will not only safeguard but also ensure the resilience of the coconut sector of our agriculture,” Marcos said.

She also r aised the bar in Malabon’s capacity to prevent and respond to emergencies with its newly inaugurated 24/7 Central Command and Communication Center. Equipped with PTZ, Bullet, Traffic, Dome, and speaker tracking cameras, as well as high-level radios and monitoring systems, the Command Center will greatly increase Malabon’s capacity to protect the lives and property of its residents.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported coconut production increased to 3.26 million metric tons (MMT) during the first quarter of the year, from 3.20 MMT in the same period in 2022.

However, government data showed the country’s coconut exports still declined by more than half from $1.04 billion in January to April 2022 to $490.16 million in the same period in 2023.