LUBAO, PAMPANGA– The Department of Local and Interior Government (DILG) has approved the request of Governor Lilia Pineda to purchase brand new service vehicles for the barangays intended for the maintenance of peace and order and can be utilized by the locals in case of emergency.
Governor Pineda, herself, disclosed this matter during her meeting with village chiefs of the Province’s second district at the Lubao gym on Monday afternoon.
Pineda urged the village chiefs to “take care of their vehicles once it has been properly bid out and purchased and turned over to them.”
As a government procedure, the provincial government is obliged to get first an authority from the DILG for the purchase of the service vehicles.
Board Member Gerome Tubig, who represents Pampanga’s 505 village chiefs as ex-officio member of the provincial board, said “this is unprecedented.”
“It is first time for a local government unit to give brand new vehicles to villages which will cost the provincial government around P227,250,000 or P450,000 each,” Tubig added.
Pineda lauded Porac Mayor Condralito “Carling” Dela Cruz, who attended the meeting with his commitment to purchase tricycles to compliment the service vehicles which would be provided by the Capitol.
She then appealed to other Mayors in the district to purchase more service vehicles for the use of their constituents for their emergency use and other purposes.
Second district board member Tonton Torres said in an interview that the vehicles to be purchased and given to the barangays are intended as patrol cars and as services for the residents who are in need such as the sick and the disabled.
“Some of the vehicles will also be intended for garbage collection in their respective barangay,” Torres said.
Board Member Salvador Torres Jr expressed gratitude to Governor Pineda and said that “the vehicles will greatly help in maintaining orderliness among the villages and to the whole Province.”
The second district is composed of Porac, Sta Rita, Lubao, Sasmuan, Guagua, and Floridablanca.
Also present at the village chiefs meet were Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Angie Blanco, Francis Maslog of the Provincial Man-power Training Center, Governor Chief-of-staff Olga Frances David-Dizon and Engineer Noli Pangan of the Provincial General Services Office.
By: BEA JEANNEL A. DELOS REYES
